On 12th anniversary of killing of reporter, OSCE media freedom representative urges Serbian authorities to do more to solve journalist murders

On the 12th anniversary of the murder of prominent Serbian journalist Milan Pantić, Dunja Mijatović, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, has called on Serbia’s authorities to step up their efforts in investigating this and other journalist killings.

"The harming or killing of journalists is an unacceptable act of intimidation and a very serious attack against free media and free expression ", said Mijatović. “Twelve years after the murder of Pantić, justice has still not been served. Authorities have a duty not only to condemn violence against journalists loudly and resolutely, but also to ensure that perpetrators and masterminds do not go unpunished.

Pantić, a journalist of the daily "Vecernje Novosti", was killed by unknown assailants on 11 June 2001 in front of his home in the city of Jagodina. He had previously been the target of several death threats.

Only two months ago, the OSCE media freedom representative expressed her concern over the still unsolved murder of another Serbian journalist, Slavko Ćuruvija, in 1999.

Earlier this year, the Representative also commented on the founding of an international commission by the Serbian Government to investigate the unsolved murders of these journalists, as well as of the reporter Dada Vujašinovic in 1994.

“I welcome the establishment of this commission; yet independently from the work of this institution, the Government must step up efforts to solve and effectively prevent crimes against journalists,” she said.

"I continue to monitor the case of Milan Pantić as well as all other cases in OSCE countries of journalists that have been killed because of their work,” she said. “Their families and colleagues, in fact the whole society, deserve to know for what cause those people died and who was responsible for their deaths”.