Being a Journalist is Not Easy, Wherever You Live

I want to defy them as long as I can because the situation in Serbia in terms of democracy, media freedom and free speech is devastating considering we live in the 21st century

NENAD KULAČIN Journalist, columnist and co-author of ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ podcast

While his colleague Marko Vidojković is put in safe hiding, Nenad Kulačin goes out for coffee only with people who are allowed to meet him and with tear gas in his pocket. In the meantime, he has found time to talk to Diplomacy&Commerce about the horrendous threats that he and his fellow journalists face.

What does life look like under constant threats? Do you fear for your safety?

Living with constant threats is very interesting, I would even dare to say unusual. Sometimes you ask a friend to go out together and have fun and you have to look under your car to see if everything is in its place before you get into it or you keep your like to remind you that my mother was attacked in Bor because of what I do. Neither she nor any other member of my family should suffer. Whether I am afraid or not is a private matter, but it does not affect my work in any way. On the life was threatened. Are you thinking of taking shelter too? hand in your pocket the whole time because that’s where your tear gas is. Sometimes you don’t even go outside. Why would you even go out with the air being so polluted?! All jokes aside, my housemates are far more uncomfortable than I am. I would contrary, it motivates me even more and assures me of the correctness of what I am doing. And that’s why - #ucutati necemo (#wewontbesilent).

Your colleague Marko Vidojković left Serbia because his

I don’t think about it, because I’m not able to. I wouldn’t want to reveal my private reasons so that the government wouldn’t see it as my weakness and then strike exactly where I am weak. Let’s just say that I want to defy them as long as I can because the situation in Serbia in terms of democracy, media freedom and free speech is devastating considering we live in the 21st century. This should be experienced and immortalized for generations to come.

What is it that gives the bullies who threaten you the wind in their sails? Does the system encourage them or is it just a feeling of anonymity and untouchability thanks to the digital “non-civilization” in which we live?

My colleague from Banja Luka, Aleksandar Trifunović, whose car was scratched in front of his building the other day, nicely defined the situation we are living in. In today’s Serbia and the Republic of Srpska, anyone is free to attack, insult and threaten journalists, because they know they won’t suffer any consequences. The regimes in Belgrade and Banja Luka are promoting these attacks and threats. Let’s just remember how Velja Nevolja’s people ‘disciplined’ journalists during the first inauguration of Aleksandar Vučić. They were not there because they loved Vučić, but because they were part of that government, which they listened to and did what they ordered them to do.

Why are the EU representatives not more critical of the Serbian authorities regarding the suppression of media freedoms and threats made to journalists?

You should ask them that question, not me. Honestly, it’s not clear to me either. It seems to me that all of them together couldn’t care less about freedom and democracy in Serbia and that the only thing that matters is that Vučić delivers to them what they appointed him for after Boris Tadić refused to abolish Serbia’s parallel institutions in Kosovo. On the other hand, Serbia today does not have a proper opposition on which the EU would rely. The reason why we don’t have the proper opposition is that the EU had allowed Vučić to destroy it.

How difficult is it for small local media to break into the national media scene? You are one of the shining examples of this, when you started your programme “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” (“Dobar, Loš, Zao”) on Šabac TV.

Local media no longer exist. I can count the local media outlets that are not under the control of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) on the fingers of one hand. The same applies to news websites. There are several dozen untainted journalists in Serbia today, and all the rest are mouthpieces of the ruling party. The situation locally is even worse, because colleagues who work locally have no one to turn to for help.

What is the secret behind the media scene in Šabac and the town in general considering that Šabac used to be a beacon of light and was unaffected by the ruling regime back in the day?

Freedom is the secret. There are no taboos and everybody is allowed to express their opinion.

I remember when Tomislav Nikolić was our guest before he became the country’s president. We greeted each other in a normal fashion and later talked. I jokingly complained to him about the constant pressure and attacks of the then-head of the SNS branch in Šabac. Nikolić gave this man such a verbal slap that he immediately stopped harassing me and would not answer my calls to this day. Aleksandar Martinović was also our guest. I have never cited the words he used to criticise and condemn Vučić and Nikolić in my columns or public appearances. I asked him what if you happen to join the SNS one day? He answered with “there is no chance”.

It is very difficult to implement media freedoms in Serbia. Do you think they exist elsewhere or are there just different types of pressure on the media?

Being a journalist is not easy, wherever you live. Some form of censorship exists, probably everywhere, but in normal countries, there are journalists, not municipal politicians, that decide on editorial policy. That’s the difference. It’s up to them to try and stop us, and it’s up to us to fight back. There is another very important thing I would like to mention and that is financial independence. When journalists know that they can do their job well and that they will receive a decent salary these are a good foundation for them to do their job properly. As long as journalists depend financially on a political party, we will continue sitting at the bottom of the barrel, so to speak.