The Informer tabloid which stands close to the Serbian Prime Minister has launched today a smear campaign against the anti-corruption portal KRIK and its Editor-in-Chief Stevan Dojčinović.

As always, the published criticism of obvious abuses in Serbia’s judiciary, administration and government is condemned as a personal attack against the Prime Minister. Such idea can only occur to someone who is convinced that, apart from the Prime Minister, there are no responsible persons in Serbia: no independent judiciary, no institutions that operate according to their own democratically established rules. In fact: the Informer campaign proves that this country has been taken in possession by one party, indeed by the Prime Minister personally, and that a part of the Serbian press is openly supporting him in the process. For this very reason, the work of independent investigative journalism is of major importance for a democratic Serbia which respects not only majorities, but also checks and balances, and that is why the Heinrich Böll Foundation Belgrade supports the work by KRIK.

Dr. Andreas Poltermann