Natten til 14. april kastet noen en håndgranat mot soveromsvinduet til journalisten Dejan Anastasijevic i Beograd. For noen er det fortsatt krig på Balkan, og journalister risikerer stadig livet for å fortelle sannheten. Som regel har det med krigsforbrytersaker å gjøre. Anastasijevic hadde nettopp kommentert dommen mot The Scorpions, som ble avslørt på video for å ha drept bosniske muslimer. I Kroatia måtte journalisten Drago Hedl ha 24 timers livvakt, og det er heller ikke risikofritt i Bosnia.

Anastasijevic tolker ikke håndgranaten (som til alt hell ikke skadet eller drepte noen) som en trussel. – Dette var ikke en advarsel, det var et forsøk på å drepe, sier han. Anastasijevic er en av de skarpeste og mest kritiske journalistene på Balkan, og figurerte på 90-tallet en rekke ganger som kilde for norske pressefolk. Norske medier har likevel ikke rapportert om drapsforsøket. Han arbeider for ukeavisen Vreme, men har også skrevet for Time.

«Being a journalist always involves some risk,» Anastasijevic told IWPR. «But being a journalist who lives in the Balkans and reports on war crimes committed here is not just risky, it’s very dangerous.»

It seems that the attacks are the most vicious when journalists choose to speak about crimes committed by members of their own ethnic groups.

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«War crimes are still not a subject that can be openly discussed, » said Stjepan Malovic , a professor of journalism at the University of Zagreb. «The fact is that many of those who were directly or indirectly involved in the atrocities are still in power and they naturally become very nervous when someone raises that issue.»

Malovic told IWPR that the most difficult challenge for the reporters in the Balkans is to point directly at the responsible members of their own community, because they automatically become labeled as traitors.

Anastasijevic agrees and says there is a big difference between reporting on war crimes trials taking place before the Hague tribunal and the cases tried in local courts.

«War crimes suspects in The Hague are at least behind the bars – those in the Balkans are prominent citizens and pillars of the society, and in many cases they walk the streets of Belgrade, Zagreb, or Pristina, freely.»

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It’s not just journalists who are attacked for expressing their opinion or raising sensitive issues, such as war crimes responsibly. In Serbia alone, there have been more than 100 politically-motivated assaults over the last three months. As well as journalists, the targets included human rights activists and moderate politicians.

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However, there are some indications that the authorities are prepared to take this problem more seriously.

Anastasijevic – who is still recovering from the shock caused by last week’s attack on his Belgrade home – says he was very pleased by the reactions of the Serbian authorities.

President Boris Tadic, who personally visited the journalist shortly after the incident, said the attack on Anastasijevic put the state on red alert. He pointed out that «the attempted murder of a journalist is comparable to an attack on the state itself».

Tribunal Update