Informer’s vile attack on freedom of speech and the safety of POINT participants

Late last week, Dragan Vučićević, the editor-in-chief of Informer, made a series of inaccurate and unfounded claims about the POINT conference, which is being held on May 29 and 30 in Sarajevo, with open targeting of participants coming from Serbia.

In the show “Kolegijum” on TV Informer, and in an article published on this portal under the title “We reveal the infernal plan of the blockaders! Operation ‘Black Box’ to paralyze Serbia – this is the key date (VIDEO)“, Vučićević listed the names of some of the participants of the POINT conference from Serbia (Nikola Ristić, Filip Ejdus, Ivan Đurić, Nikola Burazer and Andrijana Ristić), with a series of insults and unfounded accusations against them and Davud Delimeđac, a student activist, who was also invited to speak on a panel about student protests in Serbia. 

Vučićević incorrectly stated that POINT is an “extremist training” and an event dedicated to the “overthrow of the government” and “radicalization of the situation” in Serbia, also implying that the name POINT – short for “Political responsibility and new technologies” – was coined by the above-mentioned persons in order to cover up that the alleged training is a real reason they are coming to Sarajevo. 

Such allegations are untrue, unfounded and represent a serious attack on the reputation, integrity and lawful operation of the citizen association “Why not”, the organizer of the POINT conference.

POINT is not a “training”, but a conference that we have been organizing in Sarajevo for the past 13 years, in cooperation with the ACTION SEE and SEE Check networks and many other regional and international partners. 

People who were targeted in Informer’s show and article are not attending any kind of “training”, but participating in the thirteenth edition of the POINT conference, being held in Sarajevo this week, as can be seen in the conference program. The program is available on the official website of the conference, just like it was on each previous year. Their participation at the conference has nothing to do with “extremism” or “training to overthrow the government”, but with participation in panels whose topics, as well as all other information about the POINT conference, are publicly available on the conference website.

Contrary to the statements of Informer’s owner and editor-in-chief, POINT is, clearly, not “all about Serbia”, does not deal with “training for the overthrow of the Serbian government”, nor does any “extremist training” take place here. These claims are not only nonsensical, but also openly inciting, especially in the context in which they were presented in Informer’s show, where antagonizing and degrading terms such as “extremists”, “Wahhabis in civilian clothes”, “an idiot running to batter women, going to this special training”, “Suljo Ugljanin’s deck boy” and similar were used to target conference participants and student activist Davud Delimeđac. In the TV show, there were also calls for the Serbian Security Information Agency (BIA) to take them to a “dark basement” upon their return to Serbia, where they would “fall down the dark stairs”. This is the context in which other claims, such as that of “POINT training” being probably carried out by “foreign services” were made, which also poses a reputational damage for U.G. “Zašto ne”.

POINT is an acronym for “Politička odgovornost i nove tehnologije” (Political accountability and new technologies), since those are the topics that the conference deals with. This title has been in use since the conference’s first edition back in 2012 and it has nothing to do with current events in Serbia.

Holding conferences, having public debates, panels and discussions is part of freedom of speech and expression, which is guaranteed and protected by a number of international conventions. Bringing our activities into the context of “extremism” on Informer is a gross attack on freedom of expression and an attack on the reputation of both our organization and that of our partners who support the POINT conference. It misleads the public and creates a risk of endangering the safety of our members and associates.

Disinformation, incitement and hate speech on Informer television and online portal contributed to creating an atmosphere of fear and insecurity for the participants of the POINT conference, both those who were targeted by unfounded accusations, and for all other participants of the event who were unjustifiably linked to extremism and the activities of “foreign services”. 

We have asked Informer to publish a rebuttal of misinformation about POINT in the same or equally visible format in which it was published, a correction of incorrect statements, and to issue a public apology for the damage caused. In case of non-compliance with the request, we will initiate appropriate legal actions in order to protect the reputation and interests of UG “Zašto ne”.