Almost a month after its publication, BIRN’s map of extreme right-wing and extremist groups in the Balkans, was pulled from the Internet on Tuesday late in the evening. In the section dedicated to Montenegro, the journalist of the Vijesti concern Jelena Jovanovic in a scandalous and tendentious manner targeted 9 civil activists and human rights fighters as religious fanatics and right-wingers, including 2 Pobjeda journalists.
The executive director of the Luca Citizens’ Forum, Nebojsa Mrvaljevic, who himself was targeted by the journalist Jovanovic as a far-right activist, assessed the information that BIRN had suspended the disputed map as insufficient.
“It has only just begun! We are all responsible for our actions, especially public speakers. BIRN’s action means nothing without a public apology and legal satisfaction”, Mrvaljevic wrote on Twitter.
The targeted Pobjeda journalists also said on their profiles on social networks that they would seek responsibility and a judicial epilogue.
According to Pobjeda’s knowledge, at a meeting held in Tirana on Sunday, and after the previous insistence of BIRN’s Board chaired by British journalist Tim Juda, a decision was made to remove the disputed map from the Internet until further notice.
Pobjeda contacted Jude and asked him to confirm this, but also to comment on the whole situation as a professional, and especially to refer to the unprofessional move of removing the name of the author of the disputed map from the website. However, he also ignored the questions.
Confirmation of those findings, however, arrived in the late evening on Tuesday in the form of the withdrawal of the disputed map from the internet.
