N1 hopes President will accept invitation after decorating reporter

N1

N1 will always stay on the lines of truth and precise reporting and will stand by its journalists regardless of whether the authorities decorate them or threaten to shut it down, N1 said on Monday.

“N1 wants to believe that the gesture to decorate Jelena Zoric is the president’s way of showing that he will start treating all media equally which is his obligation under the constitution and laws.

“Reporting on the coronavirus crisis cannot be separated from reporting on protests or reporting on the most serious affairs such as the Jovanjica farm (and marijuana plantation). Journalists on our TV cannot be given a decoration one day and be accused of working against the state, the president and his family another day.

“We hope that six years after N1 was formed, the president will summon the strength to accept N1’s invitation to appear on the station and answer many questions of public interest. If not, we will be left with the dilemma of whether the motives of the Serbian President in decorating our excellent journalist is an attempt to create the illusion of freedom of the media in Serbia both at home and before the international public.

“Jelena Zoric undoubtedly deserves the decoration, having spent hours and hours in the red zones of COVID hospitals, taking risks to do her job as a journalist,” the N1 statement said.