The Media Self-Regulation Council (MSS) announced that it expresses serious concern regarding the statement of the Director of the Police Administration (UP), Lazar Šćepanović, who, during a guest appearance on the show, told journalist Petar Komnenić that he would "be prosecuted after this for insulting him" and thus threatened him for using a stylistic figure of speech to describe the work of the institution.
According to them, ficus is not an insult, a threat, or a vulgar word.
"It is not irony, but a semantically valid 'instrument' for inertness, immobility, staticity. Unless there is a list of 'normally forbidden' words. In a democratic society, metaphor, irony and critical language are not an incident, but an integral part of public dialogue. Journalists do not exist to embellish reality, but to name it, even when it is unpleasant," the MSS statement, signed by executive secretary Ranko Vujović, emphasizes.
They added that holding people accountable for metaphors and value judgments opens up a dangerous space in which freedom of speech turns into permission – and permission is granted by those in power.
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"In such an environment, the question logically arises: should those who do not know grammar or the meaning of words, let alone the difference between an insult and a stylistic expression, be even more afraid? It is particularly worrying that the authority of one of the most powerful institutions in the country is being used as a means of pressure, instead of as a space for a calm and reasoned exchange of views. The police must be a symbol of safety for citizens - and for journalists," the statement said.
They also said that they express full solidarity with Petar Komnenić and all journalists who work every day under conditions of pressure, belittling and threats.
"A journalist who asks questions must not be treated as an enemy. Free media is not a threat to the state, because when semantics are responded to with police, and questions are perceived as provocation, the problem is not with the journalists, but with the understanding of their function. This is not a story about a ficus from a show. This is a story about what kind of state we want: one in which the government explains and provides answers - or one in which the government gets angry," the statement concludes.
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