Harassment of family members, publication of details from the investigation, inaccurate information and explicit details about the circumstances of the murder.
All this marked the media space in the days when the police were looking for two-year-old Danka Ilić, who disappeared on March 26 in front of a house in the Banjsko Polje neighborhood near Bor.
After a ten-day search by the police, two employees of the public company "Vodovod" were arrested on suspicion of murdering a girl.
Media reporting was impermissibly sensationalistic and undignified, said the Press Council, an independent body founded by journalist associations, which monitors compliance with the journalistic code in print and online media.
"Everything that could be violated in the journalistic code was violated, first of all and above all from the very beginning, assumptions were treated as facts, interlocutors freely accused whoever they wanted and presented their theories," Tamara told Radio Free Europe (RSE). Skrozza, member of the Press Council.
The Personal Data Protection Act was also violated
Some media did not change the way they report on the girl's case, even after appeals by the police and the Ministry of Information.
"That race for readers and viewers, for clicks, for circulation, overshadowed everything, it left a really painful impression. We witnessed everything - from the literal mistreatment of that girl's family, to the launch of some kind of news that the tabloids marketed to the widest audience," he says. for RSE Rodoljub Šabić, former Commissioner for Personal Data Protection.
He points out that in addition to the code of ethics, the Data Protection Act was also violated, but that institutions in Serbia "have not reacted for a long time".
In order to find the girl, the "Find me" system, or Amber alert, was activated for the first time in Serbia. This system, by which the public is urgently informed about the disappearance of a child, was introduced in Serbia at the end of October 2023.
The search began immediately, in which a large number of members of the police, the Mountain Rescue Service and citizens participated. The search for the missing girl from Serbia was also announced by the international police organization Interpol.
Serbian Police Minister Bratislav Gašić announced on April 4 that the search for Danko ended tragically and that two suspected employees of the public company "Vodovod" in Bor hit the girl with a car and then left her body at the landfill.
Which points of the journalistic code did the media violate?
Tamara Skrozza, a journalist and member of the Press Council, stated for RSE which points of the journalistic code were violated and continue to be violated by the media during the coverage of the case of the two-year-old girl:
• Assumptions are treated as facts.
• Serious accusations were made without any evidence.
• The girl's family was spoken to, the code normally forbids abusing the mental and emotional status of the people being reported on.
• Information from the investigation was presented. As an example of this, Skrozza states that the girl's parents were the target of attacks on social networks after they were informed that their phones had been hacked, and that it was only later explained that this was a routine procedure during the investigation.
• People who had an interest in the case, people who had connections with any segment of the investigation or Amber Alert were included in the programs as relevant interlocutors. They were not allowed to be interviewed during the investigation, nor to present their assumptions.
• Rule on gender equality, because, above all, the mother is accused of the disappearance and fate of the girl.
• The public was unjustifiably intimidated and harassed, disturbing details were disclosed that should not have been disclosed.
• The right to the presumption of innocence, primarily of the mother, was violated.
• The right to privacy in general and the child's right to privacy in particular were violated.
From the Ministry of Information only an appeal, REM without reaction
Skrozza assesses that the Ministry of Information and the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM), which is supposed to monitor the manner of reporting by electronic media, had to react.
"After all, the Ministry is responsible for the implementation of the Law on Public Information. I also think that the role of REM is much more important, because I have the impression that the televisions were even worse than the press," Skrozza said.
The Ministry of Information announced only once, with an appeal to the media on April 4, after publishing the information that the girl was not alive.
"We ask the media to refrain from a sensationalist approach that can further upset the public and violate the privacy of the victim's family," the Ministry announced.
They added that "now it is most important that the media respect the Code of Journalists and ethical standards by providing accurate and verified information, while at the same time protecting dignity."
REM, which is supposed to monitor the manner of media reporting and whether it is in accordance with the law, did not react once.
They issued only one statement, on April 2, in which they stated that national television stations fulfilled their "obligation to inform the public about a missing minor" after the "Find Me" system was activated.
Until the publication of the text, REM did not respond to RSE's inquiry as to whether and how it would react in cases of violations of the journalistic code and ethics.
The Ministry of Interior issued nine announcements and two appeals
The MUP has issued nine announcements since March 26, when the girl disappeared and the Find Me system was activated.
On two occasions, they appealed to the media, the first time on March 28 - not to publish unverified and inaccurate information "because in that way they endanger the investigation, the goal of which is to find the girl as soon as possible."
"The safety and finding of the girl is an absolute priority that is above all other interests," the MUP announced at the time.
In a second appeal on April 3, they asked media representatives not to call members of the MUP working on the case of the girl's disappearance "directly to official phone numbers for information, statements, guest appearances and allow them to carry out their work unhindered."
At that time, they stated that cooperation with the media, according to the procedures of the MUP, takes place "exclusively through the Media and Communications Department."
For Gašić – all media are the same
On the second day of the search, disciplinary proceedings were initiated against a member of the MUP from Bor for revealing information about the investigation.
This was also the only answer of the Minister of the Interior of Serbia, Bratislava Gašić, to the journalist's question about how the tabloids obtained the information from the investigation.
He announced this at the only MUP conference, on April 4, after the public was already familiar with the epilogue on the same day.
"We tried as much as (we can) not to jeopardize the investigation itself, so that you journalists are given access and you can record what we are doing, but of course not to jeopardize the scene itself. I can't tell you the rest," he said. Gasic.
He added that he would not say that one of his colleagues "abused his position in any way".
When asked to comment on the tabloid's sensationalist writing, Gašić said that he does not differentiate between the media.
"I don't know how you make a gradation of what are tabloids and what are not. For me, they are journalists," he said.
First the president, then the MUP
The news that the girl was killed and that her body was being searched for was first announced to the public by the President of the country, Aleksandar Vučić. He did so during the live broadcast of the extraordinary session of the Government on April 4, convened for another reason, which he himself attended.
In the seventh minute of Vučić's address, in which he spoke about the dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo in Brussels and the upcoming meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, Serbian Interior Minister Bratislav Gašić gave him a folder with documents.
The President of Serbia then announced to the public that the police arrested "two persons who murdered little Danka" and that both of them confessed to the crime, after which the police took them to the place "where they threw the child's body."
Then he turned to Gašić:
"Is there anything else, Bato, that I should do? Everything else, you can tell the details later."
"It is just one case in a series that confirms the dominant position that the president has in relation to the institutions. Of course, that information would be expected, not even from the minister of the interior, but from the director of the police, who we haven't had for more than two years." says Rodoljub Šabić for RSE.
The mandate of the previous director of the police expired in December 2021. The Ministry of Internal Affairs has not yet announced a public competition for that position.
According to the Constitution and the laws of Serbia, the President of the State does not have any authority in connection with the investigations conducted by the police.
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