ANEM Reports New Death Threats Against Veran Matic
Threatening messages against Veran Matic were posted on Facebook, X and Instagram, and ANEM has reported them to the Special Prosecution for High-Tech Crime.
The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) reported a series of death threats and disturbing messages directed at journalist Veran Matic, chairman of its Governing Board, to the Special Prosecution for High-Tech Crime on August 8. The messages appeared on three platforms, Facebook, X and Instagram, in comments beneath a post by Vuksa Dragovic that took one of Matic’s statements out of context.
A profile under the name “Aleksandar Mosic” wrote: “Hang the stinker and leave the carcass for the animals to tear apart.” A profile called “Bratislav Nikolic” posted “We will sacrifice you first,” while a profile called “Milos Nikolic” wrote “He will stop living soon.” The same thread includes the messages “This stinking Ustasha filth needs to be dealt with publicly” and “Where does he live? In Serbia? What are we waiting for?” Beneath the same post on X, someone wrote “we will sacrifice him first.” On Instagram, the same author posted what ANEM describes as false accusations capable of causing tragic consequences.
The association’s statement includes an assessment that explains why the report was filed immediately:
Constant threats and their escalating intensity endanger not only the safety but the life of Veran Matic
What Preceded This Wave of Messages
The timeline begins a year earlier. In July 2025, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, appearing on the country’s most watched tabloid television station, said that everyone who had been imprisoned because of Veran Matic should have that expunged from their record and that Matic should apologize to them. ANEM says the statement seriously endangered Matic’s safety, and notes that a security assessment carried out by the Interior Ministry after the statement called for increased police patrols outside the building where Matic lives.
That was followed by a propaganda film from the Center for Social Stability, which branded Matic a foreign mercenary, a collaborator with the intelligence services of the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Albania, and a man who “sold out Kosovo.” The film aired on two nationwide television stations and was repeatedly rebroadcast on Informer TV. The same center separately posted a message on its Instagram account implying Matic would “end up like Curuvija and Zoran Djindjic.”
Street incidents followed, including an attack outside the National Assembly during which Matic’s mobile phone was snatched from him. Because of all this, Matic requested a new security assessment from the Interior Ministry. That assessment is separate from the one carried out in 2025, and its outcome has not yet been made public.
Who Else Is Demanding the Authors Be Identified
The regional SafeJournalists network, which brings together journalists’ associations and unions from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Kosovo and Albania, has demanded that the Special Prosecution for High-Tech Crime and the Interior Ministry identify without delay the people behind the accounts that issued the threats and launch appropriate proceedings. The network says the messages are not isolated incidents but part of longer-term targeting, and that the institutions’ failure to respond quickly emboldens the perpetrators.
ANEM is at the same time demanding that all the reports it has filed this year be investigated, not just the latest one. That demand puts the scale of the problem into perspective. The Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia recorded 19 cases involving journalists and media workers in July 2026 alone, including two physical attacks. When a single month produces that many reported cases, the question stops being how many there are and becomes how many end up resolved in court.
The messages reported on August 8 were posted from accounts carrying ordinary Serbian first and last names, leaving identification to a prosecution office that specializes in exactly this kind of work. Technically, it comes down to establishing IP addresses and account data, a procedure the Special Prosecution for High-Tech Crime handles routinely. Politically, it is a test that has been repeated several times over the past year, one whose outcome the public has yet to see.
