AWC filed a complaint against ten portals for coverage of a reported rape in Nis

(Source: 021.rs) The Autonomous Women’s Center has filed a complaint with the Press Council against ten media portals for reporting on the reported rape case in Nis.

These are Mondo, Alo, Dnevno, Novosti, Luftika, Niške vesti, Telegraf, Nova, Informer and Pink, reports 021.

The Press Council was asked to consider whether the named portals violated the Code of Journalists of Serbia by publishing an almost identical article on January 6, 2023, stating information that a woman from Leskovac, who reported a case of (group) rape in Nis to the competent institutions, did so “for revenge against her ex-boyfriend”, that she was “prone to alcohol”,  and that the man she accused of sexual violence “was very cooperative and persuasive”,  and  that “there was not smallest amount of doubt that he had harmed her in any way.”

All the information presented was transmitted by unnamed sources, which raised doubts about the truth of the reporting.

The complaint also noted that media coverage, which in this way enters into unsubstantiated and unnecessary details (regardless of the statement of the Ministry of Internal Affairs stating that in this case it is a false report) can have a long-term impact, both on the woman in question and on all other women who have survived sexual violence due to a decrease in public empathy for victims,   disbelief in their experiences and relativization of sexual crimes.

https://www.021.rs/story/Info/Srbija/328605/AZC-podneo-zalbu-protiv-deset-portala-zbog-izvestavanja-o-prijavljenom-silovanju-u-Nisu.html