The BIRN (Balkan Investigative Reporting Network) portal, which passes itself off as a professional investigative media outlet, has attacked Kurir again. In a text titled "What Multiple Murderer Čaba Der Actually Said About Vučić", published on Friday, 18 December, the BIRN insinuates that Kurir misled its readership and the general public on 19 November by publishing the claim – based on the information it had gathered – that Der made a statement to the Hungarian police to the effect that he had been offered to kill President Vučić.
Kurir did publish this information on 19 November, which it had received from a reliable source close to the Hungarian police directorate. And this information is accurate. Once it was published, Kurir's reporters asked Aleksandar Vučić to comment, and he confirmed that he had been notified of this on that day as well. The only inexactitude in the text was the claim that Der had said that on the same day. In actuality, it was the Hungarian police who notified the Serbian Ministry of the Interior of its findings on that day, through Interpol.
Therefore, the point is that we did not lie, unlike what the very title of the BIRN's text suggests. The BIRN text does not even deny that Der said this; instead, they ask why Čaba Der's statement was publicized three months later, sneaking in a claim (via an anonymous source) that this information was published on that day in order for Vučić to be able to say, as they allege, that, "yes, they're planning it, two teams were planning to kill me." And the truth is that the information was published on that day because that is when Kurir obtained it, which fact we would have explained to the BIRN reporters had they indeed called and asked us.
So, let us clarify once more. The BIRN wonders why we only published the findings related to Čaba Der's claims on 19 November, given that the claims were made on 25 August. Well, because that is when we found out. From a source that we trust, who had previously proven to be reliable, and who was reliable now as well. Further, saying that Der had made these claims earlier that day changes nothing of substance. We could also ask our colleagues from the BIRN why they published the information concerning what Čaba Der had said on 18 December of all days – a month after we published our findings. And they will say, because they were fact-checking it. So did we, from the moment we received the information earlier that day until "late in the afternoon", as they put it, implying that it was desirable to publish it at that very point. We published it as soon as we had grounds to believe that our source was reliable on this occasion as well, as indeed was the case. And because, in line with our editorial policy, such information should not wait a month before it is published. It is accurate, and that is what matters.
But then, one could ask – why is the BIRN attacking us? And why were N1, Nova S, Direktno, and Danas – media outlets controlled by Dragan Đilas's and Dragan Šolak's business and political lobby – so quick to pick up their article? Let us recall that the same thing happened a month ago, when the BIRN attacked Kurir in a text full of unfounded accusations against our company and its business operations, even as the vice-president of Đilas's party held a press conference at which she also levelled false and unsubstantiated accusations against our media company. Needless to say, all the media outlets under Đilas and Šolak's thumb were picking all of this up in parallel back then too. It is telling that the BIRN set out to attack Kurir once its principals "investigators", Slobodan Georgiev and Ana Novaković, transferred to United Group's media: Georgiev as the author of the programme "Pregled Dana (The Daily Roundup)" on Nova S, and Novaković as a N1 reporter.
The latest attack mounted by the BIRN is yet another proof that this media organization has tight links to Šolak and Đilas's business and political lobby and is under their control as part of the media machinery operated by this duo from the same centre. It is important to note that Šolak's media found the information concerning Čaba Der's statement laughable a month ago, only to view it as perfectly legitimate and serious, and link it to Kurir's alleged lack of professionalism, once the BIRN published it. This is a dangerous straw man argument – it aims to pass off the media outlets close to Šolak and Đilas's policies as serious and accurate, even when they are not, and publishing only fact-checked news, whereas everyone else, critical towards this duo of political and business magnates, is unprofessional even when they publish accurate information.
Officially
What does the Ministry of the Interior say?
Kurir submitted questions related to the case of Čaba Der to Serbia's Ministry of the Interior. We asked the Ministry if they had received the information on what Čaba Der said to the Hungarian authorities and when they were notified of this. The Hungarian Ministry of the Interior sent on 19 November 2020 an official communication to their Serbian counterpart through Interpol's National Central Bureau. The communication contains parts of Čaba Der's statement made to the Hungarian authorities.
Among other things, the communication quotes Čaba Der as saying that two criminal groups from our region asked him to kill President Aleksandar Vučić, the Ministry of the Interior's reply says. Therefore, Serbia's Ministry of the Interior was officially notified on 19 November, which is when Kurir published the information.
Kurir
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