US ambassador to Serbia condemns threats to Tanjug journalists

BELGRADE - US Ambassador to Serbia Christopher Hill condemned death threats to Tanjug journalists emailed to the news agency on Monday evening and said journalists should be able to work and that all such threats ought to be investigated.

An email signed by an individual named "Trim Bardhi" said Tanjug journalists would get "a bullet to the back of their heads" the next time they set foot in the territory of Serbia's Autonomous Province of Kosovo-Metohija.

"Journalists play a vital role in any democratic society, and they must be able to do their work everywhere without threats to their safety," Hill said in a statement to Tanjug.

"Harassment of any kind directed at members of the press has no place anywhere, certainly not in 21st-century Europe. All such threats ought to be investigated," he added.

Earlier, Serbian Minister of Information and Telecommunications Dejan Ristic said the threat had been emailed from Albanian territory and that it was the most serious one a Serbian media outlet had received in years.