KURIR’S OPEN LETTER TO ĐILAS: Who are you, Dragan?

Dragan Đilas, leader of the extraparliamentary Party of Freedom and Justice, who has never put his rating to the test of elections since he left the Democratic Party, has invited Kurir through social media to do an interview with him. He did this after our newspaper put out an article on his appearance on TV N1, in which we focused on the host Jugoslav Ćosić’s unprofessional treatment of Đilas, and the fact that Ćosić did not dare to ask any questions which were not in his guest’s interest. Incidentally, this was only the most recent of Đilas’s appearances in a PR campaign series, run on Šolak’s media (Newsmax Adria, Nova S).

We are sorry that you were under the impression that our article refers to you, and that you thought you are its topic of interest. In this case, you were only an object, rather than a subject - as we were concerned with the unprofessionalism of N1 and Jugoslav Ćosić. Dragan, where did get the idea to ask for such a space in Kurir? You lead an extraparliamentary party, work to polarize the society every day, and destroy your political partners and opposition competitors through the media which favour you and are owned by Šolak, perhaps by you as well.

You broke up the Democratic Party, which was the only social democratic and pro-European party and spawned almost all the pro-European parties in the opposition. You are still breaking up the Democratic Party, holding it in debt bondage ever since you left it. You used the boycott campaign to deliberately destroy the opposition, which stood good chances of getting into parliament with a respectable number of MPs, with one goal in mind – to install yourself as the sole leader of the opposition. Once it became clear that the boycott had failed, you continued with the breaking up, pushing out Boško Bradović, destroying Boris Tadić, and demonizing Sergej Trifunović. And now, we all fear that Pavle Grbović and Ne Davimo Beograd – as potential up-and-coming opposition players – will meet the same fate. On top of this, these past couple of days you have also been attacking Nebojša Zelenović through your best man.

You are a key factor when it comes to social divisions. You attack the media and divide them into the ideologically correct and incorrect ones. You attack foreign ambassadors and have no policy towards the European Union, or towards Kosovo. You are, shall we say, dishonest and noncommittal about everything, rather than saying that you lie more often than not.

We know the answers to all the questions that Jugoslav Ćosić should have asked you, but it is a shame that he did not dare ask. You have ruined him. According to our information, N1 staffers are ashamed when you have a guest appearance there. Are you aware that you are destroying our N1 colleagues by making it impossible for them to ask unpleasant questions? Dragan, they are not such poor journalists as to forget or not know the right questions - they simply did not dare ask them.

When we ask you a question - a rare occurrence, as you are insincere – you do not answer them. We do not find your populist plan or programme interesting. Of course you have a plan – that much we do believe you – but we are far more interested in its hidden part: how to secure the greatest possible profits for your interest group; how to ensure the greatest possible dependence of the opposition on you; and how to make “independent” journalists into the biggest possible yes-men in order to achieve your goals. We are also interested in why you are still hanging around the political arena. That is the only mystery. That is the subject of our continual investigation.

We are unclear as to who you are loyal to, Dragan. You have destroyed everyone who has been close to you. You are not loyal to any party, or to your friends and partners; to any ideological option; to Serbia, the US, Russia, or the European Union; to the Church or to Amfilohije. One gets the impression that you are only loyal to yourself and your lucrative ambition. You have betrayed everyone, and it is our film belief that you will also betray your best man, and even Šolak.

Which Dragan are you? The Dragan that cries in front of the cameras, or the one who beats up his father-in-law and threatens to arrest people when he gets in power? The one who secretly owns Press and controls a portion of the media, or the one who protects free journalism? The one who has made millions through politics, or the politician who started from scratch in business? The Dragan that stabs his partners in the back, or the great unifier of the opposition?

Dragan, as a media outlet, we put social responsibility first. We work to depolarize the society. We have always been a media outlet with an attitude, and will remain so in the future. We are interested in all the participants in the political life, and we are concerned with the work of the administration, as well as the opposition and the NGO sector. We keep track of the words and actions of Vučić, Dačić, Brnabić, Mihajlović, Šapić, Jeremić, Tadić, Lutovac, Grbović, and Zelenović alike. There is no room in our media outlet for a kind of interview that you would like and are used to giving. There is room for you, however: we want to know why you are still in politics, how much money you have, how you have acquired it, what you live off of, etc. If we do not get it all out into the open, that will be our failure.

Daily Newspaper Kurir