State-sponsored lynch in prime time: How Verica Bradić started painting a target on the backs of the Božović family with the assistance of the state leadership
The Academy for Democratic Development (ADD) strongly condemns the blatant media lynching and the painting of a target on the backs of the Božović family, which was initiated in prime time on Pink TV by Verica Bradić, a person who calls herself a journalist.
Abusing the national broadcasting frequency of Pink TV, in a shameless segment of the “Hit Tvit” show, she declared the Božović family “dangerous to Serbia,” labeled them with the chauvinistic term “Milogorci,” and openly questioned their right to live in Belgrade.
This anti-civilizational segment about the Božović family is a direct message from Aleksandar Vučić and a blatant call for the persecution of the Božović family and, as they stated, “all similar families” who are political dissidents of the regime, in which the highest state officials in the studio then merely assumed the roles of executioners.
The biggest and most horrifying paradox of this witch-hunt lies in the fact that the entire segment was organized as a reaction to an op-ed by art historian Borka Božović, in which she warns of the threats her family faced during the 1990s, and which have started to repeat themselves in the current circumstances.
Instead of any condemnation or sanctioning of that violence and threats, the state apparatus used a television station with national coverage not only to confirm those threats but to dramatically intensify them, thereby proving live every word from her op-ed.
In an atmosphere of an open witch-hunt, Vučić’s Minister of Internal Affairs, Ivica Dačić, shamelessly answered a question about the Božović family by citing examples of how Montenegrins hijack directorial positions, going so far as to mention Montenegrin criminal clans, while images of the faces of the Božović family members were spinning in the background so that presumably anyone could recognize them on the street, thereby endangering their safety and physical security.
By doing so, Dačić, from the position of the ministry of force, consciously participated in the criminalization of the Božović family in order to legitimize in advance any potential violence against its members.
At the same time, the President of the National Assembly, Ana Brnabić, demonstrated the peak of hypocrisy by claiming that she does not know the Božović family or its members, even though she and Balša Božović, as political opponents, confronted each other dozens of times in the national parliament.
This feigned ignorance served exclusively as her alibi to avoid personal responsibility while simultaneously labeling the Božović family as an “example of the very worst.”
To make matters completely out of control, one of the participants in the show, Vladislav Dajković, crossed into the domain of an open call to resolve the issue of the Božović family and those similar to them, with threats: “I know how I would deal with them, and it wouldn’t be through legal methods,” all in front of the Minister of Police Ivica Dačić and the President of the Parliament Ana Brnabić, who laughed at Dajković’s proposal.
In any civilized society, such a direct threat and call for lynching broadcasted on television would be a job for the prosecutor’s office.
This outrageous attack on the Božović family by the top state leadership is a demonstration exercise of how Aleksandar Vučić orders the persecution of dissidents in practice: anyone who thinks differently, who defends civic values, and anyone who attacks him and his regime will be declared an anti-state and anti-Serbian element and a legitimate target to be expelled from Serbia or silenced summarily.
As an organization dedicated to democracy and the rule of law, the Academy for Democratic Development strongly condemns such behavior and such messages.
We are aware that in any normal society it would be normal right now to call upon competent institutions, primarily the prosecutor’s office and the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM), to urgently react to this blatant example of hate speech, a call for a lynch, and the abuse of the national frequency.
However, we are deeply aware that in today’s Serbia, institutions no longer exist. They are clinically dead, hijacked from the citizens, and turned into mere accomplices of this darkness.
That is why we are addressing European embassies and European institutions to draw their attention to the brutal persecution of a family in Serbia that is taking place on national and political grounds, deeply concerned for their safety.
From this moment on, the exclusive and direct responsibility for the safety of the Božović family lies with the top leadership of the state, headed by Aleksandar Vučić.
June 9, 2026
Academy for Democratic Development (ADD)
