Today, the Autonomous Women's Centre filed a complaint with the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media for violating the dignity of survivors of sexual violence in the war in the show "Mental Workut" on NOVA S. television.

Below is the full text of the complaint.

Dear members of the Council of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media,

The Autonomous Women's Centre is addressing you with a report against the NOVA S television, on the occasion of the show "Mental Workout" broadcast on November 18^th, 2021 in the morning.

Namely, within the morning program of the mentioned date, the hosts Srdjan Jovanović and Marko Stepanović, towards the end of the show, had the following conversation:

• - Marko Stepanović: The Turks impaled, the Germans hanged, and the Chinese skinned.
• - Srdjan Jovanović: Yes, yes.
• - Marko Stepanović: Yes, that's right. There’s more ... The Turks impaled, Germans hanged, Russians raped, and well, let's also add ...
• - Srdjan Jovanović: And when did the Russians ...? Ah yes, in World War II.
• - Marko Stepanović: Yes, when they entered.
• - Srdjan Jovanović: Yes. Well, so much warfare, no females anywhere and then ...
• - Marko Stepanović: What else? Those people came out of the war, they didn't know where they were.
• - Srdjan Jovanović: Did they rape here, or where? I don’t know.
• - Marko Stepanović: Well, it was everywhere they came.
• - Srdjan Jovanović: I know that Germans were, when they invaded Berlin ...
• - Marko Stepanović: Wrecked.
• - Srdjan Jovanović: Well, they’d invaded them all the way Moscow, and now they said 'Is that so'? Now you will see. Remember, when Napoleon did the same, now we are coming ... '
• - Marko Stepanović: And when we come ...
• - Srdjan Jovanović: Yes.
• - Marko Stepanović: And then they entered their hearts. They entered the penalty area.
• - Srdjan Jovanović: Yes, not exactly into the heart, they went in somewhere lower.
• - Marko Stepanović: They entered a little lower.

The Autonomous Women's Centre believes that this dialogue between the media program anchor persons violated the provisions of the Regulation on the protection of human rights in the field of media services, especially when it comes to information about tragic events (Article 19) and the ban on publishing programs that violate human dignity. 21), as well as the Law on Electronic Media and the Law on Public Information and Media, in the field of dignity of the person, and especially victims of violence.

We remind you that sexual violence in war is considered a crime against humanity and a serious violation of human rights in international documents that the Republic of Serbia has committed itself to respect (to mention only the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court). We also remind you that war rape took place during the Second World War, but also during the wars that marked this region less than 30 years ago. In this regard, we believe that the presentation of attitudes that justify war rape trivialize and present it as a topic for fun and jokes, grossly violates the dignity of all survivors and their families who still live in Serbia.

In addition, we address you because of the social atmosphere created by such and similar media content, an atmosphere that does not contribute to understanding the complexity of the problem of sexual violence in all its forms, but significantly distances us from it, violating the provisions on electronic media.

Due to all the above, we ask the Council of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media to inspect the mentioned media content and act in accordance with its role and competencies.

In Belgrade, November 25^th, 2021