"The Guardian is dedicated to fearless, independent journalism that holds the government to account. We categorically reject Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic's comments about our media, which are completely baseless and not based on facts," the Guardian's PR service told N1 television on Vucic's statement that the British media outlet was a "criminal newspaper and the worst of the worst".
Earlier, Vucic compared several Western media outlets to "artillery and tanks" waging a hybrid war against Belgrade and "lying for days that Serbia is going to attack someone, accusing his party of electoral fraud and slamming the president every day."
The Guardian of London and the German dailies Bild and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) came under attack.
FAC journalist Michael Martens denied the accusations.
"The Serbian president knows very well that no hybrid war is being waged against him, at least not by me and our media, nor by other Western media," he said.
"But I am not convinced that the Russian media is not conducting a hybrid war," Martens added.
He stressed that if Western media were really waging a war against Aleksandar Vucic and if they were treating him the way Informer, Happy, Pink or other Serbian pro-government media treat his opponents, he would surely notice it.
Michael Martens said that the US and the EU must prevent Belgrade from regaining control of northern Kosovo after the US presidential election, especially by military means.
"I don't know if war will happen, but the EU must be ready to prevent such a scenario by making it clear that it will have a high cost for Serbia, especially economically and politically," the German journalist added. / BGNES
