The ‘Nezavisne Novine’ newspaper, based in the Bosnian city of Banja Luka, received death threats on Thursday, chief editor of the newspaper, Sandra Gojkovic Arbutina, told N1.

“The threat was quite serious. We take every threat seriously and we hope that the police will also take it seriously,” she said.

She explained that the newsroom received a phone call at about 2 pm from an unknown number which could not be identified and that caller said that the newspaper should close earlier that day or else the journalists would “all be dead.”

She said the threat was immediately reported to police and appealed to the Interior Ministry and other institutions to take the situation seriously “as it seems to me that a message is being sent to us that we need to be afraid.”

“This was probably some fool who does not have a true intention, but what could guarantee to us that whoever did this is not serious?,” she asked.

Police and the judiciary often fail to recognise the seriousness of such situations, she said.

“This will pass today, but it should be taken very seriously that the media are exposed to this on a daily basis and that every potential perpetrator and his intention to attack the media and news outlets should be prevented.”

Nezavisne Novine did not close earlier on Thursday and Gojkovic Arbutina said that the journalists have no idea what might have caused the threat as the person did not give a reason.