In the last few days, the "realization" of another murder of a woman J.M. (33 years old) is ubiquitous, and the media ceaselessly compete in bringing out the bizarreness of this case. Almost nothing has changed in delivering details and speculations about the murder of J.M. for 18 months since she was killed. On Saturday morning, the day after she participated in the reality show "Zadruga", her husband Z.M. was arrested because, according to the media, evidence was found that implied he was the murderer. Leaving the competent services to deal with the case clarification and punishing those responsible, we wonder if the media had in mind what kind of damage to the family members such a report could have caused, as well as damage to the six-year-old daughter of the murdered J.M.? Is raising the rating and attracting readers' attention more important than someone's right to a "normal" and dignified life after a trauma?

Overshadowed by these reports, remained the murder of V.M. (49), who was killed on September 15th by S.M., her husband. It turned out that this was another case where the institutions didn’t do enough to protect this woman. Namely, as the media state, the killer was sentenced three years ago for domestic violence, and in the previous period he was serving that sentence. In addition, it is alleged that the victim had a restraining order against him, but in the past month he had visited her regardless of the ban. Are the representatives of the institutions in charge aware that the violation of the protection measures constitutes a criminal offense? Had any of the authorities controlled the application and effects of the imposed measures? How and in what way were the cases treated in relation to the competencies of the institutions established by the Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence?

Every failure or wrongly assessed risk by institutions, women pay with their lives. It’s possible that not all murders of women can be prevented, but we cannot say that for those cases where cries for help were left without an adequate response. React before it's too late!

On behalf of the Women against Violence Network
Aleksandra Nestorov and Vedrana Lacmanović