I can see that he is excited, but he does not want to show it. He says he is not afraid, but he thinks that Serbian PEN should protect him. It is not a private matter, of course, he argues, and even the anti-Semitic statements written in the article are not of utmost importance. It is the matter of principle that concerns us all. After all, other writers are mentioned in the text too.

I say it is unnatural not to be scared. We live in a country in which this sort of article, at this very moment, can imperil many lives. Then I notice with relief that the article is printed in extremely small print. My journalistic experience tells me that somebody wanted to "hide" the article. Do tiny letters save lives?

I immediately ring up Serbian PEN-centre President, Dr. Predrag Palavestra. He says we must react at once. We quickly schedule PEN Executive Board meeting. After the meeting, the following announcement was issued:

"Serbian PEN-centre strongly protests due to malicious insinuations said against the respected Serbian intellectuals and writers— Dr. Vojin Dimitrijevic, Filip David and Biljana Srbljanovic—in the Tanjug article written by the Rome correspondent, Dragos Kalajic and published in Politika on May 27. 1999. Through the article’s incorrectly cited and spiteful qualifications, intellectuals who freely express their minds are insulted and directly endangered. They have in no way endangered the interests of either the nation or the state by publicly stating their opinions. In tense and dangerous atmosphere that exists today, such behaviour, as well as the previous flat-out attacks of the Democratic Party president, Dr. Zoran Djindjic, might have tragic consequences. In accordance with the International PEN Charter, Serbian PEN-centre feels a responsibility to protect endangered writers and intellectuals, as well as PEN members who happen to be in the way, from such dishonest abuse of the common misfortune created by attempts to settle accounts of either a political or a personal nature".