State Department: Journalists, Disabled People, LGBT+ Community Jeopardized in Serbia

State Department (Flickr.com/ Photo by: U.S. Department of State (IIP Bureau)

Serious restrictions on the freedom of expression and the press, including violence, threats of violence and unjustified arrests and criminal prosecution of journalists, numerous acts of corruption in the government, violence or threats of violence targeting people with disabilities, as well as the LGBTI population are Serbia's key problems in the area of human rights, concludes the latest U.S. Department of State annual report on human rights practices in the world.

The part of the report on Serbia states that the Serbian government "took steps to identify, investigate, prosecute, and punish officials who committed human rights abuses, both in the police force and elsewhere in the government, following public exposure of abuses," but that nevertheless "many observers believed numerous cases of corruption, social and domestic violence, attacks on civil society, and other abuses went unreported and unpunished."

The report recalls that the snap general election in June 2020, according to international observers, was efficiently organized in difficult circumstances, but that the dominance of the ruling party and the opposition parties' lack of access to the media, as well as a lack of media diversity overall limited voters' choice.

In the section devoted to media freedom, the State Department notes that the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression and press are jeopardized by threats and attacks on journalists, a lack of media ownership transparency and the oversized role of the state in the media sector.