Jeremy Dear (YouTube screenshot)
Deputy General Secretary of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Jeremy Dear, has said that ignoring criminal acts against journalists in Serbia encourages more attacks against them.
"Just because Serbia is not in as bad a situation as the Democratic Republic of Congo or Pakistan, that does not mean that the situation is good. Not a single case involving a criminal act against a journalist should remain uninvestigated and unpunished," Dear said in a Nov. 14 interview with BETA.
The IFJ official underlined that impunity was one of the major challenges of journalism as a profession, warning that it might keep journalists away from certain topics, or encourage self-censorship. "The situation encourages those who attack journalists, be they criminals, police or politicians, because what they are doing has no consequences," he added.
Speaking about the media landscape in Serbia, Dear said that it was extremely polarized, and that a large number of journalists were complaining about their poor economic and social position and being prevented from doing their job in a professional, independent and ethical way due to political and commercial influences.
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