Report: Alarming Rate of Violations of Freedom of Expression, Assembly

Elections in Serbia (BetaPhoto/Milos Miskov)

A report presented on March 28 has recorded that violence against women participating in the election process is especially conspicuous on social media, that there has been "an alarming number of violations of the freedoms of expression, assembly and association" of other participants in the election process, and that 50 percent of reports of attacks on journalists are dismissed.

The report, titled "Elections in the Spotlight," was presented at the Miljenko Dereta venue by the organizations belonging to the Three Freedoms platform, and covers "all violations of human rights in order to provide as realistic an image as possible of the election process," participants said. Milos Djajic, a representative of the Women's Leadership Academy, said his organization was monitoring violence against women participating in the election campaign, and had been monitoring violence against female politicians since 2019.

Djajic said the report focused on the 15 female candidates with the highest ranking on different electoral tickets, noting that social media offered the worst and most flagrant examples of abuse against female politicians.

Civic Initiatives representative Uros Jovanovic said there had been 79 individual instances of violations of the freedoms of expression, assembly and association just last week, and that the rate of such violations in the election campaign to date was "alarming."