IPI: Serbian Journalists Face Higher Risk of Being Attacked

Journalists call on Prosecution to react to threats (BETAPHOTO )

Jamie Wiseman, a representative of the International Press Institute (IPI), said on May 3, World Press Freedom Day, that there were constant attacks, death threats and smear campaigns against journalists in Serbia, Voice of America (VoA) has reported.

Wiseman said that in that context Serbia was substantially ahead of other states included in a recent report on the situation in the media for the Council of Europe - one of the authors of which was the IPI, an NGO devoted to promoting and protecting the freedom of the press and fostering good journalistic practices.

"If we use this metric, we can say that out of the countries monitored by the Council of Europe Serbian journalists face a higher risk of these attacks. Of course, in the past there were cases of murder which left a truly dark shadow behind them. The lack of success in calling the people involved to account and deeply rooted impunity create a system in which the perpetrators of attacks and intimidation feel that they can get away with it, which encourages new attacks," Wiseman warned.

Asked whether the war in Ukraine and Russia's invasion of that country made the Balkans particularly susceptible to propaganda and disinformation, he stressed that disinformation and propaganda campaigns flourished in conditions in which strong independent media outlets were weakening, i.e. in places where media systems were being controlled and where ties between the owners of media outlets and the political system existed.