Association: Threats to Journalists Growing

The Journalists’ Association of Serbia (UNS)

The Journalists’ Association of Serbia (UNS) reported that over the past 12 months the number of threats and insults against journalist that appeared on social networks had increased, along with the number of criminal allegations against journalists reporting from environmental protests and strategic lawsuits against public participations (SLAPPs), which the Association believes threatens the freedom of the media.

“Journalists in Serbia will remember the year between the past two World Press Freedom Days, celebrated on May 3, by police warnings at their doorstep that they might face legal consequences if they were seen at environmental protests,” the Association said in a press release.

“It would be nice if we could at least say that co-financing the production of media content of public importance had improved. Quite the contrary, the organizations and associations run by the owners of pro-government local media have used the committees they formed with local self-governments to allocate funds to their own media outlets, breaking the law and making the system of project co-financing meaningless,” the UNS explained in the release.

The journalists have also warned that “there’s no sign whatsoever” of an international expert committee to investigate the cases of journalists who were killed and kidnapped in Kosovo and Metohija from 1998 to2005. The Association urged journalists and media workers to report threats to their safety “without any delay,” as well as the pressures they might be exposed to, using the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists, the Working Group for the Safety and Protection of Journalists and the SOS line for that purpose.