Dialog: Status of Journalists, Existential Concerns Biggest Censors

Dialog "How To Work with Dignity in the Media and Responsible Journalism", Belgrade, Nov.30 2021(BETAPHOTO/MILAN OBRADOVIC/DS)

The position of journalists in Serbia is extremely serious, the fear of not being able to survive is the biggest censor, while the state cannot be expected to do anything to change this situation, the participants of a dialog called, How To Work with Dignity in the Media and Responsible Journalism, held in Belgrade, said.

"We can lead countless dialogues and bring legislation to perfection, but there will be no changes as long as some owners are protected and privileged and others are oppressed," president of the Independent Journalists Association of Serbia Zeljko Bodrozic said at a gathering organized by the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue in the Palace of Serbia.

President of the Serbian journalists' union Dragana Cabarkapa stressed that freedom of the media was discussed daily but that no one was talking about the freedom of journalists, or the threat to their livelihoods and existential questions.

Minister of Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialog Gordana Comic stressed that, for her, journalists "are kings without which there cannot be democracy in a society, and, hence, Serbia, but that without elementary security and respect for journalists their job cannot be done."