Dejan Ristic (BETAPHOTO/MILAN OBRADOVIC)
A group of international associations of journalists are sending a delegation to Serbia from April 7 to April 9 to gather information regarding increasing pressure on independent journalists and threats not only to their safety, but also to media freedoms in Serbia.
The European Federation of Journalists, ARTICLE 19 Europe, European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, Free Press Unlimited, International Press Institute, and OBC Transeuropa are sending their representatives to Serbia. They are partners to the pan-European mechanism Media Freedom Rapid Response, established in 2020.
The purpose of their visit is to compile a report on the state of public information in Serbia, and it is supported and co-organized by NUNS.
The organizations requested meetings with representatives of certain media outlets, professional associations, journalists, civil society organizations, the Prosecutor’s Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Delegation of the European Commission, the OSCE Mission, and the Council of Europe in Serbia.
The Ministry of Information and Telecommunications stated that it had directly contacted all members of this delegation twice in the past few days, inviting them to a meeting with Minister Dejan Ristic, but the delegation declined, explaining that they did not want to meet with politicians and members of the outgoing government.
"The Ministry expresses concern regarding the non-transparent work, particularly the sources of funding of the mentioned organizations and their Serbian host, revealing a selective and biased approach to the evaluation of the public information sector in the Republic of Serbia," the Ministry said in a release.
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