ANEM: A War is Being Waged on Press in Serbia, 14 Attacks So Far This Year

Cameramen (BETAPHOTO/ARMENIJA ZAJMI BESEVIC/EV)

The assault on Insajder TV reporter Stefan Miljus during the May 1 pro-regime gathering in downtown Belgrade’s Nikola Pasic square is the fourteenth attack on the press in Serbia since the beginning of the year. It also demonstrates a clear escalation which can, at this point, be dubbed a war on journalists, said Veran Matic, the steering committee head of the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM).

According to Matic, the position of journalists and media in the country has been “deteriorating from one year to the next,” which, he says, has also been noted by international organizations concerned with freedom of speech and human rights.

“These attacks on journalists are quite the way to wish reporters a happy upcoming World Press Freedom Day, which will be marked globally on May 3,” the ANEM official stated.

Matic warned that of the 24 recorded attacks on the press in the past six months, “the police reacted in only one case, stopping and apprehending the assailant.”

In 2024, said Matic, only one such attacker faced legal sanctions, while the investigations into half the other assaults on the press remain open. “This proves best that society is being told that attacks on journalists are not only not unacceptable, but in fact wanted, because they will go unpunished,” Matic concluded.