Association of Journalists of Serbia Established, Members Mostly from Pro-Government Media

Cameramen(Beta/Armenija Zajmi Besevic)

Serbia has gotten another national journalists' association - the Association of Journalists of Serbia, whose members are predominantly journalists from pro-government media outlets.

The president of the association is Studio B Editor-in-Chief Ivana Vucicevic, while among the journalists who earlier supported the association's manifest were mostly employees of the Pink, Prva, B92, Happy, Studio B and Euronews televisions, as well as websites Alo, Kurir, Informer, Srpski Telegraf, Novosti, and former president of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) Council Olivera Zekic.

The speakers who addressed the founding assembly mostly spoke negatively about what they called "blockader" media and about the other two journalists' associations - the Journalists' Association of Serbia (UNS) and the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS), accusing them of, among other things, not reacting to attacks on certain journalists and "autochauvinism" toward the state of Serbia.

They also accused "the media that have declared themselves independent" of being "independent from the Serbian authorities and state, but highly dependent on foreign states, governments, corporations, all financiers." According to them, journalists' associations have been "abducted," that is, they are "parapolitical organizations," and claim that the new association will fight for the truth and its country.

Association of Journalists of Serbia President Ivana Vucicevic said the association had been founded with a vision of being a voice of the fight for journalists' rights, a desire to protect its colleagues and improve working conditions, adding that more than 1,000 journalists had shown interest in joining the association.