Cameramen(Beta/Armenija Zajmi Besevic)
On July 6, Serbia’s Association of Independent Digital Media (ANEM) condemned the fact that the ruling Serbian Progressive Party prevented the local FAR online news portal from reporting on the party’s July 5 rally in Dimitrovgrad.
FAR is an independent Serbian-Bulgarian bilingual web portal that covers local topics and issues relevant to the Bulgarian minority in Serbia.
The ANEM press release quoted FAR’s claims that Dimitrovgrad Mayor Vladica Dimitrov, who is also the head of the Progressives’ local chapter, prevented the outlet’s reporters from recording the rally, telling them they are unwelcome. After an argument, the journalists were removed from the premises, ANEM said.
The Association added that preventing media from covering events of public interest is an unacceptable form of discrimination and pressure on the media freedom, and called on state institutions and officials as well as political parties to cease labeling and discriminating against journalists and instead allow them to equally and safely report on all public gatherings.
The relevant ministry has also been asked immediately take action.
The FAR portal “has been operating under great pressure for some time now, given that its reporter Slavisa Milanov was brought in for questioning and illegally surveilled yet his case has not been processed in over two years,” the ANEM said.
According to ANEM chairmen of the board Veran Matic, FAR journalists have been subject to multiple kinds of discrimination, including the installation of spyware on the phone of its editor-in-chief, death threats, the endangerment of their physical safety, unfounded allegations, as well as the targeting and continued intimidation of the medium’s employees.
“The ANEM will ask the representatives of the EU and the Bulgarian Embassy to intervene with relevant Serbian state bodies as well as the local government in Dimitrovgrad to enable [FAR] to freely continue performing its very important job of professionally informing the public, especially the members of the local, multi-ethnic community,” Matic stressed.
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