Media, journalists (BETAPHOTO/NEVENA ZARIC)
Ricardo Gutierrez, the general secretary of Europe’s largest journalist association – the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) – said on Oct. 14 that he has never heard a greater lie than the Serbian government representative’s claim of Serbia being a European model of furthering media freedom.
Taking to social media after the statement was delivered at the OSCE 2026 Warsaw Human Dimension Conference, Gutierrez wrote: “She had the audacity to claim that Serbia was a European model when it came to promoting press freedom!!!... I have never heard a worse lie.”
The Facebook post went on to assert that “Serbia is undoubtedly the country that has seen the greatest decline in press freedom in recent months in Europe.”
Gutierrez specifically lambasted the “brutal takeover” of Nova.rs, dubbing it “the latest episode in this wave of [country-wide] repression.”
According to him, the “hasty appointment of the propagandist Marko Stjepanovíc as editor-in-chief of Nova.rs has been imposed in a climate of terror: any journalist who opposes it is being told to leave the newsroom within 48 hours,” which Gutierrez equated to “fascist methods” which “speak volumes about the nature of the Serbian regime.”
The EFJ general secretary concluded his post by underlining the Federation’s full support to the journalists of Nova.rs and commended them for “fighting to safeguard the right of Serbian citizens to access free, independent and credible information.”
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