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Press freedom in Serbia is facing a “dangerous turning point” after mounting pressure on independent outlets from ministers and state-backed media, a group of senior editors has warned.
The editors, who are all from publications within the independent United Media group, said their reporters faced “constant harassment, physical attacks and smear campaigns” after their reporting in the country, which has been gripped by protests against its autocratic president, Aleksandar Vučić.
Their intervention follows what appears to have been the largest anticorruption demonstration in Serbia’s history this month. The mass gathering in Belgrade marked the culmination of four months of protests against the government after the deadly collapse of a concrete train station canopy in the northern city of Novi Sad last November.
Civil society groups have been warning for months about an increasingly hostile environment for independent media since the station collapse, which killed 16 people and set in motion a political backlash against Vučić’s pro-Russia administration.
“The media in Serbia is at a dangerous turning point,” wrote the editors in an open letter signed by five outlets and included Igor Božić, the news director of the CNN-affiliated N1 Serbia. “The government is stepping up its attack on independent journalism, especially targeting outlets within United Media, as the political crisis worsens and public frustration grows.
“Instead of addressing real public issues, the government creates false stories that paint independent media as foreign agents and enemies of the state. As a result, our reporters are assaulted, blocked from official events, and targeted with disinformation meant to break public trust.”
The NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has said the pressure exerted on the media in Serbia has reached levels not seen since the 1990s. It has also urged the EU to condemn a raid on the offices of the Centre for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA), an NGO that runs a prominent fact-checking website.
Pavol Szalai, the head of the RSF’s EU-Balkans desk, said Serbia was 98th out of 180 countries and territories on the world press freedom index last year, its lowest ranking in 22 years of the index.
There have been several reports of hostility towards independent journalists since the train station disaster. At the end of last year, the N1 journalist Žaklina Tatalović and her cameraperson Nikola Popović were harassed while covering protests. Local press freedom groups said at the time that Tatalović and Popović had endured sexist insults and physical violence. Police officers were accused of failing to intervene.
Another N1 reporter Jelena Mirković was attacked while covering protests against the demolition of a bridge. She suffered a neck injury and was subsequently unable to work. Last month, fellow N1 journalist Ksenija Pavkov was verbally threatened while reporting.
In their letter, the group of editors said Vučić was falsely accusing journalists of “stirring unrest”. They also said financial and regulatory pressures were being applied, forcing away advertisers and business partners.
“With ongoing student protests and a dissolved government awaiting new elections, we are deeply concerned for the safety of our reporters on the ground,” they wrote. “The growing hostility toward independent media, fuelled by orchestrated government rhetoric, has created an environment where violence is not only allowed but even encouraged.
“In the past four months alone, our journalists, including Zaklina Tatalović, Ksenija Pavkov, and Jelena Mirković, have suffered both physical and verbal attacks. Despite clear video evidence of the perpetrators, the police have done nothing to hold them accountable.”
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Half a million people have also signed an online petition calling for an independent investigation into whether security forces in Serbia used a sonic weapon – what the petition described as a “sound cannon” – during the rally on 15 March.
Vučić remains under pressure and faces the most dangerous moment of his 12-year grip on power. Protests have been a regular feature in Serbia since November. The president has so far sought to deflect the blame, with a series of resignations arising from the station collapse.
The Serbian government, led by the prime minister, Miloš Vučević, formally resigned last week, with Vučić saying elections could follow in June.
Protesters are demanding accountability for the disaster at Novi Sad, as well as more transparent institutions based on the rule of law. More than a dozen people have been charged in relation to the canopy collapse. On Friday, it was announced that a teenager had become the latest to die from injuries sustained in the disaster.
As many as 325,000 people took to the streets of Belgrade on 15 March, though the government has disputed those estimates.
Footage shows crowds suddenly splitting, with some complaining of feeling the ill effects associated with the use of a sonic weapon. However, senior government politicians and police have denied that such a weapon was deployed. Vučić described the claim as a “wicked lie” that was aimed at “destroying Serbia”.
