03. 05. 2011

Freedom House's annual press freedom report

Belgrade, May 3, 2011. (B92, Tanjug) - Serbia is still a country with "partly free"media, according to a report issued by American NGO Freedom House. 

Serbia ranked 72nd in the organization's annual list, released to coincide with UNESCO's World Press Freedom Day.

Freedom House said it analyzed "196 countries and territories", to find that "the number of people worldwide with access to free and independent media declined to its lowest level in over a decade".

According to this, 15 percent of the world's population lives in countries that have free media, 42 in those with "partly free media", while 43 percent do not enjoy free press at all.

In the region, Slovenia ranked among "free" countries at spot number 48, while Montengro and Croatia were behind Serbia in the list, ranked 80 and 85 respectively.

In Serbia, State Secretary at the Culture Ministry in charge of information and the media Dragana Milićević-Milutinović said that the state would do everything in its power to improve the situation in the media, but added a lot depended on journalists themselves.

According to her, the position of journalists and the media today is perhaps the worst in recent history, but the reasons are multiple and may be sought both in the absence of legislation and in journalists' faltering in their determination.

"During the 1990s, media freedom did not exist, but there were free-spirited and brave journalists. The personal liberty you win will be your freedom, and winning your own freedom you will win freedom for others," Milićević-Milutinović said.

She believes that neither the media associations nor the owners of the media, and not even the journalists themselves have contributed to change the media situation in Serbia for the better in recent years, which resulted in low quality media content and the plight of the profession.

"To be a journalist used to mean to be educated, ambitious, smart, willing to learn and having good diction, while today it is enough to stand before the camera and just be a journalist. This situation was brought about by the journalists themselves and those who decide who will be a journalist. The profession of journalism has degraded in large part thanks to the journalists themselves," said Milićević-Milutinović.

The former director and editor-in-chief of the Belgrade-based TV Studio B added that the state could help the media and journalists in a number of ways, primarily by developing a media strategy plan which would result in quality media-related laws.