11. 08. 2014

WORRYING PRESSURES ON THE MEDIA

Although the emergency situation due to recent floods has been abolished in most parts of Serbia, the state of freedom of expression and media in the online sphere is still concerning, states the analysis on Internet freedoms in Serbia in June and July 2014, done by the NGO "Share Defense". The report states that "Share Defense" recorded six cases of serious technical attacks and three instances of pressures on online media and journalists in the two months.

As stated in the analysis, five cases of threats and pressures on journalists and online media in local communities were recorded in the past two months. According to the report, two court decisions that can have a negative impact on freedom of expression and information were passed in the two months, and two cases of expressing concern and sending letters about the state of the Internet and media freedoms in Serbia were recorded each month.

The "Share Defense" report underlines that state bodies need to be more active in solving problems related to the freedom of speech on the Internet. The solution might be the dissemination of information important to the public in a timely manner and the reaction of relevant institutions to the noted cases of violation of Internet freedoms and digital rights, the report states. In the part of the analysis covering pressures on media and journalists, "Share Defense" mentions the case of the apprehension of RTV Mladenovac journalist Dragan Nikolić after he published a critical comment about the Belgrade City Manager Goran Vesić on his Facebook profile.

The report also notes a verbal attack on the journalist of the Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia Milica Šarić by the Minister without Portfolio Responsible for Emergency Situations Velimir Ilić. He insulted her when she called him to to check information about a conflict between his security and a police officer in 2004 and another incident involving a reporter of "Večernje novosti" in 2007.

As a particular problem, the "Share Defense" report states the cases of endangering freedom of expression in local communities. These cases are occurring more often, the report assesses, and they are important to mention because journalists and citizens are usually unprotected against "local lords".

As an example, the report notes that journalists of "Naša Grocka info" web portal have been prevented from attending the sessions of the Municipality Assembly of Grocka since October 2013. The latest instance of banning them from a session happened on June 6th.

The report notes that the OSCE Representative for Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović recently expressed her concern about the disappearance of various online contents in Serbia and the detaining of individuals because of their Facebook statuses regarding the great floods that hit the region.

According to the report, websites that published critical articles aimed at the government, such as "Druga strana" and "Teleprompter", were under attack, while the whole "Blog" section of the daily newspaper website "Blic" was removed after journalist Dragan Todorović published a blog post with the title "AV ostavka" ("AV resignation").

In the report "Analysis of Internet Freedoms in Serbia", covering June and July 2014, it is stated that we continue to notice the tendencies of different actors trying to discourage citizens and media from expressing themselves freely on the Internet. We must continue our struggle for the Internet as a place of open access, as well as free and decentralized exchange of information, states "Share Defense" noting that this is the reason why it is very important to openly speak about pressures on online media and journalists.

Hacking Attacks on Websites

As examples of threatening freedom of speech on the Internet, the analysis mentions hacking attacks on the website "Peščanik" and websites of the daily "Kurir" and the Regional News Agency "Jugpress", as well as on the blog "Dva u jedan" (dvaujedan.rs) and the website of the Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS).