17. 10. 2007

MEDIA FREEDOM IN DOUBT

BELGRADE, 17 October 2007 (B92) - Đorđe Vlajić says that there cannot be freedom of the press in Serbia because of "various pressures".

Vlajić, vice-president of the Independent Associations of Journalists in Serbia (NUNS), said that press freedom was, of all the former Yugoslav republics, at its lowest level in Serbia.

He said that even though the Information Law set the foundation for enabling free press, there were still too many existing pressures and influences on the media.

“We must remember the tragic cases of attacks on journalists. Also, I’d say that media group owners have ever more influence on the public, and the channels through which advertisers influence the media have become more evident,” Vlajić said.
 
He said that there were still very strong political and economic influences on the media.

In a report by Reporters without Boundaries regarding freedom of the press, Serbia was 67th on a list of 169 countries, and ranked lower than Kosovo in 60th place.

The classification was made according to answers to 50 questions which enabled an evaluation of the level of free press in each country.