Activities

The meeting of the members of the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists with journalists and prosecutors from Belgrade was held in Belgrade on June 13 with the support of the OSCE Mission in Serbia.

"We are at a pivotal moment for journalism and the work of the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists. Only one conviction was issued last year, compared to 13 in 2023," emphasized Veran Matić, a member of the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists and the President of the ANEM Management Board, at the opening of the meeting of journalistic and media associations with journalists and prosecutors from Belgrade, which was held with the support of the OSCE Mission in Serbia.

The meeting of this year's and future candidates for members of the committees for project evaluation within the media content project co-financing process was held today, organized by the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) in collaboration with the Journalists' Association of Serbia (UNS), the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS), and Lokal Press.

The Permanent Working Group for Journalist Safety is organizing a meeting on June 13 in Belgrade with journalists and contact points from the prosecutor's office and the police.

"In a record time of just two weeks, the investigative actions against the attacker of TV N1 cameraman Marijan Vučević, which occurred on May 16 of this year in the village of Makovište near Kosjerić, have been completed. An indictment has been submitted to the Higher Court in Užice for the criminal offense of violent behavior at a public gathering in conjunction with endangering the safety of journalists," stated Veljko Lazić from the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Užice at a meeting of the members of the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists.

Representatives of journalistic and media associations (ANEM, NUNS, UNS, and the Association of Media), members of the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists (SRG), will visit Požega and Kosjerić on June 5th, along with representatives from the media department of the OSCE mission in Serbia, to familiarize themselves with the security situation in which media workers operate in this area.

In Serbia, journalism is under intense, constant pressure coming from all sides. At the same time, laws are being adjusted that are intended to legalize government control over the media, and there is manipulation in the selection of members of the REM Council, which is supposed to oversee these media, stated Veran Matić, Chairman of the Board of the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), at the tenth "South East Europe Media Conference" held in Sarajevo organized by the OSCE Mission.

Attacks on journalists and hindrances to their work over the past weekend during the SNS gathering in Niš have further deteriorated the safety of journalists. It has become a trend to attack media representatives while the police watch and do not react, and the prosecution is unable to influence the police to do their job. We feel abandoned and believe we cannot rely on the protection of the legal system – concluded representatives of the media and media associations at the meeting of the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists in Niš with representatives of the prosecution and police, held in cooperation with ANEM and the OSCE Mission in Serbia.

Ministry of Information and Telecommunications

Katarina Tomašević

Assistant Minister