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Photojournalist Zorica Popović was kicked in the stomach by men in masks, twice her size, the same ones who severely injured Lazar Dinić and Ivan Bjelić. She testifies to the horror she survived, orchestrated over the phone that directed the hooligans. When the police finally arrived, they laughed at them.

Media freedom in Serbia remains trapped in a downward spiral due to record levels of physical violence against journalists, death threats, and online smear campaigns, a concerning level of impunity, as well as strong political control over the media environment, concluded a coalition of organizations for media freedom.

The SafeJournalists network strongly condemns the sexist remarks and insults based on nationality, as well as the threats made against journalist Kristina Demeter Filipčev of the Bečejski mozaik portal through comments on the social network Facebook, and demands that the relevant institutions respond urgently, identify those responsible, and ensure the protection of the journalist.

The European Union closely monitored the local elections held on March 29 in ten municipalities in Serbia. We welcome the authorities' invitation to the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe to observe the local elections. We take into account the findings of the observation delegation, published on March 30, as stated in the press release from the EU Delegation in Serbia.

The Association of Journalists of Serbia (UNS) recorded 67 cases of threats against journalists in the first three months of this year, which is 27 more than in the same period last year.

The representative of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) for media freedom, Jan Bratu, assessed that there was an "unprecedented level of violence and intimidation of journalists" during the local elections on Sunday in Serbia and called on the Serbian authorities to condemn it "publicly and unambiguously."

The significance of local media has been emphasized countless times in various international documents, media research, and analyses, as well as in social theories. It is considered that the state of local information is an "indicator of the health of democracy," and that without strong and independent media, it "weakens at its most fundamental level." In countries like Serbia, where democracy exists only in fairy tales, local media finds itself in a dramatically difficult position. However, it must be noted that the crisis of local information is also identified in the most developed countries of the world, and has been for quite some time. This applies both to the sustainability of media and to the pressures they face and the safety of their employees.

During the local elections in Serbia on March 29, more disturbances and physical attacks on journalists by unknown individuals were recorded in 10 cities and municipalities, despite the fact that they were clearly marked as media representatives. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and the SafeJournalists Network (SJN) strongly condemn the violence against journalists and urgently call on law enforcement and the prosecutor's office to promptly identify and arrest those responsible for these attacks.

The authorities benefit from the vacuum in which the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM) does not exist, meaning that members of the Council have not been elected for nearly a year and a half, which coincides with the largest socio-political crisis in Serbia to date, says Saša Mirković, a representative of the Association of Independent Media (ANEM), in an interview with Danas.