News

The mission of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Serbia announced today that it is closely monitoring the escalation of violence in the days following the protests in Belgrade on June 28, including police actions, and emphasized that the safety of demonstrators, bystanders, and journalists is essential for the rule of law and democracy.

The City of Belgrade has once again allocated the largest portion of funds in this year's competition for co-financing media projects to regime media that violate the Code of Journalists of Serbia. The champion of the competition this time is Studio B, which received a total of 12.5 million dinars for three projects. In second place is the publisher of Informer, the company Insider Team, which was granted 10.5 million dinars, also for three projects. Third place is occupied by Alo and its subsidiary Bizmedia, which together received 7 million dinars.

The Ministry of Information and Telecommunications has strongly condemned the frequent incidents in which journalists and media workers are subjected to insults, intimidation, physical obstruction in their work, and systematic threats to their safety by blockaders in certain cities in Serbia.

The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Jan Bratu, visited the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) this week, where he discussed the current media situation in Serbia with Veran Matić and Saša Mirković.

Physical attacks on journalists at public gatherings have become the norm, stated Veran Matić, a member of the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists and President of the Managing Board of the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), referring to cases where members of media teams were assaulted by members of the Gendarmerie.

The President of the Board of the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), Veran Matić, was a guest on the show "Without Pardons."

While the police on the streets are arresting and beating students and citizens who are demanding elections, in the Assembly, the authorities are attempting to trade the election of the REM Council on a "one for you, one for me" principle, with an unprecedented outpouring of tolerance among the parliamentary benches, in order to maintain control over this body. Ultimately, the curtains of this performance have fallen.

The SafeJournalists network strongly condemns the threats, intimidation, attacks, and detentions of journalists and other media workers reporting from protests across Serbia. We call on the relevant institutions to take immediate action and provide them with protection so that they can carry out their work, which is of exceptional public importance, uninterrupted and safely—especially at a time when demonstrations against the current regime are taking place daily in the country.

Several thousand citizens, including representatives from journalistic associations, gathered this evening in the square in front of the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade for a rally in support of the student from that faculty and photojournalist Aleksa Stanković, who claims that police officers assaulted him in an official vehicle.