ANEM ALARM: BIA secretly monitored the editor, journalists, and the offices of the Radar editorial team.

ANEM warns that surveillance, wiretapping, and monitoring measures can have a chilling effect not only on journalists who are being directly monitored, but also on their sources and all those who provide information of public importance to the media. The revelation by Radar that the BIA was wiretapping and monitoring their work requires an urgent, independent, and thorough investigation into the circumstances under which these measures were proposed, approved, and implemented, as well as the determination of criminal, disciplinary, and any other liability of all those involved in the abuses of state apparatus.

We warn that such surveillance represents a serious attack on media freedom, the protection of journalistic sources, and the confidentiality of communication.

Just one day before the secret surveillance measure against Radar journalists was approved, this weekly published an article by Milan Radonjić "The Fiasco Organization in Tivat: Hubris of Hybrid Surveillance" about how Aleksandar Vučić, together with criminals he sent by plane to Montenegro, damaged Serbia's reputation at the EU Western Balkans Summit. The same issue contains an editorial by the editor-in-chief about the quasi-state that executes all orders from Aleksandar Vučić, as well as an article "The Authorities Were Aware Even Before the Report of Nešović's Disappearance", which was one of a series of articles about the murder at the "27" restaurant and the arrest of Veselin Milić, assistant director of the police.

According to the documentation published by Radar, the measures were first approved on June 12, 2026, and extended on July 15 and September 9. The request for their implementation was submitted by BIA Director Vladimir Orlić, citing suspicion that the editor and journalists were involved in committing the criminal act of espionage. Among the premises covered by the measures is the address of the Radar editorial office, potentially enabling surveillance of the communications of all employees, their interlocutors, and journalistic sources.

On October 22, when the last issue of Radar was published before the elections, BIA Director Vladimir Orlić submitted a proposal to the President of the Higher Court in Belgrade, Dragan Milošević, to terminate all measures, explaining that the collected data did not indicate the involvement of the monitored journalists in the criminal act of espionage.

ANEM strongly condemns the abuse of the state security apparatus for the secret surveillance of journalists and the Radar editorial office, which represents an unacceptable attack on media freedom, the confidentiality of journalistic sources, and the public's right to be informed. We demand that it be promptly determined who had access to the collected data, whether journalistic sources have been compromised, and that protection is provided for all unlawfully collected confidential information. State security services must not be an instrument for the persecution, intimidation, and control of media that investigate abuses of power and hold a critical stance towards power structures.

Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM)

The project "Enhancing the System of Prevention and Response Mechanisms in Cases of Threats to the Safety and Lives of Journalists in Serbia" is implemented by ANEM in partnership with Insajder TV and the Center for the Development of Local Media, with the support of the European Union.