THE MEDIA SCENE IN SERBIA IN APRIL 2025.

April is a month of sad reminders that for decades engaging in journalism in Serbia can cost one's life. This month marks thirty-one years since the death of Dada Vujasinović, twenty-six since the death of Slavko Ćurivija, the same since the death of sixteen RTS workers, eighteen years since the assassination attempt on Dejan Anastasijević.

The topics of this month's monitoring were the actions of the Reporters Without Borders aimed at condemning the damage caused by the authorities in Serbia to freedom of the media, as well as the actions of representatives of international associations and organizations within the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) consortium, who also requested public condemnation of attacks on journalists and media in Serbia, as well as the freezing of negotiations on Chapter 23, until the threats, pressures and repression are ended. The European institutions were written to in the expectation that they would respond urgently to the political persecution of Novi Sad activists from the STAV group and the Movement of Free Citizens. Those activists are not the only ones deprived of their freedom. In April, the High Court in Belgrade extended the detention of the activist and founder of the "United People of Serbia" movement, Srđan Žunić.

Monitoring also discussed the fourteen-day blockade of RTS that ended with the decision to cancel the old one and call for a new competition for the selection of members of the REM Council, as well as the meeting of RTS journalists held on April 16, after which, NUNS reports, five workers were invited to an informative interview to the Serbian Security Agency.

The April monitoring records information about the first-instance verdict in the case of threats sent to journalist Jelena S. Spasić and information about the objection that Vuk Cvijić stated against the prosecution's decision regarding the attack he suffered from Milan Lađević.

In Monitoring, the reader can be informed about the obstruction of the work of the TV N1 reporter team, about the summons to the police received by columnist Dejan Ilić, about attacks on the KTV team, journalist Zoran Strika, Istinomer female journalist, journalist Žarko Bogosavljević, Al Jazeera reporting team, about threats, curses and insults suffered by the editor and journalist Srđan Nonić, about threats and pressure directed at the editor and journalist Željko Matorčević, about the prohibition to report to Irena Stević, about threats to journalists and TV N1 sent via social networks and email addresses.

A special topic of Monitoring was the accusation of the President of the Serbian Assembly, Ana Brnabić, against the FoNet agency and lawyer Boža Prelević, as well as the "inspiring" actions of the President of the Čačak Municipal Assembly, Igor Trifunović, the actions of which the journalist Nebojša Jovanović suffered the consequences.

The Constitutional Court rejected the initiative to start the procedure for the evaluation of the constitutionality of the provisions of Article 126 para. 1 of the Law on Electronic Media; UNS, ANEM and Local Press continued to demand from the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications to explain why there are irregularities in the work of the Unified Information System; The Association of Journalists of Serbia, together with its branch, the Association of Journalists of Kosovo and Metohija, demanded the cancellation of the MIT competition for co-financing of media content production projects for electronic media in Kosovo and Metohija; The Association of Journalists of Serbia strongly reacted to the decision of the Municipality of Ćuprija regarding the competition for co-financing of media content; the proceedings initiated by the publisher of the daily newspaper Kurir against the publisher of the portal KRIK, publisher of the Cenzolovka portal and publisher of the daily newspaper Danas have been legally terminated by rejecting the claim.

All of the above found a place in the Monitoring of the media scene for the month of April.

This publication was published with the financial support of the European Union and Norway and the Balkan Fund for Democracy, a project of the German Marshall Fund of the USA. The Association of Independent Electronic Media is solely responsible for its content, and that content does not necessarily express the official views of the European Union, the Government of Norway, the German Marshall Fund and the Balkan Fund for Democracy.

This Monitoring Report was prepared by expert monitoring team from the law office "Savović" in cooperation with ANEM.