MEDIA SCENE OF SERBIA IN DECEMBER 2025

In this month's Monitoring, the reader can be informed about the position that Serbia occupies in the report of the Civicus Monitor platform; insights about our country presented by United Nations experts and the international organization Reporters Without Borders; about the findings related to the installation of the NoviSpy spy software, obtained by the research portal BIRN in cooperation with the SHARE Foundation; on the relationship between the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade and the Public Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime according to the recording of the conversation between Vladimir Lučić, director of Telekom, and Stan Miller, director of United Group, a conversation published by the research portal KRIK and discussed by its editor-in-chief Stevan Dojčinović; on the outcome of the annual meeting of the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists; the discussion of the Association of Independent Electronic Media, the Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia and the OSCE Mission in Serbia; the report prepared by ANEM and the Center for the Development of Local Media (CRLM) from Požarevac; about the conclusions presented by the Coalition for Media Freedom about the threats to the professional integrity and personal safety of journalists in smaller communities.

During December, according to Monitoring, Aleksandar Dikić, the author of several shows on KTV ("No hesitation", "No censorship", "Skener Dr. Aleksandar Dikić") and a columnist for several media (daily newspaper Danas, magazine Nova srpska politička misao and portal Bez cenzure) was deprived of his freedom. An unknown person threatened the journalist of Radar weekly Vuk Cvijić because of what he will publish tomorrow, in which the entire future of his investigative work depends. President of the Republic of Serbia harshly condemned TV N1 journalist Mladen Savatović for the questions he asked him in order to inform citizens about an issue they have a legitimate interest in being informed about. The microphone of N1 TV reporter Žaklina Tatalović was silenced in order to "spare" the National Assembly’s Speaker from the questions the journalist wanted to ask her. The fenced areas were defended by unknown persons and members of the police from the Mašina portal journalist, N1 TV reporter Žaklina Tatalović, two Danas daily newspaper reporters, and Storyteller portal journalist Vladimira Dorčov Valtnerov. In the digital world, the editorial office of the Radar weekly was threatened, apostrophizing the cartoonist Dušan Petričić, as well as the authors of the "The Good, the Bad, the Evil" podcast, while journalist Brankica Stanković was again threatened from the Belgrade Arena stands. Defamation campaigns were conducted against N1 TV journalists Ana Novaković and Danica Vučenić on the X social network. The websites of KTV television bezcenzure.rs and ktv.rs were exposed to hacker attacks. Entrance to the premises of the OzonPress and Čačanske novine editorial office was showered with eggs.

In December, the First Basic Court in Belgrade made a first-instance decision by which the editor of Novosti Andrijana Nešić was declared guilty of the criminal offense of Insult, based on the criminal complaint filed against her by lawyer Zdenko Tomanović. According to the report filed by the correspondent of N1 TV from Niš Milan Stojanović against the employees who prevented him from reporting in February 2022, two employees of the PUK "Naisus" were found guilty in the first instance of committing the criminal offense of Preventing the printing and distribution of printed matter and broadcasting of programs. Jelenko Pijevac, suspected of threatening Insider journalist Nataša Mijušković, was deprived of his liberty in December. The journalist of the Danas daily Uglješa Bokić was invited to give a statement to the police by order of the prosecution because of the publication of parts of the official police memo, the editorial office of that newspaper said.

The company "Starting" withdrew the private criminal complaint against KRIK journalist Sofija Bogosavljev. The Second Basic Court in Belgrade passed a first-instance acquittal verdict in the criminal proceedings initiated by Vladimir Antić, the legal representative of the Rowing Federation of Serbia, against the journalist of the Pištaljka portal Snežana Đurić. The Commercial Appellate Court in Belgrade confirmed the first-instance verdict of the Commercial Court, which rejected the claim of the publisher of the daily newspaper Kurir, that the publisher of the KRIK portal and the publisher of the daily newspaper Danas undertake to compensate the plaintiff for the amount of damage allegedly caused by the publication of the analysis "Front pages 2023: Six newspapers, more than 1150 manipulations" by the Raskrikanje portal. All of the above was discussed in this month's Monitoring of the media scene in Serbia.

This publication was published with the financial support of the European Union and the RS Ministry of information and telecommunication. 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 and the RS Ministry of information and telecommunication.

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