MEDIA SCENE OF SERBIA IN JANUARY 2025.
The beginning of 2025 was marked by the absence of ethics in pro-government media reporting on student protests. The topic of this month's monitoring are the most blatant examples of such reporting, but also those other, positive examples that resulted in negative consequences.
The monitoring follows the effects of the analysis "'Digital prison' ー Surveillance and repression of civil society in Serbia", published by Amnesty International on December 16, 2024. Security experts at Google confirmed the findings from the analysis and identified an additional significant number of compromised devices from which they removed the spyware.
Even in January, media workers were not spared threats and pressure. Media and journalist associations expressed deep concern regarding threats addressed to Brankica Stanković, the editor-in-chief of Insider TV, Radmilo Marković, a journalist from the BIRN and Vreme newsrooms, the Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation, journalists from the Radar weekly and the Glas Šumadije portal, the editorial staff of the Magločistač portal, Marko Vidojković and Nenad Kulačin, the authors of “The Good, the Bad, the Evil” podcast. Members of the gendarmerie treated roughly TV N1 cameraman and journalist Dragan Vukelić and Ksenija Pavkov. Dragana Prica, Radio 021 journalist, Ksenija Pavkov, TV N1 journalist, Aleksandar Latas, Danas journalist, Darko Eker, TV Nova S cameraman, and journalist Žarko Bogosavljević were exposed to the interventions of members of the police and gendarmerie in front of the City Hall in Novi Sad. An unknown man harassed Ana Marija Ivković, editor and journalist of the Alternativa portal. Zoran Kesić, a journalist and television presenter, was targeted with numerous graffiti that were painted on buildings throughout Belgrade.
The topic of monitoring was the outcome of the process for the election of REM Council members, as well as the shortcomings of the Rulebook on the manner of establishing and content of the Unified Information System for the implementation and monitoring of co-financing of projects in the field of public information (JIS).
Lawsuits that have the character of SLAPP are also an indispensable segment of monitoring. This time we are talking about the lawsuits filed by Jelena Tanasković, a former minister and one of the defendants in the case of the roof falling in Novi Sad, against the editor-in-chief, journalists of the KRIK portal and the association that is the founder of said media.
You can read about all that in the Monitoring of the media scene in Serbia for January 2025.
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.
