MEDIA SCENE OF SERBIA IN JANUARY 2026
ANEM monitoring report for January 2026 on freedom of expression, old and new regulations and analysis of SLAPP lawsuits
In this month's Monitoring of the Media Scene, the reader can be informed about the decision of the Supreme Court of Serbia in the case of the murder of journalist Slavko Ćuruvija; the new episode of the supposedly documentary series "Evil Age: The Creation of Propaganda" by unsigned authors, produced by the Center for Social Stability from Novi Sad, in which Veran Matić was the central figure and subject; about the meeting of the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists held in the premises of the IN media office in Inđija; about the physical interference during their journalistic work of the following media workers: photo-reporter Marko Dragoslavić, journalists from the Mašina portal and daily newspaper Danas, journalists from the editorial office of Blokada.INFO, and editor and journalist from the snews.rs portal Medin Halilović; about the ban on reporting from the (un)safe zone of the fenced Pionirski Park received by TV N1 journalist Žaklina Tatalović and freelance photojournalists Luka Pešić and Relja Jarkovački; on Internet threats addressed to the editorial staff of the Radar media, in particular to journalist Vuk Cvijić, and threats to Predrag Simonović, a columnist of that media; about threats received by Igor Velić, a journalist from Bor, Marko Vidojković, co-author of the podcast "Good, Bad, Zao" and journalists from the editorial office of the Slobodna reč portal; about attacks on the Instagram accounts of the media Zoomer, Radar, Nova.rs, Nova S, N1, Danas, Zona plus, and on the accounts of photojournalist Gavrilo Andrić and independent journalist Irene Radosavljević; the attacks on the portal Autonomija, VOICE, Crta, OsnaŽene; about the suspension of the account of the portal Ozon Press; about the threats to close the account on social networks due to negative writing about the President of the Republic of Serbia (threats that reached the editorial addresses of the daily newspaper Danas, television KTV, media N1 and Nova.rs); about the poster that appeared in several places in the city of Kula and the villages of Ruski Krstur and Kruščić, on which, as part of the negative campaign that is being conducted according to the "Mladi Kula" election list, with mark of the Ustasha movement, also found the faces of journalists Sanja Kosović and Ina Džakula.
In this month's Monitoring, too, attention is paid to newspapers within the legal framework of the Republic of Serbia, so you can read about the harsh criticism that the expert public directed at the account of the solutions proposed in the Draft Amendments to the Law on Public Order and Peace prepared by the office of the Ombudsman Zoran Pašalić, but also about the request that the Coalition for Media Freedom sent to the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications and the Agency for Business Registers. In addition to the above, the reader will also be informed about the decision of the Court of Appeal in Belgrade to overturn the verdict of the High Court and return the proceedings to a new decision in the case brought by the lawsuit of the President of the Republic of Serbia’s best man, Nikola Petrović. He alleges that the journalists of the investigative portal KRIK, Bojana Jovanović and Dragana Pećo, and their editor Stevan Dojčinović, injured his honor and reputation by stating: "Nikola Petrović, the best man of President Aleksandar Vučić and one of the most powerful people in the country, cooperated in business with Dejan Stanimirović aka Markos, a criminal involved in international drug smuggling" and the title of the text: "The President's best man had a company with Markos, a criminal involved in international cocaine smuggling".
You can find more details about all these topics in the Monitoring of the Media Scene of Serbia for January 2026.
This publication was published with the financial support of the European Union. 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.
Text of this Monitoring Report was prepared by expert monitoring team from the law office "Savović" in cooperation with ANEM.
