MEDIA SCENE OF SERBIA IN JULY 2025.

During July, the repression targeting citizens who expressed their right to protest throughout the Republic of Serbia culminated. The Belgrade Center for Human Rights filed several criminal charges. The National Convention on the European Union pointed to the fact that among the police units engaged to break up the demonstrations, "there are persons without visible identification, who are suspected of not being members of the regular police". The SafeJournalists network, judging by the rapid increase in the number of attacks on journalists, expressed the view that the situation in Serbia is out of control. Since the beginning of the year, the Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia has recorded more than 160 cases of pressure and attacks on journalists, while in the whole of last year it recorded 166. The Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) network reacted critically to the European Commission's Report on the Rule of Law for 2025.

The topics of the Monitoring are the pardon of the President of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, granted to four activists of the Serbian Progressive Party who were tried (on the charge) that on the night between January 27 and 28, in Novi Sad, they brutally beat students who were pasting posters as an announcement for a protest, in that attack one female student's jaw was broken; the attack by members of the Gendarmerie on Vuk Cvijić, Radar weekly investigative journalist; physical violence by members of the police against photojournalist Aleksa Stanković; attacks on Nenad Nešić and Aleksandar Cvrkotić, TV N1 journalist and cameraman, and Dragan Jeković and Nebojša Jovanović, TV Nova correspondent and cameraman; the arrest of Dragoljub Đorđević, Kolubara Workers Magazine journalist (Radnički list Kolubara); preventing the reporting of photographers of the student initiative Faculty of Agriculture in Blockade.

In the Monitoring of the media scene in Serbia for the month of July 2025, the reader can be informed about the threats addressed to Sava Majstorov, a journalist of the Soinfo portal from Sombor; about obstructing the reporting of Žarko Bogosavljević, Razglas news portal editor-in-chief; about the attack on Stefan Miljuš and Aleksandar Krstić, Insajder media journalist and cameraman; about the attack on Jelena Stojković, Večernje novosti journalist; on preventing the reporting of Sofija Vukajlović, FonNet Agency journalist; about the drones that flew over the houses of journalists and activists in Zaječar; about the threats addressed to the editorial staff of TV N1; on the targeting of Veran Matić by the President of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić; about the "friendly warning" given to Ljiljana Stojanović, the Regional Information Agency JUGpress editor-in-chief, about the threats sent to the journalist Kristina Demeter Filipčev.

The Monitoring reader will learn about the proceedings in the case of the attack on cameraman Mirko Todorović, the case of obstructing the reporting of TV N1 journalist Mladen Savatović, the case of sticking warrants with the image of journalist Isidora Kovačević, the case of the attack on Vladimir Mitrić, Večernje Novosti correspondent, and about the insights gained by shedding new light on the unauthorized surveillance carried out by the Serbian Security Agency.

And in this Monitoring, there is a special place to remember the kidnaped and killed journalists in Kosovo.

The most important events in the process of selecting members of the REM Council and a look at lawsuits with SLAPP characteristics (this time we are talking about the criminal lawsuit of the Starting company against Sofija Bogosavljev, the KRIK portal journalist, and about the first legally binding verdict in the civil proceedings against Verica Marinčić, the IN Medija portal editor-in-chief) - also found a place in the Monitoring of the media scene for the month of July.

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.