MEDIA SCENE OF SERBIA IN JUNE 2025

ANEM monitoring report for June 2025 on freedom of expression, old and new regulations and analysis of SLAPP lawsuits

In June, twenty-four years have passed since journalist Milan Pantić was killed. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reacted to the increase in the number of attacks on journalists in Serbia. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) adopted the "Resolution on escalating threats and persistent impunity for attacks on journalists in Serbia". About all of this, as well as the meeting of the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists held in Požega and Belgrade; dangerous manipulations of the photo in which Veran Matić (journalist), Branko Stamenković (public prosecutor of the Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office), Boris Majlat (head of the Special Department for High-Tech Crime at the High the Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade), Slobodan Josimović (prosecutor of the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Novi Sad) and Dinko Gruhonjić (journalist); the attack by the newly formed Association of Journalists of Serbia (ANS) on the decision of NUNS to open the premises for their fellow reporters from the "See you on Vidovdan" protest - the reader can read about it in this month's Monitoring.

The topics of Monitoring were also: police detention of Zoomer journalist Darko Gligorijević, physical attack on YouTuber Neven Krstić and his cameraman, vandalism of Vreme journalist Tijana Stanić's car, attack on Danas daily journalist Uglješa Bokić, attacks on photojournalist Gavrilo Andrić, repeated shouting of threatening and insulting messages to Insajder journalist Brankica Stanković, threats directed at Glas Zaječar journalists Anđela Risantijević and Miljko Stojanović, Radar media, co-author of „the Good, the Bad, the Evil“ podcast Nenad Kulačin, Podrinske media journalist Dragan Karalazić, inappropriate behavior of four policemen towards Radio Goraždevac journalist Damjan Protić, preventing cameraman Igor Skendžić from recording a report for TV N1 with his crew, beating with batons on TV N1 assistant cameraman Jovan Pavlović and FoNet cameramen Darko Pavlović and Zoran Drekalović, attack on the reporter of the daily newspaper Danas Vojin Radovanović by members of the Gendarmerie in civilian clothes, preventing the crews of TV N1, TV Insajder, the daily newspaper Danas, TV Newsmax Balkans, Al Jazzera Balkans, and the FoNet agency from carrying out their journalistic tasks.

In the Monitoring of the media scene in Serbia for the month of June 2025, the reader can also be informed about the termination of the employment of at least twelve journalists of TV Euronews Serbia, about the reaction of the authorities to the new "Base of politicians' property" published by the investigative portal KRIK and to the feature "Nova BAZA" that began to be published by the newspaper Nova, about the court (temporary) measures imposed on the association Center for Social Stability from Novi Sad.

And in this Monitoring, there is a special place to remember the injured journalists in Kosovo. In June 1999, journalists from the German newspaper Stern Gabriel and Volker Kremer, their translator Sanolj Aljita, and in 2005, Bardulj Ajeti, a journalist from the daily newspaper Bota Sot, were killed.

Journalist and media organizations and unions evaluated the process of amendments to the Law on Public Information and Media, the Law on Electronic Media and the Law on Public Media Services. On June 13, seventy-two authorized proposers and twelve candidates sent a letter informing the Committee for Culture and Information that they are withdrawing from further participation in the election for REM Council members. A day earlier, six film associations and the Association of Dramatic Artists of Serbia and their four candidates withdrew from the process.

Former officials and members of the Department of State Security Milan Radonjić, Ratko Romić and Miroslav Kurak filed lawsuits in separate processes against the lawyer Aleksandar Olenik, who, on his personal profile on the X network, commented on the decision of the Court of Appeal in Belgrade which acquitted them of guilt. Milan Radonjić's lawsuit was rejected as unfounded in the first instance. For information on all of the above, the reader can use the Monitoring of the media scene in Serbia for the month of June 2025.

All of the above you can read in the Monitoring of the media scene for the month of June.

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.