SERBIA'S MEDIA SCENE IN NOVEMBER 2024

They were hindered in their work and exposed to physical attacks and injuries. Some political representatives and councilors of the ruling party also found themselves in the role of attackers. Monitoring discussed the cases of attacks on: Television N1 journalist Žaklina Tatalović and camerman Nikola Popović; Euronews cameraman Mirko Todorović; the Radio 021 media team; cameraman and journalist of FoNet agency Marko Dragoslavić; journalist of the Kovinskeinfo.rs portal Miloš Ljiljanić; Bečejski Mozaik journalist Kristina Demeter Filipčev; Ana Marković, journalist of the Nova.rs portal; TV N1 journalist Jelena Mirković and cameraman Aleksandar Cvrkotić; journalist of the daily newspaper Danas, Vojin Radovanović; Katarina Marinković, a journalist from the Čaglavica Media Center and a member of the UNS administration; owner and publisher of the Kosovo online portal, Dušan Milanović. During November, threats to Ana Lalić Hegediš, Dinko Gruhonjić, Nenad Kulačin and TV N1 continued.

In November, a first-instance conviction was handed down in the repeated proceedings for endangering the safety of Vladimir Mitrić, a journalist for Večernje Novosti. The judgment regarding the threats against Matija Gačić, the photographer of Južne vesti, has become final. A first-instance acquittal was handed down for Dejan Petar Zlatanović, editor of the Srbin info portal.

The Supreme Court confirmed that it had received from the Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office a request for the protection of legality in the case of the judgment of the Court of Appeal in the case of the murder of Slavko Ćuruvija.

November marked the 24th anniversary of the murder of Mustafa Xhemail, a journalist from the Bota sot newspaper.

The International Day of Combating Impunity for Crimes against Journalists was marked. After the visit to Belgrade, the international organization Reporters Without Borders called on the Government of the Republic of Serbia to fight for media freedom and against propaganda.

Readers of the Monitoring can be informed about proposals for changes to the Criminal Code. The proposals were submitted jointly by representatives of journalist associations and media associations in the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists, with the aim of improving the safety of media workers. When it comes to the implementation of existing regulations, there was talk of the details of the criminal complaint filed against the President of the Parliamentary Committee for Culture and Information Nevena Đurić at the beginning of November by the Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation, the Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia (NUNS), the Independent Association of Journalists of Vojvodina (NDNV) and the organization Crta. At the session of the Government of the Republic of Serbia held on November 7, which was also discussed in Monitoring, the Draft Law on the Budget of the Republic of Serbia for 2025 was adopted. With the proposal, the funds allocated to the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications were increased by 405,072,000.00 dinars (16.53%) compared to the budget for 2024.

In connection with the allocation of budget money, the monitoring refers to the BIRN report "Transparency under the microscope: Public procurement for media services" and the NUNS report on the co-financing of projects in the field of public information at the level of the City of Belgrade.

You can read about all that in the Monitoring of the media scene in Serbia for November 2024.

Media monitoring was published with the financial support of the European Union and the Ministry of Information and Telecommunication of the Republic of Serbia. The Association of Independent Electronic Media is solely responsible for its content, and that content in no way expresses the official views of the European Union and the Ministry of Information and Telecommunication.

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