Salaj: Serbia is increasingly distancing itself from Europe, with responsibility for the historical decline resting on Vučić.

“If Serbia were ranked solely based on the political indicator, it would be in 151st place. It is clear that the main responsibility lies with President Aleksandar Vučić and the ruling majority.”

This is how Pavol Salaj, director of Reporters Without Borders in Prague, comments on Serbia's decline in the World Press Freedom Index.

According to the map for this year published by Reporters Without Borders, Serbia ranks 104th out of 180 analyzed territories and countries. This is also the worst result in the 24-year history of measuring media freedom in Serbia.

Last year, it was in 96th place. The ranking measures five indicators: political, economic, and sociocultural context, legal framework, and security.

Pavol Salaj tells Cenzolovka that Serbia currently has a score of 51 out of 100, which is lower than the global average of 54.

“Serbia is increasingly distancing itself from Europe, and we could say that it is leading the decline in media freedom. The political context in Serbia is the worst in the EU-Balkan zone. If Serbia were ranked solely based on the political indicator, it would be in 151st place,” he said.

Main Responsibility on Vučić

He adds that it is clear that “the main responsibility lies with President Aleksandar Vučić and the ruling majority.”

“Vučić's arsenal of tools is no longer original, but he has brought predatory measures against media freedom to a perverse perfection. Aleksandar Vučić and his government have betrayed the promises made to citizens and the European Union regarding the improvement of media freedom, to which Serbia officially still wishes to join,” Salaj states.

Political attacks, such as the one directed at Dinko Gruhonjić by the Minister of Culture in April, have sparked a wave of political and physical violence against journalists, he emphasizes.

“The number of cases of physical violence last year was record high, as was the number of violations of media freedom in general. Aleksandar Vučić's strategy and that of his government reflect the main global trend depicted in our index this year. He accuses critical media of terrorism, abuses state apparatus against journalism through spying and police violence, and another problem in the legal context is the very high number of SLAPP lawsuits – in fact, one of the highest in Europe,” says Salaj.

He also adds that Serbia is among the three worst countries in Europe when it comes to economic, social, cultural, and security indicators.

“I want to point out that we are also concerned about the editorial independence of private media, which are under immense pressure from the Serbian government. Here, I particularly mean N1 and other media of the Adria News Network. We are closely monitoring what is happening at N1 and are worried that political pressure will transfer to the newsroom, and we hope that the management of ANN will defend the independence of these media, especially N1, which is desperately needed in the current situation in Serbia,” he emphasized.

Source: Cenzolovka