Permanent Working Group for Journalist Safety: Achievements and Challenges
The President of the High Council of the Prosecutor's Office and member of the SRG, Branko Stamenković, tells “Vreme” that there have been several achievements of the Permanent Working Group since its establishment to date. Firstly, he explains, he would highlight “building an understanding of the problems journalists face in their work,” which relate to potential criminal law protection. He adds that it has been extremely important for them, as prosecutors, to consider and understand as many circumstances and facts concerning journalists' safety as possible, and thereafter propose more concrete measures.
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As protests and tense situations have unfolded in Serbia over the past few months, reporter and journalist teams have found themselves on the front lines – often under attack. Physical assaults, threats, and disruptions of journalistic work have been recorded, ranging from pushing and damaging equipment to detentions and intimidation.
This trend directly jeopardizes the safety of media workers and narrows the public's right to be timely and accurately informed. Numerous journalist associations, newsrooms, and media organizations have spoken out regarding these incidents, demanding an urgent and effective response from the relevant authorities – identifying and sanctioning perpetrators, as well as guarantees that journalists will be able to perform their work without obstruction.
On the other hand, for years there has been a body dedicated to the safety of journalists that may not be well known to the general public outside the media community. The Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists (SRG) gathers representatives from journalistic organizations and state institutions with the aim of creating mechanisms designed to protect journalists and enable timely responses to attacks against them.
Although in a semi-frozen state for several months, the mechanisms of the SRG continue to function.
WHAT IS SRG?
The Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists was established in 2017. It was formed by the Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Serbia, and all relevant journalistic and media associations – the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS), the Journalists' Association of Serbia (UNS), the Independent Journalists' Society of Vojvodina (NDNV), the Media Association, the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), and the Association of Online Media (AOM). It is important to note that since its establishment, the OSCE Mission in Serbia has also participated in the work of the SRG.
The foundation for the establishment of the SRG was laid with the signing of the Agreement on Cooperation and Measures to Enhance the Safety of Journalists at the end of 2016. The signatories were the judicial institutions of the Republic of Serbia on one side and media associations on the other.
The goal of establishing the SRG was to create mechanisms for rapid response in cases of threats to the safety of journalists. Therefore, within the group, specific individuals were designated to coordinate actions in cases of criminal offenses against journalists. These individuals are called contact points. On the media side, contact points are located within media associations, while those from the prosecutor's office are found in appellate public prosecutor's offices for the territories of their local jurisdictions. Contact points in the Ministry of Internal Affairs have been designated in 27 police administrations.
At the beginning of this year, media associations sequentially suspended all forms of cooperation with legislative and executive authorities due to what was then cited as the falsification of democratic processes and the erosion of the rule of law. Consequently, media associations also froze their membership in the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists. However, despite the lack of official meetings, the mechanisms of the SRG continue to operate.
WHAT DO THE DATA SAY?
According to the SRG report for 2024, this group met four times during regular sessions, while nine visits at the local level were organized to enhance dialogue and build trust in this body. Last year, 62 attacks on journalists were recorded, a decrease of approximately 18 percent compared to the previous year, when 76 cases were registered. However, there was an increase in the number of attacks on female journalists, with 55 percent of victims in 2024 being women. In 2023, women made up a third of the victims. In terms of attacks in the digital environment, in nine cases the victims were men, while in 19 cases they were women.
A first-instance or final decision was made in 17 cases initiated during 2024, representing 27.42 percent of the total number. In the cases initiated in 2024, one conviction was issued, a significant decrease compared to 2023, when there were 12 convictions. Since the database of attacks on journalists has been maintained in the prosecutor's office since 2016, a total of 587 cases have been formed in all prosecutor's offices in the Republic of Serbia based on reports of criminal offenses against journalists. According to statistical data from the prosecutor's office for this period, a total of 350 cases have been resolved, which is 59.63 percent.
Additionally, according to the report, courts in two cases decided to allow suspects charged with threatening journalists to defend themselves from home detention with an electronic bracelet, and in both instances, those individuals escaped and continue to pose a threat to endangered journalists. Finally, out of the 17 resolved cases during the previous year, the prosecutor's office decided to dismiss criminal charges in 14 of them, meaning there was no basis for initiating criminal proceedings.
At the end of April last year, a criminal case concerning the arson of the house of Milan Jovanović, a journalist from the internet portal “Žig Info” in Grocka, was concluded with a final verdict. After six years, this journalist finally saw an outcome. However, the last court instance decided to reduce the prison sentences of the accused.
During the same period, a case concerning threats against Igor Božić, the program director of N1 television, which were issued in the form of comments on the media's portal, was concluded with a final verdict. The person responsible for the comment reached a plea agreement with the prosecutor's office, and the Higher Court in Belgrade accepted that agreement, imposing a suspended sentence of one year on the defendant. The SRG report cites this case as an example of good practice in the work of the Permanent Working Group.
However, in some cases, such as the attack on journalist Vuk Cvijić of the weekly “Radar” and threatening messages sent to representatives of NDNV, a judicial outcome has yet to be achieved.
ACHIEVEMENTS AND OBSTACLES
Branko Stamenković, the President of the High Council of the Prosecutor's Office and a member of the SRG, tells “Vreme” that there have been several achievements of the Permanent Working Group since its establishment to date. First, he explains, he would highlight “building understanding of the problems journalists face in their work,” which relate to potential criminal legal protection. He adds that it has been extremely important for them, as prosecutors, to understand as many circumstances and facts concerning the safety of journalists and then suggest more concrete measures for the prosecutor's office as well as for journalists and their associations.
Stamenković further states that the second most important achievement is the adoption of the General Mandatory Instruction by what was then the Republic, now the Supreme Public Prosecutor of the Republic of Serbia. He says, “This established, for the first time on European soil, a network of permanently on-call public prosecutors specifically for cases concerning the safety of journalists.” The interlocutor points out that “the network today, despite all the difficulties, includes over 110 prosecutors in 90 public prosecutor's offices, available 24 hours a day throughout the year.” He explains that on-call prosecutors are required to open a case within 24 hours of an event, i.e., a potential criminal offense, and to hold a conversation with the journalist within the next 48 hours.
He adds that there are more achievements of the SRG, but in his opinion, these two are the most significant.
When discussing trust in the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists, the interlocutor believes that significant progress has been made from a state of “very present distrust to a significant understanding of the work and procedures of the public prosecutor's office in this area by journalists and their associations.”
However, he adds that the reality is that “complete trust does not exist and that such a situation arises from the challenges they face, which range from difficulties in obtaining evidence of criminal offenses to a lack of understanding among some journalists of the boundaries of the actions of the institution he represents.”
Stamenković emphasizes that “the escalation of violence observed at public gatherings recently – where present journalists are doing their job – along with the consequences of that violence reflecting back on them, is concerning and does not lead to building trust,” but, as he believes, “has the opposite effect.”
“I am sure that there is room for improvement and that, in fact, it is necessary for the Permanent Working Group not only to continue its work but to strengthen it, particularly regarding the criminal law events that have been occurring recently against all journalists in our country,” concludes the interlocutor.
Source: Vreme
