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The safety of journalists is becoming an increasing cause for concern. Cases of threats, intimidation, hate speech, and physical violence against journalists have been reported. Local journalists are particularly vulnerable to such attacks, states the European Commission in its annual report on the state of the rule of law in Serbia.

The Association of Journalists of Serbia (UNS) has submitted comments to the Committee for Culture and Information regarding the Draft Report for the seven authorized proposers of members of the REM Council, in which it stated that six of the proposed candidates do not meet the requirements for election as members of the REM Council.

The independence of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM) is a cause for serious concern, and the delays and deficiencies in the process of selecting a new REM Council undermine public trust in that process, the European Commission stated in its annual report on the rule of law in Serbia. The report, published today, indicates that Serbia has "continued constitutional reforms to strengthen the independence of the judiciary," but that political pressure on judges and prosecutors remains high. In the area of fighting corruption, the EC points to a lack of investigations, final judgments, and asset seizures in cases of high-level corruption. Regarding media laws, the Commission's report notes that Serbia adopted new media laws in June, continuing its alignment with the EU, but assesses that this was done in a non-transparent manner, without public debate.

Veran Matić is the Chairman of the Board of the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM).

Last year, Pančevo allocated as much as 29 million dinars to the media through public procurement, primarily for promotional video clips. Previously, 40 million was set aside for media competitions, but now it is almost 10 times less since a legal requirement was established that pro-regime media cannot meet – to provide truthful information while respecting the ethical code.

The proposal of the decision by the commission for the allocation of funds in the competition for co-financing projects in the field of public information in the municipality of Novi Bečej for the year 2025 envisages that the funds will be granted to only one media outlet – the company VTV d.o.o. from Subotica, which operates TV Novi Bečej.

The average person in Serbia is media illiterate, apathetic, and distrustful of everyone. This is a person with shattered trust in the media, spending hours consuming content that is mostly not news, says Professor Snježana Milivojević, author of the research on Serbia for the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.