News

The Committee of the Assembly of Serbia for Culture and Information has today approved the proposal for the list of candidates for members of the Council of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM), which was put forward by associations aimed at promoting freedom of expression. The candidates are Antonela Riha, Jasmina Ninković, and Rodoljub Šabić.

The editorial team of FAR, a bilingual internet portal from Dimitrovgrad that publishes information in Bulgarian and Serbian, is primarily funded through foreign donations, as our projects do not succeed in local and national competitions due to our critical reporting, said Danijela Apostolov Videnov, a journalist for the portal.

June has passed, and N1 and Nova are still not available in the offering of the cable operator Yettel – even though this company had set a deadline for the end of last month.

MFRR condemns the recent public accusation by President Vučić, who referred to the reporting of television stations Nova S and N1 as "pure terrorism." Our organizations, which recently conducted a media freedom mission in Serbia, urge the president to immediately cease the use of such dangerous rhetoric against the media.

The Journalists' Association of Serbia (UNS) recorded as many as 100 cases of threats against journalists in the first half of the year, which is 41 more than in the same period last year.

The Committee of the National Assembly of Serbia for Culture and Information agrees with the Opinion of the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications regarding the application of the provisions of the Law on Electronic Media in the process of proposing candidates for members of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM). This was decided today at the Committee meeting without the presence of opposition MPs.

The President of the Management Board of the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), Veran Matić, commenting on the obstruction of journalists in front of the National Assembly of Serbia who were covering events on Vidovdan, stated that this was the 13th incident involving media trying to report from Pioneer Park.

During the incidents between the police and demonstrators following the Vidovdan protests in Belgrade, journalist Darko Pavlović from the Fonet agency and organizer and assistant cameraman Jovan Pavlović from television N1 were injured.

From headlines about the "attack on Serbia," "preparations for bloodshed," to "genocide of the revolution" and "unmasking the hellish plan of the blockaders on Vidovdan." This narrative was adopted by mainstream media during the two weeks following the call for a protest in Belgrade by students in blockade on June 28. It all began with claims from "students who want to learn" that "the blockaders want to kill them," continued with assertions that students in blockade were "calling for a bloody rampage," and even that on Vidovdan they intended to declare Serbs a "genocidal nation." At the height of this campaign, a "special broadcast" was aired in co-production with TV Informer, TV Pink, TV Prva, TV Happy, TV B92, and Studio B, featuring "chilling evidence of secret blockader activities against the Serbian people and state." The campaign against the students thus transformed into an even more serious media witch hunt—characterized by demonization, intimidation, accusations, and propaganda that knows no boundaries.