February 17, 2025
Pro-regime tabloids, which are known for violating the Journalists’ Code of Ethics on a daily basis and for mounting campaigns against critics of the Serbian government, have been forced to delete from their portals between 110 and 135 articles in which they defame students participating in protests, due to corruption and acts of violence against protesters.
With violations of the law having been reported to them, the EU-based companies that maintain the servers used by Serbian tabloids asked the media outlets in question to prove claims made in their articles. The fact that the tabloids had no evidence prompted the companies to demand that the articles be deleted, with a warning that their websites could be shut down.
The texts included in this group of articles proclaimed certain students as being agents of Croatian or other Western intelligence services, who had been paid to erode the Serbian regime from abroad, or published their passport information.
The tabloids subsequently transferred their portals to servers located in Serbia and owned by the Serbian government. The Serbian government has yet to show any interest in these tabloids’ daily violations of the law.
