March 16, 2017
Following the U.S. State Department’s release of its annual report on human rights, in which it states that media freedoms are being undermined in Serbia, Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić said that Americans should first look at themselves and their own freedoms “and then do their preaching”.
He said that he accepted some of the criticism in the report, but wondered if they are serious when they criticise the situation in the media and self-censorship “or if they’re acting smart”.
PM Vučić said that watches and reads the American media, and that his “head hurts when they speak about rights”.
Otherwise, in the report it states that media freedoms are undermined due to non-transparency and the participation of the state in media ownership, as well as numerous attacks and threats against journalists.
The report also lists events that marked the media in 2016 – the sacking and replacement of the editorial board and management of public service broadcaster Radio-Television Vojvodina, the campaigns led by pro-government tabloids against critically-orientated journalists and activists, the court judgement in favour of the interior minister, who sued one of the most influential weeklies, NIN, etc.
Photo: FoNet / Nenad Djordjevic
