October 31, 2022
From April to July this year, politicians mentioned critical journalists in a negative context 84 times, according to monitoring conducted by the Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation.
More than 80 per cent of the verbal attacks came from the ranks of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, and most of them were issued personally by the president of that party and the country, Aleksandar Vučić, as well as MP Vladimir Đukanović and Prime Minister Ana Brnabić. The most common targets of attack were media outlets owned by the United group – the Nova newspaper, portal and television station, TV N1 and national daily newspaper Danas – which are an irritation to politicians due to their critical reporting.
The monitoring showed that, over the course of four months, via the mainstream media and social media platforms, politicians attacked critical journalists at least 68 times. With some instances seeing several newsrooms or their employees mentioned simultaneously, the SĆF recorded a total of 84 cases of critical journalists being mentioned negatively.
Attacks were also recorded that targeted investigative research portal KRIK, journalists Marko Vidojković, Antonela Riha, Vukašin Obradović, Snežana Čongradin, Vuk Cvijić, Nedim Sejdinović, Jelena Zorić and others.
