April 30, 2019
The poor state of media freedom in Serbia has been noted by international NGO Reporters with Borders (RWB) in its 2019 report: compared to the previous report, Serbia fell 14 places and is now ranked 90th among the 180 countries covered by the annual “2019 World Press Freedom Index” report.
The authors of the report note that Serbia has, over the course of five years – under the leadership of President Aleksandar Vučić – become a place where journalism is not a secure profession and does not enjoy the support of the authorities.
“There are a growing number of attacks on the media, including death threats, while there are also increasingly inflammatory statements made by officials against journalists,” notes the report for 2019, whilst also warning that many attacks against journalists have remained uninvestigated and unresolved, with the perpetrators going unpunished. The report places an emphasis on the attack on the home of journalist Milan Jovanović, whose house was burnt down in December last year.
The RWB report doesn’t seems to have overly annoyed representatives of the Serbian government. One of the few to react was Aleksandar Gajović, State Secretary at the Ministry of Culture and Information, who told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that he “does not see what is the source” of Serbia’s poor result.
