January 8, 2018
According to the statistics of the Independent Journalists Association of Serbia, there were more attacks and pressures against journalists in 2017 than there had been in 2016.
They note that there were fewer physical attacks, but “this does not mean that journalists’ safety has improved”. From 1st January to 5th December, a total of 30 attacks were recorded, including six physical assaults, 21 verbal threats (in most cases via social networks), two attacks on properties and one case of a journalist being placed under surveillance.
And while 33 instances of pressure being applied to journalists were recorded in 2016, in 2017 this happened as many as 54 times – ranging from harassment and pressure applied by politicians and powerful figures, to discrimination against individual journalists and media companies, to pressure exerted by pro-government media against those who report on the authorities critically.
According to this association’s data, the most common targets of pressure were the journalists of television station N1, daily newspaper Danas, Centre for Investigative Reporting of Serbia (CINS), the Crime and Corruption Reporting Network (KRIK) and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN).
