THE GUARDIAN: Group says reporters at independent outlets suffer ‘constant harassment, physical attacks and smear campaigns’
Press freedom in Serbia is facing a “dangerous turning point” after mounting pressure on independent outlets from ministers and state-backed media, a group of senior editors has warned.
The editors, who are all from publications within the independent United Media group, said their reporters faced “constant harassment, physical attacks and smear campaigns” after their reporting in the country, which has been gripped by protests against its autocratic president, Aleksandar Vučić.
Their intervention follows what appears to have been the largest anticorruption demonstration in Serbia’s history this month. The mass gathering in Belgrade marked the culmination of four months of protests against the government after the deadly collapse of a concrete train station canopy in the northern city of Novi Sad last November.
Civil society groups have been warning for months about an increasingly hostile environment for independent media since the station collapse, which killed 16 people and set in motion a political backlash against Vučić’s pro-Russia administration. » | Michael Savage, Media editor | Sunday, March 23, 2025
