Serbian Ombudsman Under Fire After Criticising Govt

“This is a huge blow for the institution of the ombudsman,” said human rights ombudsman Sasa Jankovic on Monday after parliament’s administrative board decided not to extend the contracts of 19 of his staff which ended last week.

The cutbacks, as well as a video attacking the ombudsman’s office which was posted on the internet at the weekend, have been linked by some government opponents to Jankovic’s criticism of the authorities for alleged media censorship during the recent flooding emergency and his public concerns about the deterioration of the human rights situation in general.

Last week Jankovic issued a statement saying that he was worried because “some information and criticism are being removed from the media” and “some journalists claim they are advised to avoid being critical”.

He was referring to Daliborka Delibasic, a local journalist from the town of Obrenovac, which was devastated by the flooding, who told B92 television that she had been told to “be careful what I say” about the emergency situation there.

Jankovic also expressed concern that “some citizens were called for questioning by the police because they were allegedly causing panic” after officers summoned several people over comments they made on social media about the flood emergency. Criminal charges were filed against three of them.

Meanwhile on Friday, Jankovic presented his annual report to parliament in which he described the situation in Serbia as “unsatisfying”, saying that in some cases human rights were deteriorating.

The ombudsman said that the staff cutbacks would seriously affect the work of his office because fieldwork would suffer.

“If you look at the statistics, you will see that they [the staff]...