Serbian Media Stage Blackout in Defence of Freedom

About 150 Serbian websites and NGOs have agreed to join a "blackout" campaign on Thursday, called "Stop media darkness", to protest over what they called the worsening situation of the free media in the country.

"We want to warn the public that freedom of media in our country is running out of breath, and we want to fight together to save it," a joint press release of the participating organisations - which include BIRN - said.

Media outlets including Balkan Insight as well as NGOs are blacking out their websites for one hour on Thursday while carrying the simple message: "This is how it looks without a free media". Supporting print media carry a black page.

Television and radio stations will be air jingles and videos with the campaign message during the day.

The protest follows a recent incident on September 18 when the Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulin's political party called the editor of the Serbia's Crime and Corruption Reporting Network, KRIK, Stevan Dojcinovic, a "drug addict" - in apparent retaliation for his published investigation into the minister's real estate puchases.

Soon after, Vukasin Obradovic, the founder of Vranjske novine and former head of the Serbian journalists' association, went on hunger strike in protest over his title's closure and what he called the decline in media freedom in the country.

Media and NGOs say the campaign is designed to remind people that some free media still exist in Serbia. "From here we start," the joint press release adds.

A progress report published by the European Commission in November 2016 noted that Serbia had made no progress, and had only carried out "some level of preparation", in terms of supporting freedom of expression.

"The...