Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia

Between 2010 and 2020 in Serbia, at least 26 civil lawsuits were brought against journalists, media outlets, civil society organisations and activists as a result of their efforts to monitor rights violations, says a report published on Wednesday by international human rights group Article 19, the ABA Centre for Human Rights, and the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia, NUNS.

Prominent Serbian journalist Gordana Susa, who quit TV Belgrade in 1991 over its shift to uncritical support of Slobodan Milosevic and was a founding member of the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia, NUNS, has died after a long illness, NUNS announced on Tuesday. She was 75 years old.

Dragoljub Zarkovic (1951) is the founder of "Vreme" weekly and its editor-in-chief since 1991.
Prior to that, he was a journalist and editor at the "Politika" newspaper (1974-1987) and "Borba" (1987-1990).

Many Serbs have taken to social networks to express deep dissatisfaction with graphic front-page tabloid accounts of a rape crime involving a 12-year-old girl, while journalists' associations have also called on the authorities to act.

The Western Balkan's Regional Platform for Advocating Media Freedom and Journalists' Safety, which represents more than 8000 members, strongly condemns serious threats and hate messages directed to the Serbian journalist Tatjana Vojtehovski and her daughter.

A BIRN report on the media in Serbia, presented on Wednesday, emphasises a decline in freedom of expression and media pluralism, citing an absence of social, political and economic conditions conducive to the development of a professional and sustainable media sector.

These crimes happened between 1998 and 200, and no one has been brought to justice, the Council of Europe (CoE) has stated on its website.

The Serbian Information Ministry's draft media strategy, which was criticised by media and journalists' associations before it was discarded this week, controversially proposed establishing new state-run media through public-private partnerships.

Serbian media's economic unsustainability and dependence on the authorities for advertising, combined with a poor professional culture and a lack of protection and financial security for journalists, allows politicians to exert control over media organisations, according to the research published on Tuesday.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said this came in the run-up to local elections in Belgrade and two other municipalities - and called on the authorities to punish those responsible.