Serbia / Europe & Central Asia

  

In Serbia, a ‘witch-hunt’ for journalists who don’t toe government line

“A real epidemic of attacks.” That’s the way Serbian journalist, advocate, and professor Dinko Gruhonjić characterized the state of press freedom in his country in a recent op-ed for the media-focused news site Cenzolovka. Gruhonjić faced severe online harassment after a doctored video in which he appears to praise a war criminal was circulated online…

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‘The most dangerous situation’: Serbian journalists accused of links to organized crime

In March, when a reporter at Serbian investigative news site KRIK asked President Aleksandar Vučić at a press conference about the government’s alleged links to organized crime, governing party politicians and pro-government media outlets turned the claim back on KRIK.  They accused the journalists of being part of a criminal network, which KRIK has forcefully denied, as CPJ…

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Election disinformation happens all over the world. These journalists are combating it.

With multiple federal investigations underway into the January 6 Capitol riot, concerns still abound about the spread of disinformation around the U.S. election. But the U.S. is not alone in confronting the phenomenon. Disinformation is happening all over the world – especially during high stakes events like national votes.    “It’s language agnostic, it’s region agnostic,…

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Ana Lalić, a reporter for news website Nova.rs, recently told CPJ about her arrest and detention over a COVID-19 report. (Ana Lalić)

Serbian reporter Ana Lalić on her arrest and detention over COVID-19 report

On April 1, Serbian police arrested Ana Lalić, a reporter for news website Nova.rs, just hours after she published a report on chaotic conditions in a local hospital.

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A women's rights march in Belgrade on January 21, 2017. Women journalists in Serbia say they face threats of sexual violence and online abuse over their critical reporting. (AFP/Andrej Isakovic)

Two-fold risk for Serbia’s women journalists as attackers target their work and gender

“In the past five years I was publically called many things. I was an old hag, a sterile, cheap Soros’ prostitute, a hooker, not f***ed enough, in need of a good prick, and destroyer of the Serbian Orthodox Church,” said Tatjana Vojtehovski, a Serbian television journalist with a large presence on social media. “My response…

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A composite of front pages from Serbia's press. Headlines, from top left: Putin: I Can Destroy the States in Half an Hour; CIA is Warning: Putin is Ready to Wage a War for Serbia; Putin: Give me Crimea, I will Give you Kosovo. From bottom left: Blitzkrieg Campaign: To Kill Putin in Serbs; Serbia is facing an ultimatum: Either Russia or Europe

How influence of Russian media risks making Serbia a Moscow bureau

For a couple of days last month, uninformed tourists visiting Serbia could easily have believed that the country is a Russian outpost. With large photos of Vladimir Putin on their covers, Serbian tabloids–by far the biggest source of print information in the country–were engaged in a discussion over whether the Russian President would defend Serbia…

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Defining role of the press in genocide prevention

Talking about genocide prevention in the shadow of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camps brings an intense and unique gravity to the discussions. The academic presentations cannot extract themselves from the looming presence of the barbed wires and grim towers surrounding the Nazis’ most infamous death factory.

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