May 15, 2024
Serbia has fallen from 91st to 98th place among the 180 countries included in the World Media Freedom Index, which is produced annual by Reporters Without Borders.
Serbia ranks lowest among the countries of the former Yugoslavia, with only Albania ranking worse (99th) than Serbia in the Balkans.
“Threats to journalists in Serbia are encouraged by attacks from the highest representatives of the government,” says Pavol Salaj, head of the Reporters without Borders department for the European Union and Balkans. He says that the acquitting of the defendants suspected of murdering journalist Slavko Ćuruvija signals a significant worsening of the legal situation, which cannot be compensated for by the efforts of the authorities to process recent attacks on journalists, such as the case of journalist Milan Jovanović, whose house was devastated, leading to the convicting of four suspects.
