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Eastern European countries like Serbia have had a history of censoring media companies. Despite censorship in Serbia being prohibited by the Constitution under Article 50 and freedom of speech being protected under Article 46, Serbia still faces rising cases of media censorship. The most recent and publicized incident was the arrest of journalist Ana Lalic, shortly after she exposed the shortage of masks and equipment during the pandemic in 2020. This follows a pattern of reporters facing the brunt of state power when speaking out against the government. While journalists who speak out are not physically harmed through violent force, their reputations are tarnished by attacks from loyalist newspapers and media. Zoran Gavrilovic, director of BIRODI(Bureau for Social Research), a media monitoring group, explained in an interview the extent to which biased media supports Mr. Vucic, president of Serbia and SNS(populist Serbian Progressive Party), during elections. This biased reporting can be shown by a BIRODI news report that found Mr. Vucic to have 87% of his media coverage be positive while his opposition had 83% of their media coverage be negative. Mr. Vucic has had uninterrupted airtime on major Serbian television channels, while opposition leaders such as Dragan Dijilas speak only on news channels like N1, whose cable provider SBB(Serbian Broadband) is not state-controlled. The broadcasts of opposition, however, are blocked in towns where leaders are allies of Mr. Vucic, and the channel itself has faced much backlash. The battle between state-dependent broadcast companies that enforce strict censorship and the few independent media companies in Serbia has escalated.
Recent reports by the V-Dem Institute emphasize the consequences of increasing media censorship, as Serbia’s Liberal Democracy Index(LDI) was found to have declined substantially over the past decade, and lack of media freedom was a factor in Serbia being labeled a top autocratic country. In addition, the 2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Serbia, by the U.S. Department of State revealed that “strict restrictions of free expression and press” and the “unjustified arrests of journalists” were among the top human rights issues in Serbia. Serbia among other European countries like Hungary and Poland, continue to take measures to silence and restrict freedom of speech.
Questions:
What do you think about the Serbian government’s pressure on independent media?
Do you have any thoughts or comments about the clash between state-controlled and independent media in Serbia?
Sources:
https://www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/serbia/
https://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/docs/ELECTRONIC/74694/119555/F838981147/SRB74694%20Eng.pdf
5 comments:
I think Serbia's government is clearly trying to clamp down on freedom of thought, like all forms of censorship. I think this censorship is probably one of the most important issues for Serbia considering the many different ethnic cleansings caused by the Serbia (and over 2500 war-crimes cases that they have failed to investigate in their armed forces). It is incredible that a country that is so relativelty young like Serbia has already committed more than one genocide. Serbia really needs to reflect on itself and ask if it really needs a greater Serbia though. I think that Serbia needs to admit to fault and accept that Kosovo is indeed Albanian (also that they don't own the Danub river). Remember Kosovo has and will always be Albanian.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/europe-and-central-asia/serbia/report-serbia/
https://study.com/academy/lesson/summary-of-the-ethnic-cleansing-in-bosnia-herzegovina.html
I think freedom of the press is extremely important and it’s disheartening to hear how censored the media is in Serbia. Freedom of the press is vital to the circulation of ideas and information, sparking discussions between different groups, and holding companies and the government accountable. As we’ve seen with historic media coverage in the U.S., such as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s stories on the Watergate scandal, the media is an important tool for oversight. If we had media censorship in the U.S., the Watergate stories would have probably been censored and no one would have known about the scandal and Nixon wouldn’t have been threatened with impeachment. Independent media is crucial for a successful democracy. I would hope that some of these censorship cases are brought to court and maybe if they make it all the way up to The Supreme Court of Cassation, there will be more acknowledgement of the problem and The Supreme Court can help remind the country of their laws against censorship. I hope that as time goes on, the Serbian media will gain more freedom and spread more unbiased information.
I think the Serbian government never properly atoned for the genocidal acts it perpetrated in the 1990s and should avoid neo-fascist or authoritarian tendencies (like silencing the press) with extreme prejudice given those recent and terrible crimes. Novak Djokovic's politics rub me the wrong way for the same reason -- you think vaccine mandates are outrageous impositions on your freedom, but toxic Serbian nationalism is not worth a mention even though it led to thousands upon thousands of civilian murders? A tennis GOAT contender but also a tool.
Serbia’s policies echo the plight of journalists in today’s political atmosphere. However, the global pursuit of truth, central to civil discourse, has seldom been harder.
Worldwide last year, 52 journalists were murdered, and countless others imprisoned, in their relentless quest for facts. The victims included Jamal Khashoggi, a fierce critic of the Saudi Arabian government, who was killed in Istanbul, Turkey. He had long feared reprisal from the Saudi royal family, and had sought asylum in the United States.
These are dark times for the news media. In Nicaragua, reporters are being beaten, robbed, and arrested for challenging the government’s ridiculous portrayal of the country as a utopia. Nicaraguan authorities brook no deviation from that perfect -— but phony — image. Power corrupts. But nostalgia for the mailed fist is still widespread in countries like Russia, helping to explain Vladimir Putin’s rise to power, and the concurrent loss of honest reporting.
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