Verbal attacks, intimidation, online harassment, and legal threats are the main issues affecting journalists.

 

Serbia is the candidate country with the second highest number of alerts, following Turkey. In total, 35 attacks affecting 55 persons or entities related to media were registered in the reporting period. As evidenced by the MFRR fact-finding mission organised in January and February 2021, media professionals continue to operate in a highly polarised environment. The data confirms the findings of the mission report, published in April 2021. Verbal attacks, intimidation, online harassment, and legal threats are the main issues affecting journalists in the country. 

The country's political and ethnic polarisation is reflected in attacks against journalists who critically report on the ruling Serbian Progessive Party (SNS or President Vucic’s family.arious cases show that radical nationalism endangers the safety of journalists. Pro-government media were the source of – or incited – attacks against journalists in five cases, for instance by discrediting critical media outlets or filing a civil lawsuit against four independent media and an NGO after publishing an analysis of fake news in tabloids. Such targeting by pro-regime media also resulted in online harassment, as was the case in October 2021, when the tabloid, Informer, reported about No‐ va.rs journalist Pero Jovovic’s Facebook post with his location in Pristina with three Kosovo flags. The pro-regime tabloid marked him as a “traitor and foreign mer‐ cenary”, which triggered numerous insults 28 Mapping Media Freedom | Monitoring Report – 2021 Mapping Media Freedom | Monitoring Report – 2021 29 and even death threats, revealing how unsolved Belgrade-Pristina relations affect journalists.

 In addition, in three cases, journalists covering topics related to the war criminal Ratko Mladic were attacked. Of particular concern were cases of politi‐ cians and officials fueling hatred and polarisation instead of creating a safe and enabling environment. At the beginning of 2021, far-right politician Vojislav Seselj made misogynistic comments and dis‐ credited journalist Natasa Miljanovic Zubac working for Radio Television of Republika Srpska. In December 2021, TV N1 reporter Milan Nikic was insulted and threatened by SNS party members during the municipal budget session of Batocina. The fact that powerful politicians attack media workers may lower people’s inhibitions to do the same, particularly online. In 10 cases, journalists were harassed andintimidated via social media or text messages, including five death threats. 

Next to the online environment, demonstrations (7 are the second most common place where journalists are attacked. In all these cases, private individuals are the source of attack, showing citizens’ low regard towards media workers. In two incidents, journalists were verbally assaulted or pelted with eggs by hostile protesters against vaccination campaigns. Environmental protests emerged to be a dangerous environment as well. In four cases, media workers were attacked dur‐ ing protests over the two new laws on referendums and expropriation, which environmental organisations and the political opposition claim favour business and are linked to the Rio Tinto company’s plans to open a lithium mine in western Serbia. Also connected to these protests, starting in November 2021, N1 television staff received threats online and the police searched, interrogated, and intimidated in order to prevent Vranje News’ local reporter, Milena Dimic, from covering these protests.

 With eight alerts, including two SLAPP lawsuits, journalists continue to struggle with legal obstacles, particularly those covering crime or investigating busi‐ nesses. The well-known investigative and non-profit ‘Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project’ OCCRP, via its Serbian partner KRIK, is regularly targeted for its reporting through multiple lawsuits. Plaintiffs using court proceedings to dis‐ credit critical reporting generally do not even challenge the facts. The case of The Millennium, a Belgrade-based construction company, is a telling example. It filed lawsuits against media outlets, asking for €100,000 each as compensation for reputation and material damages. An‐ other example of huge damages claimed concerned the TV channel N1, which is being prosecuted for “untrue information”and “negative” media coverage of the commercial agreement between Telenor mobile services provider and stateowned company, Telekom Serbia. Telenor was asking for almost €1,000,000 in dam‐ ages and a temporary ban on the article in question, a demand which was eventu‐ ally rejected by the Higher Court.