Freedom House condemned the campaign against Serbian civil society and called on the government to end it, Europe Western Balkans (EWB) reported Tuesday.
“We condemn the Serbian Government’s crackdown against and vilification of NGOs and activists amid ongoing environmental protests,” reads the statement posted by Freedom House on the X social media platform on Monday evening.
It said that the government’s labeling of these actors as “foreign agents” mirrors rhetoric used by antidemocratic regimes to demonize civil society and should raise alarm among the democratic community.
Freedom House urged the Serbian government to immediately cease its smear campaign.
EWB recalled that 21 civil society organizations issued a press release last week saying that “there has been a large number of unfounded detentions and arrests of citizens in recent weeks” accompanied by a propaganda offensive against alleged “foreign mercenaries” planning to undermined the state order, in the interest of hostile countries.
The organizations said “it is impossible to count the number of times over the past decades that the story of foreign mercenaries has been activated, always with malicious intent towards those who fight for human rights, democracy, and the rule of law, even though civil society organizations are entirely transparent about the donations they receive from abroad.”
Source: N1
