Article 19’s David Diaz-Jogeix told N1 on Friday that the attacks on journalists and management changes introduced by United Group are part of a context of political pressure and attempts to weaken independent media in Serbia.
He said that N1 was the most frequently targeted but added that other independent media were also attacked. According to him, the changes launched by United Group on Thursday did not happen in a vacuum but in the context of the leaked conversation between the United Group and state-run Telekom Serbia CEOs, political pressure from President Vucic on N1 and its editorial policies. He voiced fear that all those things will affect the independence of N1 and Nova S as the main independent TV stations in Serbia.
Diaz-Jogeix said that Serbia ranks high in terms of violations of media freedom in Europe which, he added, is very dangerous given the fact that the number of attacks doubled over the past year and quadrupled in the past 2 years.
He said that a review of the attacks (62% of which were verbal) showed that the context were the protests and corruption with Vucic and other top state officials in the center of it all discrediting, attacking, targeting and demeaning journalists as enemies of the state. That sets the tone for journalists reporting on protests. He warned that pro-government media are focusing on the threats, hatred and attacks on journalists.
Source: N1
