Freedom House Research Manager Amy Slipowitz spoke to N1 about the latest Freedom in the World report and how Serbia stands in terms of freedom and democracy.
N1 – Serbia is ranked worst in the region regarding freedom. What caused this and was it surprising for you?
Slipowitz – “In 2025, Serbia did tie Bulgaria for the largest decline in Europe. It dropped in its political rights and civil liberties by three points on our 100-point scale and now stands at 53 points total. So there were a couple of drivers of last year’s decline, and both of them centered around the government’s response to the mass anti-government protests that began in late 2024. So the first one was anti-government demonstrators faced excessive force by police, authorities and affiliated non-state actors used extralegal violence and intimidation to suppress dissent and also to punish individuals, even just for perceived association with the protest movement.
“The other driver of this year’s decline was threats to academic freedom. The government retaliated against teachers and professors who supported or were just perceived as supporting the protests, including by withholding pay and employment contracts. I would say this decline is not very surprising. This is kind of a reflection of a longer-term trend in which Serbia has faced deterioration in political rights and civil liberties And when we go into details Serbia as you mentioned had a steep fall again
N1 – Who do we blame for this?
Slipowitz – “Actually, the broader context of what we’re seeing for global freedom. Global freedom declined for the 20th consecutive year in 2025. What I mean by this is more countries faced declines in their political rights and civil liberties than improvements. So we looked at what has been driving this longer term period of decline. And one of the main kind of drivers of this is overreach by elected leaders. And this is the story of Serbia, but also many other countries such as El Salvador, Hungary, Turkey. Democratic institutions are really offering counterweights to executive power. They limit what presidents and prime ministers can do unilaterally.
“And so for this reason, leaders such as the ruling SNS have sought to undermine and subjugate democratic institutions.
We see from the report and here on the ground that the judiciary is under pressure, students and academics are under pressure, the media areunder pressure, and it is just getting worse and worse. Can we also read your report like that?
Slipowitz – “Yes so on the Freedom House website we have a full report outlining all of the political rights and civil liberties and kind of the state of them in Serbia And if you do look at the report you will see that there have been ongoing attacks against media freedom This has come in many different forms journalists facing intimidation, editorial pressure, frivolous lawsuits, and then independent outlets being subjected to politicized financial and regulatory pressures. And I think kind of these threats against media freedom, judicial independence. These are all institutions that really check the power of executives. And so there’s a real incentive to kind of target those.
N1 – The report specifically named N1 in the media part when President Vucic called us terrorists, where even the UN reacted but got no answer from the government. So where does this put Serbia in terms of media freedoms?
Slipowitz – “I would say that this is part of a trend that we’ve been seeing for multiple years now. While Serbia’s indicator for media freedom did not decline this year, it is quite a low score. So the media freedom indicator receives just a two out of four, meaning there’s not as much of a degree of media freedom in the country. So I think the kind of rhetorical attacks against N1 are a reflection of this ongoing pressure that independent media is facing.
N1 – The report is called The Growing Shadow of Autocracy. Is Serbia heading that way?
Slipowitz – “The long trend for Serbia has been one of decline Just to kind of put this into historical context, Serbia has dropped by 25 points over the last decade on our 100-point scale. This is quite a significant drop in freedom. And if you look globally, it’s actually only five countries have experienced a larger decline than Serbia during those 10 years. And this is because of steady erosion of rights and liberties, legal and extralegal pressure that’s being put on independent media, the political opposition, and civil society organizations.
Serbia is also one of the countries mentioned most in the report, alongside the United States, Nigeria, Nepal, Bulgaria, Georgia. So not really in good company, is it?
Slipowitz – “I would say that Serbia is really a reflection of some of the trends we’re seeing globally, which is elected leaders who gain power through relatively credible elections and then go on to undermine different democratic institutions. So it’s kind of part of this global trend and why we wanted to highlight developments in Serbia in the report.”
Source: N1
