Censorship in Serbia is prohibited by the Constitution. Freedom of expression and of information are protected by international and national law, even if the guarantees enshrined in the laws are not coherently implemented. Instances of censorship and self-censorship are still reported in the country.
Serbia is deemed "partly free" by Freedom House and ranks 93rd out of 180 countries in the 2020 Press Freedom Index report compiled by Reporters Without Borders, declining its ranking by three if compared to 2019, fourteen if compared to 2018 and 24 places if compared to 2017. In 2018, International Research & Exchanges Board described the situation in the media in Serbia as the worst in recent history, and that Media Sustainability Index dropped because the most polarized media in almost 20 years, an increase in fake news and editorial pressure on media.
Within the framework of negotiations with the European Union, the EU has requested that Serbia improve and guarantee freedom of expression and of the press. According to Christian Mihr of Reporters Without Borders, "as a candidate country [Serbia] must seriously understand the importance of the independence of journalists and the need for freedom of the media."
Legislative framework Serbia is part of the European Convention on Human Rights and of the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both imposing obligations to protect freedom of expression and information.
The Constitution of Serbia guarantees freedom of expression (including freedom of speech and press) and allows for its restriction only "to protect the rights and reputation of others, to uphold the authority and objectivity of the courts and to protect public health, morals of a democratic society and national security of the Republic of Serbia" - as in compliance with the standards set by the European Convention on Human Rights.
While the law does not include a specific provision on hate speech, it is a criminal offense in Serbia to "incite" national, racial, or religious intolerance. In June 2011 the Constitutional Court banned the extreme right-wing organization Nacionalni Stroj (National Front) for promoting racist hate speech.
It is a Constitutional right, in Serbia, to freely establish media without prior authorization. Licenses, required for TV and radio stations, are granted by an independent body, the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RBA). Censorship is prohibited by the Constitution.Elda Brogi, Alina Dobreva, and Pier Luigi Parcu, "Freedom of Media in the Western Balkans", study for the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights, October 2014, EXPO/B/DROI/2013/16
The legislative framework on the media in Serbia includes a Law on Public Information, a Law on Broadcasting, a Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance and a Law on Elections of the Members of the Parliament (regulating electoral coverage). The Criminal Code still stipulates fines for insult, even after the abolishment of criminal defamation provisions. In 2013 the Criminal Code was amended to include a specific reference, in art.138(3), to the endangerment of "persons discharging duties of public importance in the area of public information related to his/her duties", which official sources confirmed was meant to include journalists. Statistics about prosecutions in 2014 show that 10 cases, out of 4,080 criminal offenses recorded in the year, pertained to art.138(3); of these, 2 led to indictment and one to a conviction.
Based on the 2011 Serbian Media Strategy, a new set of laws regulating media in the country has been adopted in 2014. It includes the Act on Public Information and Media, the Act on Public Service Media and the Act on Electronic Media.
The main novelties introduced by the Act on Public Information and Media included the obligation to carry out the privatization, by July 2015, of media which were still state-owned. Along with this, the Act also introduced a Media Registry conceived as a tool for transparency of media ownership. The Act also defines the possibility and procedures to co-finance media projects via public funds.
The Act on Electronic Media harmonizes Serbian national legislation with the standards included in the EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive in the fields of hate speech, accessibility of audiovisual services for people with disabilities and protection of minors.
Attacks and threats against journalists Serbia's Independent Association of Journalists (NUNS) reported at least 34 physical and verbal attacks against journalists in Serbia in 2015; its General Secretary Svetozar Rakovic said that "the humiliation of journalists by government officials has reached its peak this year". OSCE media advisor Miroslav Jankovic reported in December 2015 that "At least three journalists are under permanent police protection in Serbia, which speaks for itself that the institutions had yet to face their past."B92
Between January and August 2014, Serbia had witnessed 28 cases of threats and intimidations against journalists - of which 5 physical assaults and 3 death threats - on a par with 2013 (23) and in decline from 2012 (33). The response of the authorities, according to Human Rights Watch, "was weak at best, negligent at worst".Human Rights Watch, "A Difficult Profession. Media Freedom Under Attack in the Western Balkans". July 2015, 978-1-6231-32576
Journalists have denounced reiterated violence and menaces, coupled with impunity for the perpetrators. Investigative journalists working on war crimes and radical religious groups have denounced how authorities downplayed the seriousness of the threats they received online. Cases of arbitrary financial and administrative inspections by official authorities, deemed of a harassing or intimidating character against critical reporting, have also been mentioned, with one specific case in Niš. High-ranking public officials have been participating in smear campaigns, including - as reported by HRW - Serbia's prime minister Aleksandar Vucic, publicly accusing journalists of acting on behalf of foreign interests.
The cases reported include: Slavko Ćuruvija, murdered in 1999 together with two other journalists, Milan Pantić, and Dada Vujasinovic. The Serbian government began a review on 24 January 2013 of several suspicious cases involving the alleged murders of journalists, including the three of them. Four former members of the Security Services were indicted for the murder of Ćuruvija, including the former security service chief Radomir Markovic. Three of them are in pre-trial custody. Vladimir Mitric, investigative journalist, who suffered an attempted murder by a former police officer in 2005, when he was investigating about drug trafficking in the Drina valley and has lived under police protection since, without being able to continue his work. The perpetrator, after six years in court, received a one-year sentence and was then granted an amnesty. Dejan Anastasijevic, journalist for Vreme, suffered an attempted murder on 13 April 2007. Investigations were unable to apprehend the culprits. Brankica Stanković, journalist at radio and TV broadcaster B92, complained about death threats she received after broadcasting documentaries on corruption in Serbian football, but the courts merely treated them as insults or defamation and rejected further complaints.Brankica Stanković o ceni traganja za istinom: Celog ću života na ulici gledati da li je neko iza mene, Cenzolovka, 19 October 2015 Teofil Pančić, columnist for the weekly Vreme, was attacked with a metal bar in Belgrade on 24 July 2010. He was a usual critic of nationalism, corruption and hooliganism in sport.COLUMNIST BEATEN OVER THE HEAD WITH A METAL BAR , RSF, 26 July 2010 Predrag Blagojević, editor-in-chief of Južne Vesti, who received death threats in March 2013 after having exposed alleged corruption in Niš' city heating company, and again in March 2014 by a football club owner (both trials still pending). Dragan Marinkovć, journalist at Televizija Leškovac, was threatened on social media after exposing failures in the readiness of ambulance services Davor Pašalić, beaten twice by three assailants in a single night in July 2014. The attack was publicly condemned by OSCE's media freedom representative.OSCE press release, "OSCE media freedom representative condemns attack on editor in Serbia", 3 July 2014. Stefan Cvetković, a journalist who investigated the murder of the Kosovo Serb opposition politician Oliver Ivanović, has been attacked and beaten in a café in the centre of Bela Crkva. Two years earlier, the Deputy Mayor of Bela Crkva threatened him and broke his mobile phone. Milan Jovanović, an investigative reporter who has covered corruption involving local politicians, whose house burned down in a fire started by a Molotov cocktail in December 2018. Tatjana Vojtehovski, a well-known investigative reporter who often criticizes president Vučić, was the target of death threats and rape threats on Twitter at the end of December 2018, in which threats were also made against her daughter. N1, a cable news channel have been facing a targeted campaign of pressures and threats by state official. Workers have been constantly labelled as "traitors" and "foreign mercenaries" and received hundreds of insults and threats of physical violence through social media. TV station received a letter on 4 February 2019 threatening to kill the journalists and their families and to blow up the office. Vladimir Petković, journalist at Glas Zaječara, was attacked in Zaječar on 5 February 2019; an unknown man hit him with a can and beat him, with comments on the badge with One of Five million slogan.
Political interference The European Commission has stated in its 2012, 2013 and 2014 Progress Reports that political and financial interference has a detrimental effect on the independence of the media in Serbia.
The conditions of the market are deemed conducive to self-censorship by journalists and media outlets. Serbian media remain dependent on advertisement, of which market from 23 to 40% is constituted by state funding,World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, "Soft Censorship: Strangling Serbia's Media ," 2013 WAN-IFRA, p. 6. whose process of allocation is deemed opaque and politicised, in the lack of an independent body tasked with the supervision of public spending on advertising.Freedom House, "Freedom of the Press 2014 Serbia ", Free media reliance on state-funded advertisements thus makes them prone to a lack of critical scrutiny of governmental actions, for fear of losing precious sources of revenues.U.S. State Department, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – 2013: Serbia", p. 10 Political interference also takes more direct forms, with high-ranking politicians influencing editorial choices.
According to Christian Mihr, executive director of Reporters Without Borders, "censorship in Serbia is neither direct nor transparent, but is easy to prove."B92, 19 February 2015 According to Mihr, "it can be seen that the authorities have very negative attitudes toward media freedom. Also, there are numerous examples of censorship and self-censorship," According to Mihr, "articles that were critical of the government were deleted from the Internet, while independent journalists were either threatened or pressured." He recalled how during the May 2014 floods some articles were taken off websites, while the government "attacked several critical reports" of the official response to the natural events.