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Media watchdog slams EU 'inaction' on Serbia

Protesters gather outside a pro-government "Informer" television station during a student-led protest in Belgrade on March 29, 2025, accusing it of spreading propaganda as part of nearly five months of mass demonstrations against the government. Massive student-led protests in Serbia have been met with a barrage of disinformation from pro-government media and social networks, in what analysts say is an attempt to undermine the anti-graft movement. The nationwide wave of demonstrations kicked off after a recently renovated train station roof collapsed in November in Serbia's second city Novi Sad, killing 16 people. With many blaming the deaths on state corruption and inadequate oversight, the protests have piled pressure on the nationalist government of President Aleksandar Vucic. (Photo by Andrej ISAKOVIC / AFP)

By AFP

Media rights monitoring group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Friday criticised EU "inaction" in the face of what it said was unrelenting political and judicial pressure in Serbia against journalists.

There was "systematic repression of Serbian journalism," with outlets "on the brink of suffocation as their security and independence are continuously undermined by those in power," Pavol Szalai, Head of RSF's EU-Balkans Desk, said in a statement.

Yet, the statement charged, the European Union was stuck in "guilty inaction".

"EU member states and institutions cannot remain passive," Szalai said.

RSF urged the EU parliament to make sure the European Commission "assumes its responsibilities in the face of serious violations of press freedom -- a condition that must be met for Serbia's accession to the EU".

Serbia has for five months been rocked by the biggest mass protests seen in the Balkan country since the 1990s.

They started in November when a recently renovated train station canopy collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people.

Pro-government media have portrayed student demonstrators as "foreign agents," alleging they are funded by the opposition and plotting a "coup d'etat".

Since the protests began, RSF said, journalists in Serbia have faced "assaults, threats, and political and judicial pressure," listing 14 attacks.

In the same time, TV stations critical of the government are being kept off package subscriptions offered by the state-owned operator Telekom Srbija.

Serbia ranks 98th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2024 World Press Freedom Index.

The country is one of nine candidate countries to join the EU, but to get there it must meet a long list of social, economic and political standards, including upholding democratic principles and institutions.