Veran Matić, President of the Managing Board of the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), warned on Saturday that journalists and media outlets in Serbia will face extremely difficult circumstances regardless of the outcome of Sunday's snap parliamentary elections. He said the media community is already operating at the limits of its strength and capacity, while attacks and threats against journalists continue to increase.
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"Even obvious physical and other attacks go unanswered, as does the economic collapse. Professional journalists and media outlets survive solely because of their fanatical commitment to the fundamental principles of journalism, the solidarity of a small number of colleagues facing similar circumstances, and the support of part of the community," Matić wrote in ANEM's Diary of the Journalist Safety Hotline Duty Officer.
He warned that any further deterioration in the working conditions of journalists and media outlets could have irreversible consequences.
"That is why it is extremely important for everyone to do everything they can to create at least the basic working conditions for the exceptional people in this profession," Matić said.
Journalists preparing for election day "as if for war"
According to Matić, journalists and media associations have spent the past week preparing for election day "as if for war", holding daily meetings involving representatives of journalists' associations, media organisations and the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists.
"We are establishing contact points across Serbia and determining how we will communicate and respond. We are distributing protective equipment, helmets and press vests, preferably blue ones, because there are already too many yellow ones at protests," he explained.
Matić acknowledged that some might consider these precautions excessive but stressed that the number of attacks and threats against journalists continues to rise, while the number of resolved cases is declining.
"Police no longer protect journalists"
Matić also criticised the response of state institutions to threats and violence targeting media workers.
According to him, prosecutors largely look the other way, while police officers no longer protect journalists and, in some cases, even attack them.
As a result, he said, journalists have little choice but to rely on mutual solidarity.
"I am often on duty at the Safety Hotline, ANEM's SOS telephone service for reporting threats and attacks against journalists. In the final week before the elections, what international journalists' organisations have been saying for a year has become crystal clear: of all European countries, Serbia is now the most difficult place to be a journalist," Matić concluded.
Teme