Journalism and media Associations in Serbia have been organizing special measures to protect their members for days of the extraordinary parliamentary elections on October 25, including the establishment of a network of contacts across the country and the distribution of protective equipment.
The President of the Board of Directors of the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), Veran Matić, warns that professional media are exhausted by long-term pressures and that any further deterioration of their position could have irreversible consequences, Beta reported.
In the author's review published in ANEM's "Diary of the person on duty at the Safety Line for the Safety of Journalists", Matić assessed that the position of media workers will remain extremely difficult regardless of the outcome of the weekly elections and the events that will follow.
According to his statements, professional journalism in Serbia faces physical attacks, threats, economic difficulties and the absence of an appropriate institutional reaction. The survival of independent newsrooms, according to Matić, increasingly depends on the professional commitment of journalists and mutual solidarity, as well as the support of part of the public.
He particularly criticized the actions of the police and the prosecutor's office, assessing that the competent authorities do not provide adequate protection to journalists. According to his claims, the prosecutor's office often does not react to threats against media workers, while the police not only fail to protect them, but in some cases even participate in the attacks themselves.
Matić also pointed to the unfavorable relationship between the number of reported attacks and threats, which is continuously increasing, and the number of solved cases, which is decreasing.
Due to such circumstances, representatives of journalistic and media organizations, together with members of the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists, have been holding daily meetings during the past week in order to coordinate actions in case of incidents on election day.
Blue instead of yellow vests
The preparations include the determination of contact persons in different parts of Serbia, the establishment of a communication and rapid response system, as well as the distribution of helmets and protective vests with a mark for journalists. Matić stated that efforts are being made to make the vests blue, in order to distinguish them from the yellow ones that are already widely represented at protests.
Although such preparations might seem excessive to some, Matić believes that they are justified by data on increasingly frequent attacks on media representatives and insufficient efficiency of institutions in their processing.
Referring to the experience of ANEM's Safe Line, an SOS phone intended for reporting threats and attacks on journalists, on which he regularly works, he assessed that the situation in Serbia confirms several months of warnings by international journalistic organizations.
The safe line for the safety of journalists (0800 100 115) will be available 24 hours a day on election day.
According to his opinion, Serbia is currently the most difficult European environment for practicing the journalistic profession.
Matić therefore called on all those who can contribute to the protection of media workers to engage in creating at least basic conditions for their professional work, warning that the capacities of the media community are already almost exhausted.
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