Serbia is in seventh place when it comes to the biggest declines in the area of freedoms and rights over the last ten years, and in front of it are Nicaragua, Tunisia, El Salvador, Tanzania, Niger and Hong Kong.
Under the leadership of President Aleksandar Vučić and the Serbian Progressive Party, the country has gone from a free to a partially free state, and the state of human rights and freedom of citizens is continuously deteriorating, according to the latest report. Freedom House (Freedom House) under the title "The Hard Struggle for the Protection of Rights".
The graph in the report shows the countries that recorded the biggest declines in freedom of expression in the last ten years, and Serbia took seventh place. Serbia is marked in yellow in the Freedom House report, which represents partially free countries. As can be seen on the organization's website, according to data from 2024, Serbia has 57/100 points, while according to data from 2023, it had 60/100 points.
Pressures and undermining of the media
In terms of reporting, special focus is placed on pressures on the media. Some of the biggest declines in results in the past 19 years, he writes, occurred in El Salvador, Serbia and Venezuela, where the constant destruction of democratic institutions by leaders turned into the consolidation of authoritarian rule.
"Serbia under the leadership of President Aleksandar Vučić and his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) provides a graphic example of how elected leaders have undermined the media. The country went from free to partly free in Freedom House's 2019 World Report and lost another 11 points, while the rights and freedoms of citizens have steadily deteriorated," the report "The Hard Struggle to Protect Rights" states.
Frequent attacks on journalists and media experts and tightening of control of the media environment are among the most prominent features of this erosion.
"Investigative journalists have faced smear campaigns, punitive tax inspections, threats from leading politicians and arrests." The authorities have used their control over regulation and licensing to aid pro-government media. Lack of transparency in media ownership, indirect government subsidies to the media, and politicized advertising allocation have also helped pro-government media dominate the market. "More recently, members of the ruling party have used strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP) to intimidate independent media and journalists," says the part of the organization's report that refers to Serbia.
Most of the world's population lives in unfree countries
Freedom House, an environment where positive reporting about Vučić and SNS overwhelms the world of information, especially on the eve of the elections, and critical voices are increasingly silenced.
The report also states that the majority of the world's population lives in partially free and unfree countries.
"Over 170 million people live in countries that in 2024 moved from the category of partially free to the category of not free... People experienced a deterioration in their political rights and civil liberties in 60 countries, while they improved in only 34 countries." "In environments where conditions have worsened, key factors driving the degradation of rights and freedoms have included violence and repression of political opponents during elections, armed conflicts and the spread of authoritarian practices," the report states.
