At today's session of the Council of Europe's Committee for Culture and Media in Paris, Stefan Jovanović, a member of the People's Party, said that due to constant and enormous pressure on the media, television stations N1 and Nova S stopped broadcasting the program today and showed a black screen with the message "Darkness in Serbia without free media".
"Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and other politicians from the government are encouraging campaigns against journalists of non-regime media, which they label as 'state enemies' and 'traitors', which incites hatred and new attacks," said Jovanović.
"International organizations regularly state in their reports that journalists and media that are critical of the government are exposed to physical attacks and threats, as well as insults from the ruling elite and pro-regime media," said Jovanović and stated that "this year alone, 110 attacks on journalists were recorded , according to NUNS data".
He stated that the media under the control of the authorities mislead the citizens by criminalizing the opposition and portraying it as an illegitimate group of conspirators who are against the interests of the state and citizens, and stated that the atmosphere in the Serbian media resembles that during the reign of Slobodan Milošević, when the current president is Aleksandar Vučić served as Minister of Information.
On the occasion of today's session of the Committee for Information of the Council of Europe, emphasizing that "it was on the day when, as a sign of protest, the only two professional television stations that can only be watched by a part of the citizens of Serbia stopped broadcasting as a sign of protest", Jelena Milošević, MP of the Party of Freedom and Justice, in in a written statement, she pointed out "that the members of the Information Committee of the Council of Europe detected Serbia as a country where there is almost no media freedom, "and this is the image that Serbia sends to the world while its citizens live in a media exposed to the darkness by the daily, unprecedented propaganda of the regime's newspapers".
Reactions to the darkened screens of television N1 and NoveS were reacted by many public figures.
UNS Vice-President Slobodan Ćirić points out that without these televisions, the media scene would look like it does today and today - severely diminished.
"Without numerous professionals who put the truth above daily politics, who have a serious critical attitude towards all social phenomena and are not afraid to state their position publicly, to confront dissenters and do not sell "religion for dinner". The black screens of the N1 and Nova S are a serious warning to all of us that goes far beyond the fifth national frequency."
Dragana Rakić, deputy president of the DS, says: "If it weren't for TV N1, TV Nova S and several newspapers, we wouldn't even have any kind of media scene - we would only have darkness."
"Truth has been killed in Serbia for years, media freedoms are stifled, opponents are humiliated, diversity is satirized, anyone who does not admire Aleksandar Vučić enough is declared an enemy of the state. There is no free media in unfree societies, there is no modern, strong and prosperous state in which the media is not free. We, the democrats, stand in solidarity with everyone whose personal and professional existence is threatened by darkness and untruth. Today we stand with every media worker, with every journalist who bravely and objectively reports on the situation in Serbia."
Nemanja Nenadić from Transparency Serbia notes that without N1 and Nova S, the media scene would look much poorer, when it comes to informative programs and discussions on important topics.
"REM did not provide an essential explanation as to why other stations were given priority when assigning frequencies," Nenadić emphasizes.
Even after more than twenty hours after they tried to broadcast the program, N1 and NovaS did not make any statement.
S.Ć./FoNet
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