"It is necessary that the campaigns led by high-ranking state officials against journalists stop without delay. Their current behavior not only gives the 'green light' to institutions to turn a blind eye to endangering the safety of journalists, but also represents an open threat to those within that system who would try to protect them."
Attacks, threats and intimidation campaigns against journalists are everyday in Serbia. A special burden is borne by female journalists, who, in addition to professional pressures, increasingly face gender-based attacks, sexist insults and digital violence, which often goes unpunished.
Ivana Stevanović, director of the "Slavko Ćuruvija" Foundation and a long-time member of the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists, is one of the most knowledgeable interlocutors when it comes to the systemic protection of media workers. Her experience includes working on emergency response mechanisms, monitoring institutional practices, and advocating for the improvement of the legal framework.
She recently returned from France, where she and her colleagues from the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists visited the local media, journalistic organizations and institutions in order to compare protection models and understand why in some societies the safety of journalists is a state issue, while in others it is treated as a private problem. In an interview for "Vreme", Ivana Stevanović talks about the situation in Serbia, the gender dimension of attacks, lessons from France and whether it is realistic to expect that the safety of journalists will really improve in the foreseeable future.
"WEATHER" For almost a year now, journalists in Serbia have been working in almost extraordinary circumstances. Although there have been attacks and threats before, the situation has worsened further. How much has the number of reported attacks increased in the past year, threats and intimidation?
IVANA STEVANOVIC: In the last year, the previously extremely bad situation turned into a dramatic one. All the data points to this: from the recorded attacks in the bases run by journalist associations, to the devastating court statistics, according to which in the past two years we had only one conviction per year for attacks on journalists. The statistics maintained by the "Slavko Ćuruvija" Foundation on the number of verbal attacks and intimidation of journalists by the highest state officials in public appearances add to the argument that a systematic crackdown on critical journalists is underway in our country. In October alone, we recorded 163 public verbal attacks directed at journalists by 22 officials (in August there were 137, and in September 141). When you add to that the 135 attacks recorded by NUNS in 2025, of which the police were responsible for at least 28, as well as when you consider the ineffectiveness of the judicial system to protect journalists, then it is quite clear that the state encourages and implements a crackdown on journalists.
Let's add here the increasingly frequent SLAPP lawsuits - which in our country, unlike the usual practice in the world, are initiated by representatives of the government, judiciary and state institutions - as well as serious financial pressures on the media. When we put all these elements in the frame, the picture we get is clear: the government uses all mechanisms to completely silence every criticism and every awkward question.
On several occasions this year, we have had the opportunity to see the police who, instead of protecting journalists, protect masked thugs at protests. Then the President of the Republic (22 verbal attacks in October, second place after Nebojsa Bakarec) who threatens prosecutors and judges for not prosecuting journalists and the media. Behind them is an orchestra of lower, but still high-ranking representatives of the government, who in unison criminalize journalists - I would say, the very act of reporting facts to the public - calling them leaders of the "colored revolution", stormtroopers, commanders of the student rebellion and terrorists. These narratives are picked up and amplified by the tabloids in their orgies of primitivism and evil, 24/7, live. Justice is selective, and most often completely blind to criminal acts to the detriment of journalists. The entire state apparatus was captured and put in the position of dealing with critics of the government, and the methods of dealing with them are increasingly brutal.
When we talk about the gender dimension of security, how different the security risk is for female journalists? What do the statistics show?whether women are more often the target of digital violence? Do the institutions recognize the specifics of gender-based attacks, that is, is there an understanding that such attacks require special protection mechanisms?
Serbia is a patriarchal and misogynistic society in which women are always called names based on their gender and related attributes. This, of course, does not bypass female journalists either: they endure all the vomit directed at their male colleagues, and even more so because of the fact that they are women. Apart from statistical data, I did not notice that the judicial system takes special care of gender-based intimidation and targeting of female journalists. Moreover, according to them, the largest number of incidents fall into the now famous "gray zone" category: indirect attacks that the prosecution and the court interpret as unreliable and unachievable. A few days ago, we received the horrifying conclusion of the case in which the person responsible for pasting warrants with the image of journalist Isidore Kovačević in Šabac was acquitted. After four years of the case and two first-instance verdicts, the High Court in Šabac found that the defendant's actions did not contain elements of the criminal offense of endangering safety. After such a message from the court, it is no wonder that Isidora Kovačević says that she is more scared today than four years ago, when her city dawned with warrants plastered with her image. Most indirect threats and serious harassment do not even reach the court, but are rejected by the prosecution.
The number of cases in which the safety of female journalists is threatened has been constantly increasing for years, especially in the online sphere. There, abusers feel safe to send sexist and misogynistic comments and threats to female journalists, to share their personal information, phone numbers or private photos. They target where it hurts: family, children, public disclosure of intimate information. It is necessary for the system to start recognizing the special type of vulnerability that female journalists suffer both because of their work and because of the fact that they are women, and to abandon the conservative interpretation of the criminal offense of endangering security. With such a conservative interpretation, the system only encourages bullies to target, threaten and intimidate even harder and more recklessly. Of course, the system starts from the top, so it is first of all necessary that the campaigns led by high government officials against journalists stop without delay. Their current behavior not only gives the "green light" to institutions to turn a blind eye to endangering the safety of journalists, but also represents an open threat to those within that system who would try to protect them.
As a member of the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists, how do you rate her work today?
A permanent task force for the safety of journalists is an excellent idea and a rather rare case in the world. However, as for everything in Serbia, political will is necessary for its effective functioning. Where that will is moving, it seems to me that the data and statistics I talked about a little while ago illustrate quite clearly. Because of that and such will, I would rate the effects of the Permanent Working Group as modest.
In addition to the institutionalization of threats, pressures and smear campaigns against the media, journalists and activists, the ineffectiveness of the Group was the reason why around thirty civil society organizations, including our Foundation, left working bodies and groups formed by the Government or various ministries in early 2025. Since then, our status in SRG has been frozen.
From then until today, I see no difference compared to the time when we actively participated in the work of SRG. Previous experiences with incidents involving the police - for example cases of spyware being installed on journalists' phones in police stations - do not give me any hope that the 28 police attacks on journalists documented by NUNS would have been effectively resolved if the SRG had continued to operate. Nor that the masked thugs at the protests would be kept away so that the journalists would be able to do their work.
The SRG had some success in solving cases when journalists were attacked by "lone shooters", people who have nothing to do with the state apparatus and the ruling party. However, there are too many cases that remain unsolved or dismissed in incredible ways: the escape of a person from house arrest with a nanoleg who threatened Anna Lalić, or the dismissal of the criminal charges against Milan Lađević for the physical attack on Vuk Cvijić, with the explanation that "the public was not disturbed." In both cases, the SRG did not ensure the protection of journalists. These cases are illustrative examples of the largest number of situations in which journalists have found themselves in recent years.
The SRG influenced the adoption of certain documents, such as the Mandatory Instructions for Prosecutors in Attacks on Journalists. However, until they are actually implemented, these documents do not mean much. Although the instruction, for example, mandates urgent action by the prosecution, in the case of a threat addressed to the "Slavko Ćuruvija" Foundation, which occurred a year ago on Facebook, from a real person's profile, with full name, surname and place of residence, the prosecution's invitation to give a statement arrived only last week.
Until clear signals arrive from the police and the prosecution that the system is ready to protect journalists - and for that, in a large number of cases, they don't even need SRG, but only consistent application of the law and a clear understanding of what the so-called "chilling effect" on freedom of media and expression causes - I don't see why we should unfreeze the status in the Group.
You recently stayed in France, where you spoke with the media and institutions there about the models of journalist protection. Are there elements that Serbia could implement?? What does the position of journalists in France look like in relation to Serbia?
The basic impression is the jaw drop of the French police representative upon the information that the police in Serbia are beating and detaining journalists. As well as the disbelief with which our interlocutors received information about the number and quality of verbal attacks by high state officials in Serbia on journalists. As long as it is our everyday life, there is no room for comparison with France or any other EU country - there simply isn't any. There is no such law, mechanism, practice, which would ensure that this government and the institutions under its complete control implement the rule of law.
This text was created with the financial support of the European Union. The weekly Vreme is solely responsible for the content of this text and under no circumstances can it be considered to reflect the views of the European Union. The project "Women Journalists Are Not Alone: Information, Protection and Resilience" is supported by the Safejournalists.net support program.
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