The Croatian Journalists’ Association (CJA) strongly condemns the actions of Serbian police, who today denied entry into Serbia to several Croatian journalistic crews, and calls on the relevant authorities to ensure safe and unhindered working conditions for our colleagues.
Several Croatian journalist teams traveling to Serbia were detained at the border and ultimately denied entry—even though they had valid invitation letters—and were sent back to Croatia under the pretext of posing a security risk.
According to the SafeJournalists network, the entry was denied based on an alleged negative security risk assessment, citing Article 15, Paragraph 1, Item 8 of the Serbian Law on Foreigners, which refers to the protection of the security of the Republic of Serbia and its citizens. In making decisions about the rights and obligations of foreigners entering and residing in Serbia, the police consult national security services to assess whether a foreigner poses an unacceptable security risk. SafeJournalists believes this decision was based on an assessment by Serbia’s Security Intelligence Agency (BIA).
The CJA considers the denial of entry to journalists and the obstruction of their work a violation of media freedoms and an abuse of official authority and power.
For the Executive Board,
Chiara Bilić, Vice President of the CJA
Drago Hedl, Vice President of the CJA