COVID – 19: Noted limitations and restrictions to Western Balkans media

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Source/Author: Maja Vasic-Nikolic, safejournalists.net

Reacting to the ongoing pandemic of Covid-19, safejournalists.net collated information from its members about restrictions and limitation of media freedoms have been noted in their respective countries.  On April, 8 2020 the following was reported:

Bosnia and Herzegovina

BHJA reported a lot of problems with censorship and limited distribution of information by the state authorities. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, BHJA was contacted by 14 editors and journalists from 9 media outlets, complaining about the inability to obtain certain information from the Crisis Headquarters, but also from health institutions, such as the Clinical Center of the University of Sarajevo.

In Republika Srpska, the decree has taken effect “forbidding the presentation or transmission of fake news or allegations that cause panic or severely disrupt public order or peace” through “media outlets, social networks or other media of similar means”. At the same time, the Government of the Federation of BiH, through the Ministry of the Interior Affairs and cyber criminal units, started implementing measures for monitoring and supervision of information shared through social networks some time ago, where five criminal proceedings were initiated for allegedly spreading false information and panic.

Also, there were problems in communicating with the Crisis Coordination Body at the state level, including the censorship of information in the entities of RS and FBiH and the Canton of Sarajevo.


Kosovo

Currently in Kosovo there is no state of emergency, but the government established a curfew from 17:00 until 06:00 until further notice. The restriction of movement has affected journalist unless they have a license. Partners did not report any restriction to the work of journalists.


Montenegro

COVID-19 pandemic has deepened the crises Montenegro society was facing in the last couple of months. Since the beginning of the year, the Orthodox Church leaders openly criticised the new Law that deals with the church matters and organised mass protests. Three journalists, covering this story, had been arrested for spreading panic, after publishing fake news. Authorities continued to use this method, but in the case of pandemic it has been used against the citizens, so one person was arrested for publishing fake news on social media about number of infected people. Government introduced a new way for informing citizens: there are no more physical press conferences, they are all broadcasted live and journalists ask question online, using a platform government established. TUMM received several complains from colleagues, who claim that they had sent the questions, but those were not posed to the authorities during the conference. Government of Montenegro recently introduced intention to help media sector with over 260,000 euros. We afraid that this is nothing but a soft way to control media in this very difficult situation.


North Macedonia

There are currently two restrictions that limit some of the journalists and media workers to perform their duties:

  • Not all journalists are being allowed licence for movement in curfew – there is a strict curfew which, as of 08.04, last from 04.00 pm to 05.00 each working day and from Friday 04.00 pm to Monday 05.00 am (61 hours). These restrictions of movement also apply to media workers but they can be exempted by obtaining a license by sending a request to the Ministry of Information and Administration of NMK. Journalists, media workers that have the right to seek license for movement must be part of the media outlets that are registered at the media regulator (avmu.mk) or at the Register of professional and online media within Council of Media Ethics and AJM (promedia.mk). AJM objected to this since not all online media are part of this register (it is on a voluntary basis). In addition, the criteria for issuing a license to freelance journalists and journalists which are working for international agencies and media as local correspondents is still not clear.
  • Not all journalists are permitted to ask questions via ZOOM at the official press conferences- Since the beginning of the crisis the Minister for Health and other relevant officials hold live press conferences on daily basis. Events could last one to two hours. At the beginning, the journalists were present at the Government premises, sitting in the room on a distance and had a possibility to ask questions. Some of the journalists, mainly the ones from a group of online media sponsored by Hungary, misused the situation and were spreading propaganda. Coincidently or not, the Government changed the format of the press conferences and now journalists apply to ask a question prior to the press conference and are asking/commenting live via ZOOM application. Two problems are noted: again journalists which are not part of the above stated registers are not allowed to ask question via video communication tool; and there is a level of dissatisfaction among journalists that by using this model, the officials are not always responding to all questions and that may lead to partial informing.

Additional concern is that there is an ongoing activity within the Ministry of Justice for amending the Criminal Code regarding spread of information regarding COVID-19. Local stakeholders, including AJM are not part of this process and we do not have official information of the content of this legal act for the moment.


Serbia

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic Serbian authorities have been restricting free flow of information and limiting the work of journalists and media to various degrees. Measures introduced by the PM put government Crisis Headquarters in charge of obtaining, verification and dissemination of all information regarding the pandemic centralised the flow of information and opened the door for criminal prosecution of any journalist who publishes information obtained from a different source. The document was withdrawn on the request of President Vucic and to avoid criticism of international officials. Ana Lalic, the journalist whose detention for spreading panic coincided with measurers coming into effect, was released but she is still under investigation. This sends a strong message to media and journalists who report in public interest. It is important to note that after such critical reports were published (case of poor condition Vojvodina Clinical Centre and Cuprija hospital, deducted salaries for infected doctors and nurses) and citizens reacted, the state denied everything but ended up providing protective equipment to hospitals and full payment to health professionals (as obliged by the law). Without media investigations and reaction of the public, those issues may have not been solved.

In addition to this, the following types of restrictions and limitations are imposed:

  • Discrimination: state and health authorities refuse to give statement to some journalists, depending on which media they come from. In some cities journalists report that only one pro-gov media gets briefs while others are denied extremely important information for local communities. In IJAS survey implemented last week that included feedback from 107 journalists Serbia-wide, 68 % of them stated that not having access to information limits their work seriously.
  • Restricted movements: in the same survey 38% reported difficulties obtaining press-passes. Although IJAS facilitated negotiations with the government and secured passes for a number of journalists, with the Government distributing the passes to 6 centres around Serbia and ongoing curfew journalists practically cannot get them. IJAS organised distribution via volunteers, but still many are yet to receive it.
  • On-going attacks by the PM and President: although in Serbia this has become an everyday issue, the situation worsened in the past weeks, especially in the last couple of days. PM Brnabic openly calls media who report critically and in public interest (practically exposing the wrongdoings of the state) liars, haters of Serbia who spread fake news, etc.
  • Violation of presumption of innocence by the PM and President – while continuing to claim that what Lalic published was a lie, as well as majority of critical content regardless of how founded in reality it is, the highest state officials violate the presumption of innocence and exert considerable influence over the police and the prosecutor’s office.
  • Impunity – the state inaction and public labelling contribute to threats and pressures. For 22 days of the state of emergency IJAS recorded 3 journalists being detained and one journalists invited for an informative hearing, 10 verbal threats (with assumption that there were more that went underreported), 11 pressures – not including the ones coming from the highest officials mentioned above.

IJAS would like to draw attention to the issue of influencing the public opinion and sharing disinformation – at the beginning of April Twitter removed 8,558 accounts linked to the Serbian Progressive Party, for targeted attempt to undermine the public conversation with more than 43m tweets amplifying positive news coverage of Vucic’s government and attacking his political opponents. Their reach was 2,3 m followers and they regularly posted content of the media recognised for spreading disinformation. This caused a serious concern as it is expected that these resources will be diverted into new modes of influencing public opinion. Given the value and size of the SNS effort, professional media reporting in public interest need additional support to provide timely, correct and objective information to citizens of Serbia.


Croatia

In Croatia, the biggest problem during the COVID-19 crisis is the lack of financial support for the media and journalists, however problems with restricted movement of journalists is noted, especially securing e-passes to freelancers.