Journalists and media associations invite all their colleagues to support journalism students in front of their faculty (Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš) at 11:52 a.m. on Friday, December 20, and thus support them, but also all other students who fight for democracy, for justice and freedom of speech in our society. We invite journalists from other cities to join the students and their fellow citizens at that time.
Although we should be in the amphitheaters teaching them about the importance of freedom of speech, they are now giving us a lesson in the basic postulates of journalism – ethics, courage and solidarity. After the Novi Sad tragedy, they prove to us that media freedom and freedom of speech are the basic pillars of every democratic society.
Journalism is one of the key branches that this government is trying to usurp in order to implement its policies more easily. Although there are still many shining examples in our profession, they have largely succeeded. We don’t get answers to the questions we ask, and those who can ask them do not do so.
Students now ask the right questions, and in the style of good journalists, they don’t give up until they get the answers. They try to get answers from the institutions, not from the top of the state, and stick to the premise that the truth can be unpleasant, but it is always less dangerous than lies hidden behind the silence.
We believe that these hard-learned lessons will be followed tomorrow when they practice their profession.
We strongly condemn the behavior of the regime’s media, which not only do not report objectively and professionally, but constantly incite citizens against students and professors. We remind them that press freedom is not only a right, but also a responsibility.
Coalition for Media Freedom and Association of Independent Electronic Media (AIEM)
December 17, 2024
The Coalition for Media Freedom: the Association of Media, the Association of Online Media (AOM), the Independent Association of Journalists of Vojvodina (NDNV), the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (NUNS), the Business Association of Local and Independent Media “Local Press”, the Slavko Curuvija Foundation and Branch Trade Union of Culture, Arts and Media ‘Nezavisnost’