A recent report by the Association of Independent Journalists of Serbia together with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network analyses the problems concerning the safety of journalists on the web, looking at the specific case of Serbia, and suggests how to make the editorial environment less dangerous

23/08/2023 –  Ettore Morello

Threats and attacks against journalists are increasingly frequent and in most cases directly affect computer systems, websites, e-mail, and generally digitised documents. As a recent report  by the Association of Independent Journalists of Serbia and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network demonstrates, very often, attacks on journalists occur through insults, intimidation, defamation, and abuse of digital identity. The media can be subject to troll campaigns and rampant disinformation, favoured by the anonymity of the web. These issues could cause unfounded reporting and the removal of journalistic content from social media. The lack of protection mechanisms and clarity on what is considered criminal behaviour remains a serious concern.

The consequences of these threats affect the work of journalists, communication with sources and colleagues, and the quality of reporting. Press freedom, as highlighted by the 2023 report by Reporters without borders  , is undergoing a progressive deterioration.

The issue increasingly involves the digital world, as the partners of the European consortium, Media Freedom Rapid Response  , mentioned in their report. Particularly, the report stresses how online attacks are now comparable in number to real ones.

As the authors of the report point out, this trend is visible, for example, in Serbia, where for years we have been witnessing an ongoing erosion of democratic institutions and press freedom and growing media polarisation. In this partly free socio-political context  there have been frequent online attacks on journalists investigating cases of corruption, abuse of office, and organised crime.

Many of the attacks occur with the use of bots (often on Twitter) through comments posted on media web portals, content platforms, and even personal social profiles.

The defence mechanisms identified by Serbian journalists include self-protection and the use of editorial and platform procedures. Self-protection consists in hiding and banning hate speech profiles and sentences on social platforms.

On their part, to counter the phenomenon of online threats, newsrooms act as moderators of the comment sections on their web pages. Still, the situation is worrying as newsrooms lack internal mechanisms to effectively respond to attacks, which are furthermore increasingly perceived as a “normal” phenomenon in the digital world. Even directly addressing platforms or institutions has led to few results: identifying attackers is difficult if not impossible, especially when attackers hyde behind anonymous profiles.

Insults, threats, and hate messages have a strong impact on both the professional and personal lives of journalists in Serbia. Despite being threatened, as the authors point out, none of the journalists interviewed has given up their jobs.

Poor legislative framework for online threats

The Serbian regulatory framework lacks specific provisions to deal with online threats and attacks. Indeed, there is special protection for journalists working in an environment characterised by security hazards. The challenges for the legal system arise both due to the lack of adaptation of the laws to the digital world but also due to web anonymity. The stringent definition of serious threat established by Serbian court practice does not, in most cases, make perpetrators of online intimidation criminally liable. The analysis of the cases reveals a prevalence of suspended sentences (14 out of 17) for online harassment in Serbia, with only three cases leading to actual, but still limited, detention. Prosecutions and the further victimisation they entail discourage journalists, especially women journalists, from reporting online attacks.

The report’s recommendations for dealing with online attacks on journalists are addressed in particular to governments and public officials, but also to newsrooms. The report underlines the need for greater speed in online investigations by public officials and for a more serious regulatory adaptation to the relevant EU directives. Amending the law on public information and the media and reforming the penal code remain priorities to be addressed by the country.

Newsrooms, for their part, should create clear online safety protocols to incentivise journalists to report attacks on digital platforms. It is thus essential to train journalists on protection mechanisms, but also judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and ministries on the different types of online attacks on journalism.

Introducing legislation to reduce the impact of secondary victimisation (the additional attacks journalists may face during the trial) would ensure more comprehensive and less self-censored reporting. Politicians and public officials should avoid hate speech online and promptly condemn digital attacks on journalists. Ultimately, better collaboration between the state, civil society organisations, and the technology sector would certainly contribute to a safer media and digital environment.

This article was originally published on Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso

On August 23rd, during a press conference led by Prime Minister Edi Rama and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Energy, Belinda Balluku, the intended focus was a significant discovery in the Shpiragu oil-bearing zone in Albania. However, the conversation swiftly moved beyond the oil discovery as journalists attempted to raise other urgent issues of public concern.

When probed about other major issues, including ongoing investigations by SPAK on incinerators and sterilization, and the escalating tensions with Greece over the impressment of the elected Mayor of Himara due to alleged voting fraud, the Prime Minister sidestepped these issues. Instead, he expressed dismay at the journalists, accusing them of a lack of ethics and comparing their questioning to a disruptive rally.

Such a rebuke of the media isn’t a first for Prime Minister Rama. His trend of criticizing journalists for posing questions he deems inappropriate and instructing them on “suitable” topics has previously ignited concerns among media freedom advocates and journalists alike.

This incident raises concerns about the transparency and accountability of leaders to the press and, by extension, to the public. Withholding answers to questions of public interest, particularly on pressing national concerns, draws a blurry line between staying on topic and possible information gatekeeping. For a thriving democracy, it is vital that press freedoms are upheld and that journalists are able to ask questions without fear of reproach, especially when those questions pertain to public interest of considerable significance.

Source:

https://www.kryeministria.al/newsroom/konference-per-shtyp-e-kryeministrit-edi-rama-dhe-zv-kryeministres-dhe-ministres-se-infrastruktures-dhe-energjise-belinda-balluku-per-zbulimin-ne-zonen-naftembajtese-te-shpiragut/

https://lapsi.al/2023/08/23/nafta/

Students of journalism at the Faculty of Political Science in Zagreb, gathered in an initiative, have learned that the specialization in radio journalism is being discontinued at the Faculty. They claim that those studying journalism are being treated worse than their political science colleagues, and that the dean’s argumentation is inconsistent, reports N1 television.

For a month now, there has been buzz about the dissatisfaction of students at the Faculty of Political Science after two elective courses were abolished, thereby eliminating the specialization in Radio Journalism that students chose in their third year.

Students are sending a message that, if the dean refuses to talk to them, they are ready to protest.

Regarding the dissatisfaction of students, Roko Silov, a member of the student initiative, spoke to N1, while Andrija Henjak, dean of the FPZG, described his thoughts on the matter in a written response, which we present in its entirety:

“Since the radio specialization is constantly mentioned, it is first necessary to clarify that this is not about a specialization. Namely, a specialization is a special part of the study program that is accredited as such and is conducted as a separate element, the completion of which results in a special diploma, which has its own specific enrollment quota and study program, as well as an implementation plan, and into which students enroll at the beginning of their studies. It is impossible to abolish a specialization without expelling the students who attend it from the study program. The undergraduate and graduate journalism programs are unique study programs that do not have specializations, which can easily be determined on the faculty’s website and which students should know. Here, we are talking about a pair of elective subjects that are taught in the fifth and sixth semesters of study (further clarification follows below) and which constitute a specialization. Therefore, since there was no radio specialization, it could not have been abolished. But neither were individual subjects abolished because a special decision of the faculty council stating that certain subjects are being abolished is required to abolish subjects, and such a decision has never been made, so the subjects have not been abolished.

This year, a pair of elective subjects in radio journalism, Radio Editing, and Fundamentals of Radio Research, will not be taught, one in the fifth and the other in the sixth semester. I would like to point out that these are elective subjects offered as one of five pairs of elective subjects covering radio journalism, television journalism, print journalism, new media, and public relations. A student chooses two of the aforementioned pairs of subjects.

These subjects build upon compulsory subjects that students take in the second year of study, called Basics of Radio, Basics of Television, Basics of Print Media, Radio Journalism, Television Journalism, and Newspaper Writing. All students attend these subjects, and they are regularly taught.

For several years now, a lecturer external to the faculty has been teaching the entire course for the pair of elective subjects Radio Editing and Fundamentals of Radio Expression in a 100% teaching position. The reason for this situation lies in the fact that until this year, the relevant department did not raise the issue of hiring new teachers related to radio content subjects, nor in previous years did it propose hiring any of the permanently employed teachers or collaborators to teach these subjects. No new teachers have been employed for subjects covering radio content for more than two decades.

Until this year, one teacher and one external collaborator taught the subjects covering radio content (two compulsory subjects in the second year and two elective subjects in the third year), and this year, another external collaborator has been added. Just for comparison, five teachers, three external collaborators, one technical collaborator, and at least ten demonstrators are involved in teaching the subjects covering television content. Four teachers, one to two external collaborators, and at least two demonstrators are involved in teaching the subjects covering print media.”

You can read the full text on n1info.hr.

The Council of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) said that the airing of content produced using artificial intelligence in entertainment, documentary, educational and other programs should also contain a visible notice that it is an artificial intelligence-generated program.

The notice should be displayed before, throughout and at the end of the AI-generated program, said REM.

In connection with videos featuring public figures whose voices have been cloned using artificial intelligence, REM stressed that, under the law, media service providers cannot air programs that can abuse the gullibility of viewers and listeners.

It said that audio-visual content must not mislead the public regarding the persons, events or occurrences that are the subject of the videos, especially in info programs whose main purpose is to inform the users of media services, on the basis of facts, about current events, persons and occurrences and to contribute to their interpreting and understanding.

Under the law, media service providers are required to prevent the misuse of personal information, that is, identity, including one’s image or voice.

Journalists in Serbia are the target of attacks and targeting initiated by politicians, as a result of which not only the freedom and pluralism of the media are threatened, but also their safety, said the president of the European Federation of Journalists Maja Sever, expressing grave concern that the situation could be even worse.

Sever told the Beta agency that the targeting and campaigns against journalists in Serbia are initiated by politicians who should actually help protect journalism and freedom of expression through responsible behaviour, but that they „do the exact opposite and incite attacks on journalists.“

„Populism in politics has brought a dangerous rise in tensions in all societies, but I am afraid that some boundaries have been crossed in Serbia and I fear that the consequences can only be worse. In fact, sometimes when I watch speeches, tweets or video messages shared by some of your politicians, I honestly fear for the safety of my colleagues,“ Sever said.

She believes that the situation could be improved in the process of European integration and that the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA), which is being prepared by Brussels, will be important for Serbia.

The Association of Journalists of Kosovo’s Journalists in Residence – Kosovo team, together with the Ukrainian journalists sheltered in Kosovo, visited North Macedonia.

Lydmila Makei, Oksana Chikanchy, Viktoriia Kaidash, Liudmyla Mekh, Serhii Shevchenko, Olga Lisnycha, Olha Praidko, Liudmyla Lukianchenko, Tetiana Kraselnykova, Liliia Vorobiova, Volodymyr Martyno, Nazar Chaban and Yaroslav Tkachenko, visited the Matka Canyon, the city of Skopje and the zoo.

Ukrainian journalists have been sheltered in Kosovo as part of the Journalists in Residence – Kosovo program, which was initiated by the European Center for Press and Media Freedom ECPMF, and is being implemented by AJK with financial support from the Government of the Republic of Kosovo, the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, and the Hannah Arendt initiative.

The “Journalists in Residence – Kosovo” initiative has benefited 18 Ukrainian journalists, six of whom have completed the six-month residency program in Kosovo.

The organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemned Serbia’s arrest of Natasha Tyshkevich, the former journalist of the Russian student newspaper Doxa, and the “deplorable conditions” in which the Serbian authorities held her.

“RSF is alarmed by a potentially deliberate attempt to intimidate Russian exile journalists,” said the organization on its official website, Danas reported.

After fleeing Russia last year to escape an arbitrary prison sentence and finding a refuge in Germany, Natasha Tyshkevich had not expected to be locked up in a European country.

Nonetheless, because she did not know she needed a visa in addition to her travel document provided by Germany, she was held for nearly two days by the Serbian authorities at Belgrade airport after landing there on 7 August.

“While it is legitimate to deny entry to a person who does not have a visa, placing them in police custody for more than 40 hours is a disproportionate measure. By treating Natasha Tyshkevich as a criminal, were the Serbian authorities trying to intimidate Russian exile journalists in order to please the Kremlin?” asked Pavol Szalai, the head of RSF’s European Union-Balkans desk.

When Tyshkevich flew to Belgrade on 7 August with the aim of visiting friends in Serbia, she only had the travel document provided by Germany.

The Russian authorities had confiscated her passport as part of proceedings against her and her three fellow editors at Doxa.

It was only when Serbian immigration officials denied her entry that she discovered that her travel document was not valid without a visa outside the European Union.

Instead of obliging Tyshkevich – who was in an airport transit area – to leave on a flight out of the country, the authorities arrested her and held her for more than 40 hours while failing to provide her with almost any food.

When she tearfully resisted entering the cell where they held her, the guards threatened to send her to “a real prison.”

On 9 August, she was finally put on a flight back to Malta, from where she had flown to Serbia.

Tyshkevich is one of the four journalists who worked for the independent Moscow student magazine Doxa and who were sentenced in 2021 to two years’ “corrective labor” over an online video in which they defended young Russians’ freedom of assembly.

They were under house arrest for almost a year after they were detained in April 2021 for posting a three-minute video on YouTube in which they said it was illegal to expel and intimidate students for participating in rallies in support of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

Tyshkevich initially sought refuge in Armenia before moving to Germany.

The Russian authorities issued a warrant for her arrest in November 2022.