BELGRADE, 17.08.2018. – Six journalists’ and media organizations made demands to the Serbian government on Thursday as a condition for their involvement in drawing up a national media strategy.
The six organizations warned that there have been no improvements on the media scene despite assurances from Prime Minister Ana Brnabic that the political will exists to make those improvements. “The situation is getting more complicated daily with bad effects on journalists and the media, media freedom and the right of the population to be informed objectively and professionally,” the organizations said in the document accompanying their 13 demands submitted at a meeting with the government Media Coordination Body.
The demands include an end to all forms of harassment and discrimination of journalists and media as well as inspections by the tax authorities and court campaigns against independent media. The media organizations want cases of assaults on journalists solved and an end to all forms of government support to media which spread hatred and create an atmosphere of anxiety and violence.
Among the main points of the demands are measures to resolve what the six media organizations views as the illegal status positions of the Tanjug news agency and Radio TV Kragujevac, which should have been shut down because the law bans government ownership of media.