While protests and tense situations alternated in Serbia in recent months, reporters and journalistic teams were on the front line - and often under attack. Physical attacks, threats and interference with the work of journalists were recorded, from pushing and breaking equipment to apprehension and intimidation.
Such a trend directly threatens the safety of media workers and narrows the public's right to be timely and accurately informed. Numerous journalistic associations, newsrooms and media organizations have spoken out about these incidents, asking the relevant institutions for an immediate, effective reaction - identifying and sanctioning the perpetrators, as well as guarantees that journalists will be able to do their work unhindered.
On the other hand, there has been a body responsible for the safety of journalists for years, which may not be so well known to the general public outside the media community. The permanent working group for the safety of journalists (SRG) gathers representatives of journalistic organizations and state institutions with the aim of creating mechanisms that should protect journalists and enable a timely response to attacks on them.
Although it has been in a semi-frozen form for months, the mechanisms of the SRG are still functioning.
WHAT IS SRG??
The permanent working group for the safety of journalists was established in 2017. It was formed by the Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office (VJT), the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Serbia (MUP) and all relevant journalist and media associations - the Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia (NUNS), the Association of Journalists of Serbia (UNS), the Independent Association of Journalists of Vojvodina (NDNV), the Media Association, the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) and the Association of Online Media (AOM). It is important to note that the OSCE Mission to Serbia has been participating in the work of the SRG since its establishment.
The foundation for the establishment of the SRG was created by the signing of the Agreement on Cooperation and Measures to Increase the Safety of Journalists at the end of 2016. The signatories are the judicial institutions of the Republic of Serbia on the one hand and media associations on the other.
The goal of establishing the SRG was to create mechanisms for quick reaction in the event of threats to journalists' safety. Therefore, within the group, certain persons are responsible for coordinating actions in cases of criminal offenses against journalists. These are called contact points. On the media side, the contact points are in media associations, while in front of the prosecutor's office, they are in the appellate public prosecutor's offices for the territories of their local jurisdiction. Contact points in the Ministry of Internal Affairs have been established in 27 police departments.
At the beginning of this year, media associations one after the other suspended any form of cooperation with the bodies of the legislative and executive authorities, due to, as stated at the time, the faking of democratic processes and the collapse of the rule of law. Consequently, media associations also froze membership in the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists. However, although official sessions are not held, SRG mechanisms are still functioning.
WHAT DOES THE DATA SAY??
According to the SRG report for 2024, it can be seen that this group met four times within regular sessions, while nine visits were organized at the local level, with the aim of improving dialogue and creating trust in this body. Last year, 62 attacks on journalists were recorded, which is a decrease of about 18 percent compared to the year before, when 76 cases were registered. However, there was an increase in the number of attacks on female journalists, and in 2024, 55 percent of the victims were female journalists. In 2023, female journalists accounted for a third. When it comes to attacks in the digital environment, in nine cases the victims were men, and in 19 women.
The first-instance or final decision was made in 17 cases formed during 2024, which represents 27,42 percent of the total number. In the cases initiated in 2024, one guilty verdict was passed, which is a significant decrease compared to 2023, when there were 12 guilty verdicts. From the beginning of the database of attacks on journalists in the prosecutor's office in 2016 until the end of 2024, a total of 587 cases were established in all prosecutor's offices in the Republic of Serbia, based on reports of criminal offenses against journalists. According to the statistical data of the prosecutor's office, a total of 350 cases were resolved for this period, which is 59,63 percent.
Also, according to the report, the courts decided in two cases that the suspects of threats to journalists should be allowed to defend themselves from house arrest with shackles, and in both cases these persons escaped and continue to pose a threat to threatened journalists. In the end, out of 17 solved cases during the previous year, the prosecution made a decision in 14 of them to reject the criminal charges, that is, that there is no place to initiate criminal proceedings.
At the end of April last year, the criminal proceedings for the burning of the house of Milan Jovanović, a journalist of the internet portal "Žig Info" from Grocka, were also legally ended. Namely, after six years, this journalist finally met the epilogue. Nevertheless, the last court instance decided to reduce the prison sentences to which the suspects were sentenced.
In the same period, the proceedings against Igor Božić, program director of N1 television, which were sent in the form of comments on the portal of this media, were also legally terminated. The person responsible for the mentioned comment concluded an agreement with the prosecutor's office on the recognition of the criminal offense, and the High Court in Belgrade accepted that agreement and sentenced the defendant to a suspended sentence for one year. The SRG report cites this case as an example of good practice in the work of the Permanent Working Group.
However, in some cases, such as the attack on the journalist of the weekly "Radar" Vuk Cvijić and the threatening messages sent to representatives of the NDNV, the court's epilogue has still not been met.
ACHIEVEMENTS AND OBSTACLES
The president of the High Council of the Prosecutor's Office and member of the SRG, Branko Stamenković, tells "Vreme" that there have been several achievements of the Permanent Working Group since its establishment until today. First of all, he explains, he would single out "building an understanding of the problems that journalists face in their work", which concern possible criminal protection. He adds that it was extremely important for them, as prosecutors, to look at and understand as many circumstances and facts as possible regarding the safety of journalists and to propose more concrete measures to both the prosecutor's office and journalists and their associations and associates.
Stamenković adds that the second most important achievement is the adoption of the General Mandatory Instruction of the then Republic, now the Supreme Public Prosecutor of the Republic of Serbia. As he says, "this is the first time on European soil that a network of permanent public prosecutors has been formed, especially for cases involving the safety of journalists". The interlocutor says "that even today, despite all the difficulties, the network has over 110 prosecutors in 90 public prosecutor's offices, and is on call 24 hours a day throughout the year." It clarifies that duty prosecutors also have the obligation to file a case within 24 hours of the event, i.e. potential commission of a criminal offense, and to conduct an interview with a journalist within the next 48 hours.
He adds that there are other achievements of the SRG, but that these two are the most important in his opinion.
When talking about trust in the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists, the interlocutor thinks that a long way has been traveled from a "very present lack of trust to the existence of a significant understanding of the work and procedures of the public prosecution in this area by journalists and their associations."
However, he adds that the fact is that "complete trust does not exist and that such a situation stems from the challenges they face, which range from difficulties in obtaining evidence of the commission of a criminal offense to the misunderstanding of a number of journalists about the limits of the actions of the institution they represent".
Stamenković says that "the escalation of violence that has been observed at public gatherings recently - where the journalists present are doing their work - and the consequences of that violence, which is reflected on them, are worrying and do not lead to the strengthening of trust", but, as he believes, "have the opposite effect".
"I am sure that there is room for improvement and that, in fact, it is necessary for the Permanent Working Group not only to continue its work, but to strengthen it precisely in relation to the events of a criminal nature that have been happening recently to all journalists in our country", he concludes.
interlocutor.
This text was created with the financial support of the European Union. The weekly "Vreme" is solely responsible for the content of this text and under no circumstances can it be considered to reflect the views of the European Union. The project - Women Journalists Are Not Alone: Information, Protection and Resilience - is supported within the support program "Safejournalists.net"
