Serbia: Administrative harassment against Juzne Vesti news portal

Series of administrative intimidation acts have been taken by the local authorities against Serbian news portal Juzne Vesti, with an increasing pressure in the last six months. The Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (NUNS) reported that the long lasting intimidation against the news portal works as a model for putting pressure on media critical to the government in Serbia. The last investigation of Juzne Vesti resulted in a legal notice against the news portal obliging it to pay a million dinars (more or less 8,400 EUR), even though no irregularities in tax activities were found. During the last five years, Juzne Vesti were subjected to…

Russian editor threatened by government official in Chechnya

The Speaker of the Chechen Parliament, Magomed Daudov, tried to intimidate Gregory Shvedov, the editor-in-chief of Caucasian Knot (Kavkazsky Uzel), an independent online news site that covers the Caucasus, focusing on human rights violations. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) strongly condemned this shameful intimidation. Daudov, aka Lord, posted his threats on the social media website Instagram on 4th January, calling for violence against “Shved”, a clear reference to Grigory Shvedov. The post, titled “How to untie the Caucasian Knot”, is accompanied by a picture of a dog, and calls “for a vet to pull out [Shved’s] wisdom teeth and cut his tongue to size”.…

New platform launched to monitor threats against women journalists

To mark the International Women’s Day on 8 March, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) partners with the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) to launch a special Women’s Reporting Point to address the growing threat facing women journalists coming from online and offline world. The Women’s Reporting Point is hosted by the ECPMF to allow victims to report threats via encrypted messaging. The report will be handled with care and confidentiality by a female member of the staff. The reports made to the ECPMF will be collected in a database (with details of the woman’s identity removed)…