The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has today received an official complaint drafted by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) which draws the attention to alarming developments in Serbia. According to the network, the Serbian Prime Minister, some media that support his administration and other high-ranking government officials are conducting unprecedented attacks against critical voices. After a series of investigations on issues of public interest, the Serbian authorities and pro-governmental media organisations started a public campaign against BIRN journalists labelling them as “EU mercenaries, spies and liars” or people working against Serbian national interests. “We are alarmed and particularly concerned by what appears to…

The Association of Journalists of Kosovo, Metohija (DNKiM) and the Journalists’ Association of Serbia (UNS, member of the European Federation of Journalists) support the work of the United Nations’ Human Rights Advisory Panel in Pristina and request from UNMIK, EULEX and the Pristina institutions to comply with the recommendations of the Panel, conduct investigations of the murdered and missing persons, take the perpetrators to justice and fairly compensate families of the victims. DNKiM and UNS would like to draw attention that omissions in the police and judicial work of UNMIK and drastic violations of the European Convention on Human Rights…

On 18/11/2014, a conference entitled “Media Integrity Matters – Reclaiming public service values in the Western Balkans media: How should the European Union Respond ?” has been organized in Brussels by MEP Tanja Fajon. The event was a follow-up to the publication of the book “Media integrity matters” in June 2014, comprising the research conducted in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia. The study aims at addressing the obstacles to a democratic development of media systems in the countries of South East Europe/Western Balkans by pointing out corrupt relations and practices in media policy, media ownership and financing,…