Pressure and hate speech in Serbian media, Bieber says

He said the situation has not been this bad since the fall of Slobodan Milosevic in the year 2000. “Nationalism, hate speech in media close to the government, attacks on independent media, control and pressure are preventing the work of critical media but it’s a normal thing for those media to exist,” Bieber said.  

Bieber teaches at the University of Graz and is Director of the university Centre for Southeast European Studies.   He said the problem lies in the fact that “the European Union and its officials do not realize how serious the situation is and are prepared to close their eyes to it” because they find it useful.  

Bieber believes that Serbia is not going towards becoming more democratic and said the main reason for that is the fact that European integration and reforms do not solve real challenges such as weak institutions and autocratic governments. “The EU is not willing to exert pressure on those governments and their un-democratic practices,” he said.  

The professor recalled the annual report by the Reporters Without Frontiers which showed that Serbia recorded one of the biggest drops in terms of media freedom. “Other elements include informal pressure on independent institutions and pressure on voters,” Bieber said.   Serbia can hardly expect to join the EU under the control of President Aleksandar Vucic, Bieber said and added that Serbia will have to recognize Kosovo in some however informal way before acceding to the EU.