State Department warns of human rights problems in Serbia

“Significant human rights issues included: allegations of torture by police; the worst forms of restrictions on free expression and the press, including violence and threats of violence against journalists; numerous acts of government corruption; and crimes, including violence, targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) individuals,” the State Department Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Serbia said.

It added that the government “took steps to prosecute officials who committed human rights abuses (and punish them, if convicted), both in the police force and elsewhere in the government, following public exposure of abuses”.

“Nevertheless, many observers believed numerous cases of corruption, social and domestic violence, and other abuses went unreported and unpunished,” it said.

“Police corruption and impunity remained problems, despite some progress on holding corrupt police officials accountable. There was no specialized governmental body to examine killings at the hands of the security forces,” the report said. It warned that courts remained susceptible to corruption and political influence and of reports that the government failed to respect prohibitions on interfering with correspondence and communications.

“The constitution provides for freedom of expression, including for the press, but threats and attacks on journalists, a lack of transparency of media ownership, and the oversized role of the state in the country’s oversaturated media sector undermined these freedoms,” it added.

“There were reports that the government actively sought to direct media reporting on a number of issues. Economic pressure sometimes led media outlets to practice self-censorship, refraining from publishing content critical of the government, based on a fear of government harassment or economic consequences, according to media association representatives,” the report said.  

The entire report is available here.