The Journalists’ Association of Serbia (UNS) said on Tuesday that the number of threats and attacks on the media had almost doubled and called the authorities to investigate every case.

A statement issued on World Press Freedom Day said that UNS registered 140 cases of threats, pressure (most of it from officials of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party – SNS) and assaults on journalists between May 3, 2021 and May 3, 2022, compared to 74 a year earlier. It said most of the cases were online threats.

UNS warned that it registered the first case of a phone threat disappearing from evidence after it was reported to the police. It said that repression of journalists had increased in local communities along with pressure from members of political parties. It said that the authorities were not reacting adequately and that media staff were underpaid.

According to UNS, Serbian media face a deteriorating financial situation because of SLAPP suits demanding unrealistically high damages.

UNS recalled that the killing of newspaper publisher Slavko Curuvija and reporter Milan Pantic are still ongoing court cases and investigations.

It said that Serbian journalists were being banned from Kosovo which was granted a visa-free regime with the European Union. “Is that a reward for turning Serbian journalists back from the border?,” it asked. It added that the international expert commission proposed by the European Federation of Journalists to deal with cases of journalists gone missing between 1998 and 2005 has not been formed yet.

UNS called the authorities to investigate every threat against the media and release information to the public, change the criminal code to include all attacks on journalists, complete the investigations into the killing of Curuvija and Pantic and bring the perpetrators to justice, introduce better protection against Slapp suits, secure institutional protection against attacks by public officials and media owners.