Under Siege: How Independent Journalism in Serbia Became an Act of Democratic Resistance

By Global Investigative Desk

The physical collapse of a concrete railway station canopy in Novi Sad on November 1, 2024, did not just crush sixteen lives; it fractured the fragile political equilibrium of Serbia. As tonnes of concrete plummeted to the ground, they triggered an unprecedented wave of public fury over state-level negligence, endemic corruption, and a pervasive lack of transparency.

What began as localized grief in Serbia’s second-largest city quickly metastasized into nationwide protests, drawing thousands into the streets of Belgrade and across the country. Ministers hastily resigned. Prime Minister Miloš Vučević stepped down after government-backed loyalists physically assaulted peaceful student demonstrators. Yet, rather than placating the populace, these concessions catalyzed a resilient, youth-led civic movement that continues to challenge the political establishment.

Into this volatile landscape stepped President Aleksandar Vučić. Having dominated Serbian politics for over a decade—alternating between prime minister and president—Vučić announced early parliamentary elections. In stepping down from the presidency to campaign once more for prime minister, Vučić sought to consolidate power. But for Serbia’s independent journalists, this political reshuffling has coincided with a dark, relentless crackdown.

International watchdogs, including Freedom House and Reporters Without Borders (RSF), have tracked a steady erosion of democratic norms under Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). Over the past decade, Serbia has plummeted 45 places in RSF’s World Press Freedom Index, sliding from 59th to 104th. While investigative reporters were already operating in a hostile environment, the Novi Sad tragedy marked a sinister tipping point—a moment when institutional pressure morphed into an open war against independent truth-tellers.

Chronology of Crisis: From Infrastructure Collapse to Systemic Crackdown

To understand the current plight of the Serbian press, one must trace the timeline of escalating hostility that transformed reporting from a high-pressure profession into a perilous vocation.

• November 1, 2024: The canopy at the Novi Sad railway station collapses, killing 16 people. Mass protests erupt across Serbia, demanding accountability from the government.
• Late 2024 – Early 2025: Independent media outlets face a surge in physical attacks while covering demonstrations. Documented instances of police apathy toward assaults on press workers rise sharply.
• March 29, 2025: During local elections, violence against reporters reaches a fever pitch. In Bor, investigative journalists Lazar Dinić and Ivan Bijelić of the publication Revolt suffer severe head injuries after being brutally assaulted by unidentified assailants while trying to document election irregularities.
• March 2025: Amnesty International reveals that journalists from the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) were targeted with sophisticated Pegasus spyware.
• June 2025: Prominent military analyst and freelance journalist Aleksandar Radić flees Serbia, becoming one of a growing number of media workers forced into exile after reporting on sensitive state security issues.
• Late Summer 2024 to Late 2025: Besieged by Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs), independent outlets such as KRIK, BIRN, and the Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation form "Network 33"—a cooperative solidarity initiative designed to monitor and report on each other’s courtrooms.
• September 2026: President Vučić steps down to run for prime minister in the snap October elections, sparking fears of heightened state rhetoric, increased surveillance, and further violence against the press.

Supporting Data: The Anatomy of Repression

The deterioration of press freedom in Serbia is not merely anecdotal; it is meticulously quantified by local watchdogs, international legal frameworks, and human rights organizations.

According to data compiled by the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) and local press freedom groups, impunity for violence against journalists remains near-total. In 2025 alone, monitoring bodies recorded 140 cases involving threats, harassment, or physical attacks against journalists and media workers. Out of those 140 cases, the judicial system yielded a paltry three convictions for physical assault.

Verbal intimidation has likewise become an institutionalized strategy. The Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation, named after the murdered publisher Slavko Ćuruvija (killed in 1999 during an era when a young Aleksandar Vučić served as information minister), monitors "verbal attacks" launched by top state officials. These metrics categorize instances of pressure, labeling, discrediting, dehumanization, and criminalization. In monthly tallies throughout 2026, President Vučić and other high-ranking cabinet members consistently topped the list of offenders.

Financial precarity compounds these physical and legal threats. Independent newsrooms rely heavily on international grants and individual donations. However, recent geopolitical shifts—including the withdrawal of USAID funding and the redirection of international donor funds toward global conflict zones—have left outlets like the Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS) fighting for survival.

Furthermore, digital surveillance has reached alarming levels. Following the targeted use of Pegasus spyware against BIRN journalists in 2025, Citizen Lab reported in September 2026 that at least fourteen more civil society members and activists had been targeted with advanced spyware tools.

Official Responses and Institutional Impunity

When confronted with international condemnation and detailed alerts from press freedom organizations, Serbian authorities have largely met inquiries with institutional deflection and technical dismissals.

The European Commission’s 2025 report on Serbia—an official candidate for European Union membership—explicitly demanded that high-level officials cease their verbal attacks on journalists, warning that such rhetoric creates a "chilling effect on the freedom of expression."

Yet, responses from Belgrade remain cold and administrative. Following alerts submitted to the Council of Europe concerning derogatory remarks made in the National Assembly—such as Culture Minister Nikola Selakovići’s comment that prominent professor and journalist Dinko Gruhonjić was "created to attract someone to do something bad to [him]"—the government’s official reply was strictly technical. State representatives stated that denigration and defamation do not constitute criminal offenses under Serbian penal code, suggesting instead that victims pursue civil litigation or noting that preliminary investigations were "ongoing" or had been legally dismissed.

Similarly, when state-aligned media outlets label independent journalists as "traitors" or "foreign mercenaries," and when pro-government tabloids accuse reporters of "secretly directing" student protests, official bodies disavow responsibility. Regarding the Pegasus spyware revelations, National Assembly President Ana Brnabić explicitly denied state involvement, questioning the credibility of targeted students and civil society actors.

Independent journalists note that requests for public information are systematically ignored, and state agencies routinely deny interview requests to critical outlets, erecting a bureaucratic wall designed to stymie investigative accountability.

Implications: Burnout, Exile, and the Resilience of Network 33

The cumulative effect of relentless pressure, physical insecurity, and legal warfare has taken a devastating psychological and professional toll on Serbia’s media community.

Milica Šarić, director of CINS, notes an unprecedented crisis of human capital. "This year I’m seeing something I haven’t seen before, and that’s a complete burnout in our journalists, our editors, and people running media organisations," she observes. With six Serbian journalists currently living in exile due to work-related threats, the diaspora of independent voices is expanding.

Yet, amidst the gloom, journalists are pioneering innovative forms of defense. For the Crime and Corruption Reporting Network (KRIK), legal harassment via SLAPPs—Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation—has become a daily obstacle. Facing 13 active, frivolous lawsuits designed to drain their meager financial resources and exhaust their time in court, KRIK fought back.

By partnering with BIRN Serbia and the Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation, KRIK helped establish Network 33 (named after the combined tally of SLAPP suits the founding groups were facing in the summer of 2024). Instead of suffering in isolation, journalists began showing up en masse to each other’s court dates in an act of profound solidarity. Crucially, they turned the courtroom benches into a reporting beat, publishing articles about the very lawsuits meant to silence them. This publicity dismantled the public stigma that being dragged to court implies guilt, ultimately stalling the influx of new lawsuits against KRIK.

For veterans like Dinko Gruhonjić—whose life has been upended by manipulated viral videos, constant death threats, and the vandalism of his family’s property—the struggle requires both institutional support and psychological resilience. Gruhonjić, an anti-fascist scholar, journalist, and professor at the University of Novi Sad, views his professional standards not merely as technical rules, but as an essential form of democratic resistance.

As Serbia barrels toward its upcoming parliamentary elections, regional press freedom directors, such as Fiona O’Brien of the Committee to Protect Journalists, warn that the worst may still be ahead. With the European Union holding significant leverage as a gatekeeper for Serbian accession, international monitors insist that the bloc must not normalize a political climate where reporting the truth can cost a journalist their safety, their livelihood, or their life.

For now, Serbia’s independent press continues to walk a razor-thin line—defending impartial reporting in a hyper-polarized nation where, as Šarić notes, "the entire nation is either for the government or against the government, and nothing else matters."