Under Siege: The Collapsing State of Press Freedom in Serbia

By Investigative Desk
Published: October 2026

Main Facts: The Frontline of Serbia’s Media Crisis

Serbia’s independent journalism community is facing an unprecedented existential threat. Characterized by a toxic ecosystem of strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs), targeted digital surveillance, physical assaults, and relentless state-sponsored smears, the country’s press freedom has plummeted to alarming depths. Over the past decade under President Aleksandar Vučić and the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), Serbia has nosedived 45 places in Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) World Press Freedom Index, plunging from 59th to 104th.

This hostility has metastasized into a pervasive climate of fear. Investigative reporters, editors, and media workers face high burnout rates, financial distress caused by shifting international funding priorities, and daily threats of violence. In a deeply polarized society where neutrality is treated as treason, independent watchdogs find themselves squeezed between an increasingly autocratic political apparatus and a public sphere heavily saturated by state-aligned tabloids and commercial broadcasters.

Chronology: From the Novi Sad Tragedy to Rising Authoritarian Crackdowns

The rapid deterioration of press freedoms in recent years did not occur in a vacuum, but it found a profound catalyst in a national tragedy.

• November 1, 2024: A concrete canopy above the entrance of the main railway station in Novi Sad, Serbia’s second-largest city, abruptly collapsed. Sixteen people were crushed to death. The disaster triggered massive, historic anti-government protests demanding accountability for widespread negligence and corruption.
• Late 2024 – Early 2025: Protests spread from Novi Sad to Belgrade and across the country. Government supporters physically attacked student demonstrators, eventually prompting the resignation of Prime Minister Miloš Vučević. Concurrently, independent journalists covering the unrest faced an unprecedented wave of physical violence and police indifference.
• March 29, 2026: During local elections, violence against reporters peaked. Independent journalists, including Lazar Dinić and Ivan Bijelić from the anti-corruption publication Revolt, were physically assaulted and suffered severe head injuries near Bor by unidentified assailants attempting to seize or smash their recording devices.
• June 2026: The persecution of critical voices forced an increasing number of media workers into exile. Notable figures, such as freelance journalist and military analyst Aleksandar Radić—who investigated the alleged use of sonic weapons against protesters—fled the country to escape state surveillance and judicial harassment.
• September 2026: Following early parliamentary election announcements by President Vučić (who stepped down as president to run for prime minister), international watchdogs and local coalitions documented a steep escalation in state-backed rhetoric aimed at discrediting the media ahead of the polls.

Supporting Data: The Anatomy of Repression

Data compiled by media freedom organizations, international watchdogs, and local foundations illustrate the systematic campaign waged against Serbian journalists:

• Impunity for Physical Assaults: According to a report by the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), out of 140 recorded cases of threats and physical assaults against journalists and media workers in 2025, only three resulted in convictions.
• State-Led Verbal Attacks: The Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation, tracking "verbal attacks" by top state officials, identified President Aleksandar Vučić as the single most frequent offender in launching campaigns of "pressure, labelling, discrediting, disparagement, dehumanisation, or criminalisation" against reporters.
• Digital Surveillance: Amnesty International and Citizen Lab confirmed that advanced spyware, including Pegasus, was deployed against investigative journalists from the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) and various civil society actors throughout 2025 and 2026.
• Judicial Harassment (SLAPPs): Non-profit organizations like the Crime and Corruption Reporting Network (KRIK) are currently battling 13 active SLAPP lawsuits designed to bankrupt and exhaust their editorial teams through continuous court appearances.
• Exile: At least six prominent Serbian journalists are currently living in exile due to direct threats connected to their reporting—four of whom fled the country in 2026 alone.

Official Responses: Denial and Institutional Deflection

International pressure, including explicit warnings from the European Commission’s 2025 progress report on Serbia’s EU candidacy, has repeatedly urged high-level officials to halt verbal attacks that exert a "chilling effect on the freedom of expression." Yet, official responses from Belgrade remain dismissive and technical.

When alerted through international mechanisms—such as the Council of Europe’s Platform to Promote the Protection of Journalism—regarding parliamentary smears (including statements by Minister of Culture Nikola Selaković suggesting that outspoken professor and journalist Dinko Gruhonjić was "created to attract someone to do something bad to [him]"), the government’s replies have been perfunctory.

Official statements argue that denigration and defamation are not criminal offenses under Serbian law, asserting instead that insults must be pursued entirely through private civil litigation. When approached for comment regarding systemic harassment, spyware deployment, and physical violence, representatives from the Serbian government, the Ministry of Culture, and the ruling SNS either declined to respond or denied state involvement—insisting, as acting President Ana Brnabić did regarding student espionage, that the state had no knowledge of or responsibility for illegal surveillance activities.

Implications: Solidarity as Democratic Resistance

The implications of Serbia’s press freedom crisis stretch far beyond newsrooms, threatening the very foundations of democratic accountability in a candidate nation for European Union membership.

The Birth of Network 33 and Grassroots Solidarity

Faced with financial precarity, algorithmic smearing, and the crippling weight of SLAPP lawsuits, independent media outlets have turned to collective defense. Organizations such as KRIK, BIRN Serbia, and the Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation launched Network 33—named after the combined tally of active SLAPP cases facing the founding partners. Rather than fighting legal battles in isolation, journalists systematically attend each other’s court dates to show solidarity and simultaneously report on the proceedings, effectively transforming courtroom harassment into public accountability.

The Cost of Impartiality

For independent editors like Milica Šarić, director of the Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS), maintaining strict journalistic impartiality in a hyper-polarized nation is an uphill battle.

"It’s so hard not to take sides," Šarić explains. "The entire nation is either for the government or against the government, and nothing else matters. But neither my news organisation nor I can take that path. That’s a thin line and if you cross it, you can never go back."

The Threat of EU Backsliding

Regional experts and international observers, such as Fiona O’Brien of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), emphasize that the European Union holds significant leverage through the accession process.

"We can’t entertain the idea of an EU member state in which the sorts of things that are happening to journalists in Serbia happen every day," O’Brien warns.

Ultimately, as seasoned educators and journalists like Dinko Gruhonjić instruct the next generation of reporters, adhering to professional ethics and rigorous standards is no longer merely a matter of technical execution. In contemporary Serbia, maintaining the integrity of the free press has become the ultimate act of democratic resistance.