Serbia's Free Media Advocates Submit Requests to PM

Members of the "For Media Freedom" organisation were due on Tuesday to meet Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic and submit a list of requests and complaints about what they call the worsening situation of the free media sector in the country.

The editor of the local newspaper Vranjske, Vukasin Obradovic, said it would be the first time that the umbrella for 26 media associations and NGOs had sat down with Brnabic - and the focus of their talks would be the status, rights and conditions of journalists in Serbia.

"We will present our requests to improve the status of the media in Serbia and the things the government could do in those terms," he told N1 television on Sunday.

Obradovic, a former head of the Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia, NUNS, added that the "For Media Freedom" group did not intend to enter into any political discussions and wanted only to concentrate on the conditions of journalists.

Criticising the EU for its non-involvement in the problems facing the media in Serbia, he said the EU should not be "hypocritical and observe the state of media freedom in Serbia using different lenses in relation to the standards applied in the EU".

Representatives of "For Media Freedom" group who participated in the EU-Western Balkans Media Days, held in Tirana last week, staged a brief protest during that event by standing in black shirts with the message #EUdoMore.

Serbian journalist Tamara Skrozza said in her speech during the event on November 10 that "the EU should not be fighting our battles, but also not complicate our efforts to fight for the freedom of the media in Serbia".

Many journalists feel under attack in the country if and when they speak out.

On September 18,...