Sofija Todorovic

A Serbian Orthodox bishop has been criticised for saying the forthcoming Europe Pride event in Belgrade will "desecrate" Belgrade, and saying he wished he could take up a weapon to stop it.

Activists lit candles on Monday evening in central Belgrade to pay their respects to victims of the July 1995 Srebrenica genocide.

The memorial event was held in a park between the Serbia presidency and the city assembly, with police providing security. However, no counter-demonstrators attempted to disrupt it.

The Mirëdita, Dobar Dan festival, which means "good day" in Albanian and Serbian and promotes reconciliation between Serbs and Kosovo Albanians, opened Wednesday in Belgrade with a photo exhibition, "All our tears", which pays homage to victims of war in Yugoslavia, particularly ethnic Serbs, Albanians and Macedonians.

Despite that the majority of journalists in the Western Balkans are women, they still face gender-based discrimination and abuse and often do not feel secure in speaking out due to fears of losing their jobs or reputation and not receiving the necessary support, an online panel discussion organised by BIRN was told on Thursday.

The European Court of Human Rights has asked both the Serbian government and a BIRN staffer, Sofija Todorovic, for more explanation, after she submitted a complaint to it about right-wingers who had targeted her online.

The court called on both sides to submit additional information and clarification by July 5.

Serbian right-wingers have begun a concerted campaign against BIRN project coordinator Sofija Todorovic since she defended the rights of an ethnic Albanian baker in her hometown of Borca - himself the subject of nationalist attacks - sharing hate speech, insults and threats to her on social media and attempting to hack her account on Twitter.