Ombudsman: Insufficient media freedom

Ombudsman: Insufficient media freedom

The report notes that self-censorship pervades the media industry, while critical reporting was in 2014 labeled as “an indecent anti-state activity that hinders reforms”.

The moves that the country's officials are taking and the circumstances in the media market are conducive to self-censorship or tendentious reporting which is detrimental to the right of each and every citizen to be timely, accurately and fully informed about the issues of public importance, as guaranteed by the Constitution.

Journalists are frequently exposed to covert or overt threats, and the state did not prove efficient in combating them, the ombudsman said.

In such situations, journalists are forced to choose between their own safety and provision of information of public importance, the release notes.

Jankovic also said that the refusal of the Military Security Agency (VBA) and the Ministry of Defense to provide information they possessed concerning an incident featuring the participation of two members of the military police in Belgrade in September 2014 constituted a violation of the internationally recognized principle of democratic, civilian control of security services and and was a violation of a series of laws.

Speaking about the incident in his annual report, the ombudsman said it was the first case in the ombudsperson’s practice in Serbia so far that a government body did not challenge the authority of the control but refused to provide information it had in its possession and to cooperate with the protector of citizens.

By refusing to provide information that they had been asked for and cooperate in the control procedure, the VBA and MO violated the Laws on the Protectors of Citizens, on the Serbian Armed Forces, on the Bases of Security Services Organization, on the Military Intelligence Agency and the Military Security Agency and the Law on the Protection of Whistleblowers, according to the report.

The ombudsman stated that there was a need for the civilian control of the military and security services to be supplemented and strengthened with the term “democratic.”

Jankovic said in his report that cooperation between the Security Information Agency (BIA) and the protector of citizens had been at the level of the best European and international practices.

In the section of the document on civilian control of and operations of the security services, Jankovic said that the BIA fully cooperated with the ombudsman in the control and prevention procedures.

A thorough examination of the way in which the BIA conducts its “secret search” established that the agency respects the constitutional guarantees of human rights.

The BIA has also informed the ombudsman that it would deal with the mistakes that had been established in individual cases.

The ombudsman pointed to the fact that Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, who is also leader of Serbia’s biggest, ruling party, had been at the head of the Security Service Coordination Bureau in 2014.

"My previous reports also pointed to an increased risk of politicization, which is always present in the work of the security services," the ombudsman said.