"No progress made regarding right to freedom of expression"

"No progress made regarding right to freedom of expression"

The report notes that "a legislative package aimed at improving the situation in the media and clarifying the legal framework, particularly in relation to state financing and control of the media, is in place," but that "conditions for the full exercise of freedom of expression are not in place."

"The new media laws need to be implemented. It has yet to be seen whether media privatization will increase transparency of ownership and funding," it is stated.

The report adds that "threats and violence against journalists remain of concern."

"Some criminal charges have been filed but final convictions are still rare," it said, noting that journalists "have little job security and low salaries and are thus prone to pressure and influence from economic and political quarters," and that "there has been no substantial progress in investigations on hacking attacks against websites occurred in 2014."

"Opaque ownership, unregulated financing, covert and open political and economic influence on the media and money channeled to favored media from various state sources continue to be features of the media environment," the EC said, and added:

"There have been cases reported of the rescheduling of tax debts for certain media outlets. The most common informal pressure on editorial policy is through advertising. Funding of media from state sources at all levels continues to be a problem."

The EC is therefore asking Serbia to in 2016 create an environment enabling freedom of expression without hindrance, threats, physical attacks and persecution of journalists.

It is also stated that Serbia should "complete the process of privatizing state and municipally owned media, strengthen the independence of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media so as to better support editorial independence in the media, and ensure adequate funding to public broadcasting service and ensure editorial independence."

A paragraph dealing with intimidation of journalists reads as follows:

"Threats and violence against journalists remain of concern. Some criminal charges have been filed but final convictions are still rare. Prolonged police protection of several journalists, with no tangible action taken to remove the reasons for these security measures, in practice seriously hampered the exercise of their profession. The commission tasked to look into unresolved cases of murdered journalists from 1999 and 2001 has made further progress in its work leading to arrests."