Press freedom in Serbia has deteriorated rapidly since elections in 2014., when Aleksandar Vučić was appointed as Prime minister and his Serbian Progressive Party won the majority of 158, out of 250 seats in the National Assembly. Vučić’s influence on media was significant even before he came to office, but has spiralled up since he gained a large portion of power in Balkan country.

One of the biggest impact on press freedom in Serbia has been cancelling political show Utisak nedjelje (Impressions of the week) last September, that has been on air since 1991, and has even survived the era of Slobodan Milošević.

Official explanation was that TV station B92, that broadcasted the show, wanted it to move to the new channel, which author and host of the show Olja Bećković rejected.

utisak-nedelje1

Impressions of the week have been on air for 24 years

However, Bećković herself said that the order for ending the show came “from the top”. She has also said that in the past Prime Minister Vučić has contacted her, either directly or through “persons paid to be a liaison between journalists and him,” attempting to influence her choice or guests.

In an interview for Serbian portal Istinomjer.rs she admitted that on one occasion, before Vučić became Prime minister, pressure has been successful and that she cancelled hosting the former Minister of economy Saša Radulović.

“When the director of B92 TV saw that Radulović will be my guest she told me – please, he (Vučić) is mad, this can’t happen, cancel everything to Radulović.

In the meantime government of Serbia resigned, and Vučić was guest instead of Radulović.

“I was never more ashamed in my life”, said Radulović.

However, Vučić called her the day after being in the show and said: “Congratulations. You have humiliated me in front of millions of people, this is our last conversation”.

This wasn’t the only attempt of controlling the media in Serbia. In the December last year, after being submitted to public pressure, government has withdrew an amendment on the Gambling law.

If that law was adopted, it would give government a tool to control internet, all packed in an innocent name such as “Gambling law”.

The extent of media censorship and control in Serbia is best illustrated with the statistical data for 2014.

Namely, daily newspapers in Serbia have placed Prime minister Aleksandar Vučić  877 times in the front page, and out of that number – only six times he was mentioned in a negative context, reported cenzolovka.rs that specialises in the area of press freedom.

Daily newspapers gave a lot of attention to Vučić in 2014, but only mentioned him six times in a negative context

In an interview for N1 TV Bećković said that self-censorship is widely spread among Serbian journalists.

“Self-censorship is a result of censorship, and journalists are afraid that they will lose jobs”, said Bećković, who is unemployed since September, although she is an experienced and respected journalist.

“When I talked to some people about my employment, it was clearly said to me that the one who wants to hire me, knows that they will have problems and won’t be signing a contract to broadcast any commercial. I am the state enemy No. 1”, said Bećković.

Another example of media control in Serbia is an incident during a football game between Serbia and Albania in October. During the intermission, a journalist was live interviewing his guests when a man entered the scene and started shouting “Vučić is a faggot”, then joined by some 20.000 fans in the stadium.

While the causes of incident on that game aren’t the topic of this article, it’s interesting to notice that some Serbian media almost immediately had “informations” that the man who insulted the Prime minister is a member of a rival Serbian Radical Party. Later, that party said that they have no idea who the man in question is, and that he is not their member.

Perhaps, one of the most obvious (and successful) attempts to control media is the case of Magazine Tabloid from Belgrade, now, the magazine is having great difficulty finding a printing office that will print its editions.

The printing office “Grafoprint” from Novi Sad, that has printed Tabloid, was suspended from working because inspection found “technical problems”. After that, Tabloid for some time printed its editions in “APM Print”, but they to cancelled cooperation without an official explanation. After that, Tabloid tried to print in Banja Luka (Bosnia and Herzegovina), but the printing office there also rejected cooperation because of “technical difficulties”. Banja Luka is the center of power of Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, a close ally of Prime minister of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić.

It’s becoming increasingly hard for Serbian citizens to get different perspectives about internal politics, and activists for press freedom are arguing that today’s level of media control is larger than even at the time of Slobodan Milošević.