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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Call on media, journalists to work professionally and ethically

Belgrade, 5 November 2018

The Coordination Group for Media Relations of the Serbian government and the Team for Dialogue, composed of representatives of journalists and media associations, called on the media and journalists today to adhere to the Code of Journalists of Serbia and to report professionally and ethically, in accordance with public interest.

We urge the media and journalists to refrain from provoking and encouraging racial, national, religious or other hatred and inequality, and we remind them that that is not only prohibited and punishable under the Constitution of Serbia and laws, but that it also has extremely negative consequences to society and democratic processes in it.

We also recall that the Constitution of Serbia stipulates that everyone has the right to be truthfully, fully and timely informed on issues of public importance and that the media are obliged to respect this right.

We also recall that the Law on Public Information and the Media aims to ensure media pluralism and to protect true, timely, credible and complete informing of citizens in order to improve the democratic values of society.

We urge all actors of the social and political scene to refrain from any activity that directly or indirectly can jeopardise the freedom of the media, the safety of journalists and other media workers.

We call on public media services and other media that act in accordance with the principles of public media services to comply with their legal obligations that require them to report on occurrences, events and personalities timely and impartially, to enable the expression of ideas and opinions that are present in the community and to encourage discussion in the spirit of tolerance on all topics of interest to the public.

We expect the Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (REM) to act in accordance with the interests of citizens, improve media pluralism, quality and diversity of electronic media and work to preserve, protect and develop the freedom of thought and expression.

In order to speed up the work on resolving open issues in the media sphere, at today's meeting, the fourth in a row, it has been agreed that members of the Team for Dialogue and the Coordination Group for Media Relations set up smaller working groups that will work on the specific demands which representatives of the media and journalist associations submitted to the Serbian government on 22 October.

A meeting at the Serbian government has been scheduled for 15 November at which the situation at Juzne Vesti will be examined. In addition to representatives of the editorial board of Juzne Vesti, the meeting will also feature the Director of the Serbian Tax Administration and representatives of the Ministry of Finance.