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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Working group for safety, protection of journalists holds online meeting

Belgrade, 14 January 2022

The Working group for safety and protection of journalists called on all participants in the public sphere to be careful about every word they pronounce.

This must be especially taken into account in the coming period of pre-election campaign, which is usually a time when participants in the public sphere take much less care about the words they say.

On this occasion, we are calling on politicians to refrain from any kind of unbalanced statements that can affect the overall atmosphere in society. Special attention should be paid to the behaviour of all actors in the public sphere towards the media and journalists, as even a slightest attack on journalists can pose potential threat to their personal safety.

In addition, it is of essential importance that the media respect the rules of profession and that journalists respect in their everyday work the Code of Journalists of Serbia and the Law on Public Information and the Media, whereas providers of public media services should abide by the provisions of the Law on Electronic Media.

While respecting the editorial freedom of each media outlet, the Working group calls on all media outlets to be careful about the way they report, the way they express themselves about all actors in public life, to refrain themselves from any kind of offensive content and to respect dignity of every individual.

The Working group fully respects independence of the Electronic Media Regulatory Body and deeply believes that proactive action of this institution can influence positively all media actors to pay special attention to compliance with all laws and regulations.

The Working group for safety and protection of journalists considers this topic to be very important, which is why it initiated at today’s online meeting the organisation of a thematic session together with the OSCE and other international partners in order to draw attention to this extremely important topic.