Serbia - Articoli

Serbia: the battle for the TV market

09/02/2021 -  Vukašin Obradović Belgrade

An agreement between Telekom and the Telenor company threatens to completely alter the media market in Serbia. Telekom – with public money and agreements with other groups – threatens to become the dominant actor in Serbian media landscape, penalising media critical towards the government


Serbia, the future on hold

02/02/2021 -  Francesca Rolandi

Why do people emigrate from Serbia? What are the feelings, desires, and perceptions behind such a decision? A study goes to the bottom of these questions


Vaccines and Covid-19: the Western Balkans feel excluded

22/01/2021 -  Francesco Martino

Doubts, controversies, delays. Vaccination campaigns against Covid-19 in the Western Balkans have only started in Serbia and Albania, while the other countries in the area risk dangerous delays, despite some support initiatives promoted by the European Union


Serbia: denouncing sexual violence, a matter of courage

21/01/2021 -  Antonela Riha Belgrade

With great courage and determination, Serbian actress Milena Radulović publicly denounced being raped as a child by her then acting teacher Miroslav Mika Aleksić. Her gesture encouraged more testimonies and Aleksić is now under investigation


EU-Balkans: more glue for this house of cards

14/12/2020 -  Benedetta Arrighini

We need a new approach to enlargement policies, lest their complete failure. And it is necessary to start afresh from the abolition of unanimous voting. An interview with Srdjan Cvijić, author together with Adnan Ćerimagić of "Rebuilding Our House Of Cards: With More Glue"


Battle for “Košutnjak”, Belgrade's green lung

06/11/2020 -  Nicola Dotto Belgrade

The possible destruction of almost 35 hectares of forest and green areas of "Košutnjak", a protected natural asset regarded by many as the "lung of Belgrade", has given way to a new environmental battle in the Serbian capital


EU and the Western Balkans, a long engagement

14/10/2020 -  Francesco Martino

Cautious optimism and a new package of economic incentives for the Western Balkans: with the "2020 enlargement package", the EU tries to relaunch the integration of the region, but the prospects remain of slow, never predictable progress


Washington agreement, high expectations in Kosovo

01/10/2020 -  Arta Berisha Prishtina

Almost a month after the agreement signed by Kosovo and Serbia in the U.S., expectations are high on Kosovo's side. Prishtina's goal remains mutual, legally binding recognition


Journalists in Europe: one attack per day

18/08/2020 -  Paola Rosà

The data from the first four months of monitoring by the MFRR consortium confirm a concerning landscape for the safety of journalists and the state of media freedom, both in EU member countries and in countries as Serbia and Turkey


Two voices on Kosovo

08/07/2020 -  Paolo Bergamaschi

A real diplomatic race between the US and the EU has recently started on the Serbia-Kosovo negotiations. The opinion of Lulzim Peci of the Kosovar Institute for Political Research and Development and Sonja Biserko, founder and president of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia


Serbia, the election of losers

02/07/2020 -  Florian Bieber

Everyone ended up losing in Serbia's recent political elections. President Vučić, because his authoritarian regime has been exposed; the opposition, because the boycott led to nothing; the EU, because it appears less and less capable to foster democratic processes in the area


Serbia: dangerous liaisons

18/06/2020 -  Antonela Riha Belgrade

On the eve of the elections, yet another scandal invests Serbia's leadership. A photograph portrays the son of President Vučić at a bar in the company of some other people, including a member of a mafia clan


Serbia after Covid-19: "best economy in Europe"?

17/06/2020 -  Giovanni Vale Zagreb

Despite the pompous statements by President Aleksandar Vučić on the economic solidity of Serbia after Covid-19, supported by the Minister of Finance, the situation presents more than one weakness


Trump, elections, and the Balkans

09/06/2020 -  Paolo Bergamaschi

Elections for the US presidency are approaching and Donald Trump is determined to score some foreign policy success for his election campaign. He failed with Kim Jong-un and North Korea. Why not try the agreement between Serbia and Kosovo?


Not just apps: privacy, personal data and COVID-19 in the western Balkans

19/05/2020 -  Federico Caruso

The measures adopted by some Balkan countries to contain the pandemic have raised perplexity in associations and researchers who deal with privacy and digital rights. Emergency actions, derogating from the national rules of law, could translate into mass surveillance tools.


Serbia, pots against the regime

06/05/2020 -  Antonela Riha Belgrade

While Serbia is awaiting the revocation of the state of emergency, some citizens have been protesting against the government by beating on pots from the balconies for days. On the other hand, hooligans loyal to power roam the rooftops threatening public security and democracy itself


Željko Bodrožić: the state of emergency smothers the Serbian media

17/04/2020 -  Dragan Janjić Belgrade

According to Željko Bodrožić, president of the Association of Independent Journalists of Serbia (NUNS), the state of emergency has only worsened the situation of non-aligned media, often subject to the discredit of the media controlled by power


More and more school trips to the Balkans

15/04/2020 -  Marco Abram

Are the histories of the former Yugoslavia and Albania finally entering Europe’s space of memory? A constantly increasing number of Italian school trips to the region gives us reason to hope so


Serbia, coronavirus, and autocracy

08/04/2020 -  Antonela Riha Belgrade

The Covid-19 pandemic is likely to be used by the Serbian authorities to violate the Constitution, break laws, and even formally attempt to introduce censorship – all this by manipulating citizens' fears


Branko Čečen: let us do our job

03/04/2020 -  Branko Čečen Belgrade

A comment by the director of Serbia's Center for Investigative Journalism after the Serbian government recently introduced a measure that restricts freedom of information during a state of emergency. A ruling that the Serbian Prime Minister declared will be withdrawn


Saša Ilić, deconstructing institutions

07/04/2020 -  Francesca Rolandi Belgrade

Writer and journalist Saša Ilić was awarded the prestigious NIN literary prize for best novel of the year in 2019. We interviewed him and talked about psychiatry, Yugoslavia, the Divine Comedy, and refugees


Serbia: elections are approaching, pressure on the media is growing

04/02/2020 -  Dragan Janjić Belgrade

The Telekom company, of which the state is the majority owner, has removed from its cable offer N1, the only television network aimed at the general public that also presents critical positions towards the current majority


Serbia, Europe's most polluted country

23/01/2020 -  Antonela Riha Belgrado

Serbia sets the pollution record in Europe: the Kostolac B thermal power plant alone emits more sulfur dioxide per year than all the thermal power plants in Germany combined. And Serbia does not seem willing to spend the funds received on loan from various international agencies for environmental protection


Serbia: who profits from arms sales?

28/10/2019 -  Antonela Riha Belgrade

In the arms trafficking scandal recently exposed in Serbia, a state-owned company was allegedly damaged to the advantage of a private company that involved the father of the Minister of the Interior. The whistleblower ended up in jail


Kiš, Europe, and us

16/10/2019 -  Božidar Stanišić

On the 15th of October 1989 died, in Paris, Danilo Kiš (1935-1989), the last great Yugoslav writer. A comment by Božidar Stanišić


Balkans: the tired Media Days

25/09/2019 -  Matteo Trevisan

Three years after its first edition, the impression that emerges from the Media Days – an event promoted by the EU Commission in the Balkans – is that of a telenovela with a predictable ending, where the characters move within a well-defined perimeter. But the region's media need more


Serbia, Maja Pavlović's hunger strike

29/08/2019 -  Jelka Jovanović Belgrade

It's her third hunger strike over a year. The reason is always the same: to draw attention to the terrible state of the Serbian media, in particular her Kanal 9, one of the first private broadcasters in Serbia


Serbia: the opposition seen as an enemy

01/07/2019 -  Dragan Janjić Belgrade

Opposition protests against Vučić's government continue in Serbia. But the manipulations, mainstream media's propaganda, and the government's hate speech are likely to lead to violence


Farewell to Dejan Anastasijević, master of journalism

06/05/2019 -  Boro Kontić

Boro Kontić, chief editor of the Sarajevo Media Centar, remembers Dejan Anastasijević: "A man who was a professional in the true sense of the word, honest and determined, always well informed and witty, a man who made Serbian journalism better"


Kosovo – Serbia, a stranded dialogue

29/04/2019 -  Majlinda Aliu Pristina

After starting with great expectations, the EU-mediated dialogue process between Kosovo and Serbia is now stalled after the introduction by Prishtina of custom tariffs on Serbian products and sterile proposals to exchange territories