During the conference on media freedom held in Belgrade on September the 3rd, Dunja Mijatovic, OSCE representative for media freedom, highlighted the problems of media outlets in the Balkans such as censorship, threath to journalists, economic problems and political influence.
Ombudsman Sasa Jankovic stated on July the 20th that in Serbia there is no protection the defenders of media freedom, stressing that press freedom should not depend only on the initiative of "heroes" but on the entire society and the Institutions.
Serbia scores 1.8 out of 4 in the Media Sustainability Index, declining form the previous year's position. The negative rate is due delays in the new media legislation, censorship on social networks, attacks on websites, threats and attacks to journalists.
The effective development of the European media requires EU assistance but also the willingness of publishers to unify and work together for the same aim. The EU has sustained the transformation of a variety of sectors, such as steel and textiles. The media would also need to get this opportunity as they are one of the pillars of democracy and represent an important source of employment.
Greek public television ERT resumed broadcasting on June 11th, exactly two years after it was shut down by the government with the accusation of wasting money and being plagued with nepotism.
