3 out of 4 candidates at the administrative elections in the northern city of Shkodra were local TV owners. They didn't allow journalists criticize irregularities during election process.
Even though the Telecommunication and Communication Presidency didn’t rule anything, Bianet’s news “Police Raid against Nokta Magazine” cannot be accessed.
Erik Valenčič, Slovenian investigative journalist, author of few awarded documentary films and former journalist of RTV Slovenia speaks about the situation on Slovenian public television and the reasons why his contract was terminated. He also talks about the purge of critical journalists on public television and he explains what should be primary function of public television.
FreeEx reports for the electoral year 2014 a backsliding of press freedom, with already existing cases and new attacks, threats and political pressure on journalists. This year, media owners were convicted by justice, evidence of links between politics and the media, there were serious cases of restriction of access to public information, carried out by the ultimate guarantor of press freedom and quality in Romania: the National Broadcasting Council.
Although the privatization process is not finished yet, consequences are visible. Tatjana Tagirov, journalist of weekly magazine Vreme, and Antonela Riha, former journalist and editor of weekly magazine NiN, talk about privatization from the journalistic point of view. For both of them the problem are new media owners, close to political structures, especially the Serbian Progressive Party. They also emphasise that privatization is taking place in the worst moment of press freedom in Serbia, with constant political pressure on journalists.
Prosecutor's Office initiated pre-trial proceedings for stigmatizing against co-owner and editor in chief of investigative website "Bivol" Atanas Chobanov. This happened after the signal of Ivan Danov, former minister of investment projects in the previous cabinet. "Bivol" exposed him in improperly receiving nearly 15000 euros from the French social services from September 2004 to May 2005. As Bivol’s investigation revealed, in the course of eight months, Danov had been signing false declarations of unemployment and of seeking job in France, while, at the same time, he worked and developed business in Bulgaria. This is another case in which the prosecution is up against media and journalists after the election of Sotir Tsatsarov as a head of state prosecution.
Rade Veljanovski and Snježana Milivojević, both professors at Belgrade's Faculty of political science, share their views and doubts about the ongoing media privatisation in Serbia. There is a big fear that the new media ownership will consist of businessmen who have close ties with politicians. Privatisation is taking place at a time the state of press freedom in Serbia ih<s never been worse, with constant political pressure on journalists. It seems like the process of privatisation will not be a process of reformation, but rather a degrading one.
The Public Prosecution has been inactive for over a year in order to reach the expiration of the limitation period for prosecuting the former Minister Ivan Danov, and the case against him to be terminated. Immediately afterwards, the Sofia Regional Prosecutor’s Office initiated libel proceedings against the Editor-in-Chief of the site Bivol, Atanas Tchobanov, who revealed how Danov has been draining the French social benefits system.
The end of the cooperation with the journalist Erik Valencic and the engagement of Bojan Traven, controversial figure known to the public for breaching the Slovene journalist's codex, by Slovenia's national public broadcasting company has sparked public outrage. The public is concernedh that these is an ideological sweeping and not due to professional standards, as claimed by the company.
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.
