Freedom House: Dramatic decline in liberties in Serbia

AFP/Alexa Stanković

Serbia is ranked 16th, between Afghanistan and Myanmar, on the list of countries in which a dramatic decline in liberties has been recorded over the past 10 years, but it is still considered a partly free country, said Freedom House in its Report entitled ’Marking 50 Years in the Struggle for Democracy.’

Looking at the state of liberties in the world in 2022, Kosovo is still partly free, but has improved by four points in 2022, and is ranked in the Report between Kenya and Slovenia, reported Voice of America (VOA).

On the list of countries from the the region in which there has been a dramatic decline in liberties in the past 10 years Bosnia and Herzegovina is ranked 31st, with minus 10 points, between Russia and India.

Serbia is a parliamentary democracy with competitive multiparty elections, but in recent years the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) has steadily eroded political rights and civil liberties, putting pressure on independent media, the political opposition, and civil society organizations, reads the Report.

Freedom House said that numerous infringements on freedom of assembly occurred in 2022, including the forcible repression of activist gatherings and protests by private security agencies and masked individuals allegedly linked to the government. In August, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced that EuroPride—an international LGBT+ rights event set to be held in Belgrade in September—had been canceled, due in part to “threats from right-wing groups.” Despite the ban, thousands of LGBT+ activists participated in an unofficial EuroPride march, said Freedom House.

The election campaign was characterized by media bias and allegations of misuse of public resources. President Vucic’s media engagement as both head of state and SNS leader afforded him unparalleled public exposure, and lacked clear differentiation between his roles. Serbia’s score declined from 3 to 2 because of undue electoral advantages afforded to the ruling party, including significant media bias and misuse of public resources, said the Report. Observers reported numerous irregularities during the campaign and on election day. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) noted in its final election observation report released in August that a number of shortcomings resulted in an uneven playing field, favoring the ruling parties.

Freedom House said that, during the campaign, essential freedoms were generally respected, but the effect of disproportionately high media access afforded to progovernment parties; pressure on public sector employees and minority and socio-economically at-risk residents, particularly the Romany population, to support the incumbents; notable campaign finance inconsistencies; and the abuse of administrative resources resulted in an unequal electoral environment for candidates, and provided undue advantages to the SNS. Parallel voter lists were used to track voters during the poll; vote buying was also reported.

ODIHR noted persistent concerns over the lack of autonomy and efficacy of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM), administrative resource misuse and voter coercion, campaign finance transparency, and voter list availability.“The work of independent state institutions, namely the REM and the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA)—is often nontransparent; laws, mechanisms, and regulations regarding campaign finance, compliance with related financial restrictions, candidates’ use of their own funds, and the public hearing of electoral challenges are either opaque or lacking,“ reads the Report.

Campaign finance regulations are weakly enforced, said Freedom house, adding that the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) found that the SNS had orchestrated the use of thousands of proxy donors to bypass legal limits on individual donations and disguise the true source of funding.

The SNS has used various tactics to unfairly reduce the opposition’s electoral prospects. These include manipulating the timing of snap elections, exerting pressure on independent state institutions, and mobilizing public resources to support its campaigns. The SNS has expanded its influence over the media through both state-owned enterprises and an array of private outlets that are dependent on government funding, and has harnessed this influence to strengthen its political position and discredit its rivals. Opposition figures have also faced escalating harassment and violence in recent years, reads the Report.

Freedom House says that SNS electoral campaigns have allegedly benefited from the misuse of public resources, such as the use of public buses to transport loyalists to rallies. Local observers reported that workers at state-owned enterprises were pressured to support the ruling SNS. „SNS operatives have also been known to intimidate voters directly, by appearing at their homes and pressuring them to support the party. Separately, Russia has been accused of attempting to influence Serbian politics through its state-owned media and an array of small pro-Russian parties, media outlets, and civil society groups in Serbia,“ said the Report.

Critics accuse Vucic of having ties to organized crime, cronyism

The Serbia Report says that Critics have credibly accused Vucic and the SNS government of having ties to organized crime, and that cronyism—in the form of jobs provided to allies of the president and the ruling party—is reportedly common. The responsibility for prosecuting corruption cases has been passed among different public prosecutors, who typically fault the police for supplying insufficient evidence in cases against government ministers, said Freedom House.

“Notable cases that came to light in recent years without being resolved include those of Nenad Popovic, a politician who was implicated in a questionable privatization that caused an electrical transformer manufacturer to declare bankruptcy; finance minister Sinisa Mali, whom anticorruption agencies have investigated for suspected money laundering; and former health minister Zlatibor Loncar, who allegedly has links to an organized crime group,“ said this non-governmental organitation while also mentioning the case of whistleblower Aleksandar Obradovic who implicated Stefanovic’s father in the purchase of arms from the state at reduced rates.

The government has received sustained criticism for a lack of transparency in large-scale infrastructure projects and for secrecy surrounding public tenders. “For example, details about the state-funded Belgrade Waterfront project, which includes the construction of hotels and luxury apartments and has been beset by controversy since its announcement in 2012, have not been made available to the public,“ reads the report.

According to Freedom House, media freedom is undermined by the threat of lawsuits or criminal charges against journalists for other offenses, lack of transparency in media ownership, editorial pressure from politicians and politically connected media owners, direct pressure and threats against journalists, and high rates of self-censorship. It adds that the incumbent political parties generally receive the majority of media coverage from public broadcasters. A potential fifth frequency had not been allocated as of year’s end, causing two TV channels that were denied a national frequency, N1 and Nova S, to temporarily go off-air in protest.

Freedom House says that some privately owned national broadcasters and popular tabloids regularly participate in smear campaigns against the political opposition and other perceived government opponents. Journalists have faced physical attacks, smear campaigns, online harassment, and punitive tax inspections. Foreign and domestic nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) generally operate freely, but those that take openly critical stances toward the government or address sensitive or controversial topics have faced threats and harassment in recent years, reads the Report.

Radical right-wing organizations and violent sports fans who target ethnic minorities, the LGBT+ community, and other perceived enemies also remain a concern, said Freedom House. The Romany minority is especially disadvantaged by discrimination in employment, housing, and education. LGBT+ people continue to face hate speech, threats, and even physical violence, and perpetrators are rarely punished.