OSCE head in Serbia: We’ll help in changing information law

OSCE/Yllka Fetahaj

Jan Braathu, the head of the OSCE mission in Serbia, said on Tuesday his organisation would help the country’s Government draft the changes to the Law on Public Information and Media, adding the process should be transparent and inclusive.

Braathu and the Association of Serbia’s Journalist (UNS) President Vladimir Radomirovic discussed the media situation in the country and the OSCE activities in protecting journalists, UNS said.

Radomirovic said he was concerned with Maja Gojkovic, Minister of Culture and Information, plan to define the term journalist by the Law, adding that the state’s attempt to prescribe who was a journalist would imperil media freedom and journalists’ work.

Braathu praised UNS for remaining a part of the Government’s working group for journalists’ safety and protection. He added it was important to discuss journalists’ safety with the authorities.

The Independent Association of Serbia’s Journalists (NUNS) and some other professional organisation have left the Group unhappy with its work.

The move followed the lack of the Group’s reaction to smear campaigns against the online investigative website KRIK, whose reporters were accused by pro-regime media of cooperating with criminals.

Braathu also welcomed a UNS report on killed and missing journalists in Kosovo and its activity to inform the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) about that.