Indicators on the Level of Media Freedom and Journalists’ Safety in the Western Balkans Comparative Analysis 2022

To analyze comparatively the changes in the legal environment, journalists' position in the media newsrooms and the level of journalists' safety in the seven Western Balkans countries.

Sample

Non-probability samples of journalists in seven Western Balkans countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia)

Main Findings

The authorities in most countries have shown declarative perseverance to improve freedom and safety of journalists, but that initial commitment was further diluted through the complicated labyrinth of institutional-legal procedures and did not result in concrete changes and action. Verbal threats and harassment, but more worryingly, threats to lives and threats to physical safety against journalists, are still the most prominent types of open pressure towards journalists and their media organizations. The frequency of this misconduct was highest in Serbia both in 2020 and 2021 but there was arguably high number of these types in almost all the rest of the countries on the region. Incredibly disturbing is the rise of threats for the lives and physical safety of journalists in 2021 in Serbia, but also in Croatia and Kosovo. They are an indication of a level of lawlessness which in its vacuum creates an atmosphere of impunity, having in mind that most of these threats are made by structures in power or by people who are openly or tacitly protected by power. The effect of these manifestations also creates a culture of fear in the midst of the journalist’s community resulting in self-censorship which devastates the public sphere. Distressing also are the instances of actual physical attacks – present in all countries but in some they are continuously present – in Albania for example, where also one murder of a media owner was registered. After 2020 in Serbia, the number of actual physical attacks has decreased, but that does not mean that the situation is relaxed.