With attacks on journalists in the Balkans mounting in recent months, the Committee to Protect Journalists has created a dedicated tracker to monitor and document these cases. Updated monthly, it aims to offer a reliable snapshot of the evolving risks to press freedom across the region.
Verbal, online, and other threats
Serbia
- On the night of January 17, a man followed freelance photojournalist Marko Dragoslavić as he walked home in Belgrade, the capital. The man hurled insults at Dragoslavić and threatened to kill him. Dragoslavić later reported the incident to the police. The attack followed threats he received on January 14 while on assignment documenting an illegal construction site.
- On January 8, in Belgrade, the capital, two men insulted and threatened N1 TV journalist Žaklina Tatalović and her camera operator and prevented them from entering a tent camp set up by pro-government supporters outside the National Assembly. Tatalović said police did not react despite her attempt to call them.
- On January 5, an unknown individual made threats in the comments section of an article in the daily newspaper Danas, saying they would throw explosives and burn down the paper’s offices.
- On December 26, in Čačak, in central Serbia, unknown individuals pelted the entrances of news sites OzonPress and Čačanske novine with eggs.
- On December 21 in Novi Pazar, southwestern Serbia, an unknown individual approached Fahrudin Kladničanin, a journalist for the news site Havas, hurling insults and threats, and accusing him of being “sent from Belgrade to spread politics” as he was covering a local protest. As Kladničanin tried to walk away, the threats continued until police intervened.
- On December 18, an unknown individual sent threats online to private broadcaster N1 TV, threatening an attack against the newsroom in retaliation for their reporting.
- On December 17, journalists Marko Vidojković and Nenad Kulačin, co-hosts of the podcast “Dobar, loš, zao” (Good, Bad, Evil), produced by news site Nova, received death threats in a comment to a YouTube video.
- On December 17, Vuk Cvijić, a journalist for the weekly newspaper Radar, received a threatening phone call from an unknown person warning him to be careful about what he publishes.
- On December 11, the editorial team of the weekly newspaper Radar and its cartoonist Dušan Petričić received a series of threats of harm in emails and comments on stories, including explicit death threats and references to the 2015 Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris.
- On November 24, N1 TV journalist Mladen Savatović received two violent threats on social media from an unknown individual. After the platform removed the comment, the same account repeated the threat in a new post, accompanied by an image of the deleted message.
- In a November 11 TV interview, Minister of Information and Telecommunications Boris Bratina accused journalists with channels N1 and Nova S of serving foreign interests. He added that they were not “as dangerous” as U.S. Congress-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which “has an anti-Serb program.”
- On November 2, an unknown individual sent a message threatening violence against N1 reporter Tatjana Aleksić. On November 5, N1 journalist Sanja Kosović received a social media comment containing a violent threat.
Albania
- On December 11, Osman Stafa, a journalist working for the private TV News 24 channel received a threatening message online following his reporting on alleged corruption in a hospital in Tirana, the capital.
Croatia
- On November 22, the Croatian Journalists’ Association denounced vulgar threats made by members of the Demoni football fan group on social media against online newspaper Istarski.hr reporter Nenad Čakić, following his commentary about a banner displayed at the football stadium in Pula, western Croatia.
Montenegro
- On December 6, two individuals in Zeta, central Montenegro, threatened Nikola Saveljić, a reporter for private broadcaster Vijesti, as he was reporting from a local rally for Milan Knežević, the head of the right-wing Democratic People’s Party, warning him not to “provoke” the politician with questions, otherwise he could “end up badly.”
Kosovo
- In a December 15 phone call, a man featured in investigative journalist Saranda Aliu’s reporting threatened to harm or kill her. Aliu works for the private broadcaster Klan Kosova.
Montenegro
- On November 4, Alisa Hajdarpašić, a journalist with the private broadcaster TV Vijesti, received a death threat on social media related to her reporting. Police announced three days later that they had detained a suspect.
Physical attacks
Serbia
- On November 30, during coverage of the local elections in Negotin, eastern Serbia, several journalists were attacked, intimidated, and obstructed in their reporting:
- A group on quad bikes charged freelance photojournalist Gavrilo Andrić outside a polling station. One quad ran over his foot and a passenger grabbed his phone as he filmed. Andrić later located the phone and asked police to go with him to retrieve it, but they refused. He later recovered it himself.
- Supporters of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) obstructed Katarina Golubović, a journalist with the private broadcaster Nova S, as she prepared to broadcast live near the party’s premises; they pushed her and hurled insults, forcing her to move to another location to report.
- A group attacked student news site Blokada reporter Uglješa Surdučk, snatching and damaging his phone, and punching him in the nose. The attackers ripped off the accreditation of Darija Stjepić, a reporter working for the news site Mašina. Stjepić, who filmed the incident, was hit in the shoulder and insulted by the attackers.
- Milena Ilić, a reporter for the news site Za medija who was covering the elections in Negotin for the private broadcaster Newsmax Balkans TV, was struck in the shoulder, pushed, and insulted while reporting alongside journalist Suzana Mihajlović Jovanović, from the news site NGPortal, who was hit in the back.
- On November 20, a man who emerged from a tent camp set up by pro-government supporters outside the National Assembly in Belgrade attacked N1 TV journalist Maja Nikolić and cameraman Ivan Pavlović. The man demanded they stop filming, then seized Pavlović’s camera and smashed it, destroying the camera and tripod. The attack occurred while several police officers standing roughly 20 meters (65 feet) away did not intervene, despite Nikolić’s cries for help.
- On November 11, in Subotica, northern Serbia, outside the local SNS branch, a group blocked three reporters — a journalist with the news site Magločistača, a correspondent for the Beta private news agency, and a reporter for the local news site Subotičke, whose names were not disclosed — from photographing a rally. They crumpled one reporter’s accreditation, struck her on the arm, and tried to seize another’s phone before police intervened.
- On November 5 in Belgrade, SNS supporters insulted reporter Nemanja Šarović and his crew from the private broadcaster KTV. They hit Šarović on the arm, kicked his microphone into the street, and threw pyrotechnic devices in his direction as the journalists were reporting on a rally. Private broadcaster Insider TV reporter Stefan Miljuš was grabbed by two men while interviewing a woman, and Stefana Budimirović, a reporter for the news site Pazovačke, was pushed from behind, insulted, and prevented from filming.
- On November 3, four men, three of them masked, assaulted private news agency FoNet reporter Marko Čonjagić as he covered a protest in Belgrade. The attackers, who emerged from a tent camp set up by pro-government supporters outside the National Assembly, tried to drag Čonjagić into a fenced area, then pushed him to the ground and beat him. Police officers who witnessed the attack did not intervene and later directed him to file a report.
- A group of men from the same camp surrounded journalist Nataša Mijušković, with the online newspaper Insajder, on November 2. The men threatened her after she photographed the site. The attackers grabbed her, forced her to delete photos, and followed her to a police cordon, where officers told her not to re-enter the area.
- On the evening of November 2 in Belgrade unidentified individuals attacked several Radio DIR photojournalists, whose names were not disclosed, demanding they delete footage and seizing equipment. One journalist sought medical treatment. During the incident, a photojournalist with Radio DIR, whose name was also not disclosed, had her camera lens snatched, and her colleague had his press ID ripped from the lanyard around his neck.
Croatia
- On November 12 in Zagreb, the capital, a man insulted and physically attacked a crew working for N1 TV, injuring one member in the eye while the journalists were filming in a public square. Police detained a suspect the same day. In a statement, the Croatian Journalists’ Association said the assault followed a wave of verbal attacks by government officials “accusing journalists of spreading tensions in society.”
Montenegro
- On November 2 in Podgorica, the capital, Member of Parliament Vladimir Dobričanin insulted and threatened to pepper-spray Srđan Stanojević, director of the private broadcaster TV Vijesti, after a discussion about a show they’d just finished recording. Dobričanin later apologized and left the offices.
Northern Macedonia
- On December 10 in Skopje, the capital, a man attempted to forcibly enter the newsroom of the news site Infomax, accusing journalists Aleksandar Mitovski and Miloš Miloševski, staff, and guests on its live broadcast of insulting Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski. The man threatened harm and kill them before he was detained. The attack forced Infomax to halt its broadcast.
Police violence, obstruction
Serbia
- On December 25 in Novi Sad, northern Serbia, Uglješa Bokić, a journalist working for the daily newspaper Danas was ordered to appear before police to disclose the source of a leaked police document. Bokić refused.
- On December 24 in Novi Sad, police arrested Aleksandar Dikić, journalist and columnist for the private broadcaster KTV, transferred him to Belgrade, the capital, and held him for 48 hours following a smear campaign against him in pro-government tabloids. Dikić was charged with “inciting violent change of the constitutional order” over a statement made on a YouTube show that his lawyer says was misinterpreted. Authorities also forcibly entered and searched his apartment.
- On November 30 in Mionica, central Serbia, police blocked Marko Miletić, a reporter with the news site Mašina, from documenting a local election rally by covering his phone and physically removing him from the area, claiming he could not film there. The same day in Sečanj, western Serbia, police stopped and briefly detained another Mašina reporter — whose name was not disclosed — while he was documenting local elections, despite the fact that he was wearing a “press” tag and repeatedly identified himself as a journalist.
- On November 18 in Novi Sad, northern Serbia, police shoved Razglas News reporter Žarko Bogosavljević, pushed N1 TV reporter Sanja Kosović, and struck an unnamed camera operator working for student news site Blokada while they were reporting on a police action against protesters, despite the fact that the reporters were wearing press vests.
- On November 4 in Belgrade, police obstructed Ana Ubavić, a reporter for the news site Pazovačke, as she was documenting a rally, hitting her in the shoulder and pushing her, despite the fact that she was wearing press credentials.
Albania
- On November 9 in Berat, central Albania, during local elections, journalist Ardit Hoxha from the news site Euronews Albania was stopped by an election commissioner while reporting from a polling station, preventing him from covering the voting process.
- In Mat, central Serbia, a crew for private broadcaster Syri TV was denied entry to several polling centers by election officials and local representatives. The journalists said they were briefly blocked at the door while trying to film.
Legal cases
Serbia
- On January 9, the Supreme Court said in a legal review that the 2023 verdict acquitting four former state security operatives in the 1999 murder of journalist Slavko Ćuruvija was in violation of the law because it had factually misrepresented evidence to favor the defendants. Despite the review, the acquittal remains legally binding and will not lead to a retrial.
- On November 20, a court in Uzice, southern Serbia, issued an appealable ruling sentencing a man to a five-month suspended prison term for attacking N1 TV camera operator Marjan Vučetić. Vučetić was filming an SNS event on May 16 in the eastern village of Makovište when unidentified individuals struck him from behind, causing minor injuries, while others called him a “traitor” and a “foreign mercenary.”
Croatia
- On November 7, a court issued an appealable ruling that found Faktograf reporter Melita Vrsaljko guilty of disturbing public order and imposed the same unspecified financial fine as the man who, according to her account, witness testimony, and video footage, attacked her while she was filming an illegal dumpsite in the village of Nadin, in central Croatia, in July 2024. The following day, the man’s daughter entered Vrsaljko’s home, beat her, tried to choke her, pulled her hair, and grabbed her phone in an attempt to delete footage of the previous attack. On December 9, prosecutors pressed charges against the man and his daughter for attacking Vrsaljko.
Montenegro
- On November 20, a court in Kolašin, central Montenegro, issued an appealable ruling sentencing a man to nine months in prison and psychiatric treatment for making threats of physical violence on social media against Itana Kaluđerović, a journalist for the private broadcaster ETV, in May, saying she should “watch out for a bullet” while working at the station.