Several organisations representing journalists in the Western Balkans called on the EU on Tuesday 27 November to do more for media freedom in the region by urging their countries to implement appropriate legislation.
“More pressure must be put on our authorities to change the situation”, Radomir Krackovic of Montenegro's media union said during a meeting with journalists, including EUROPE, organised by the European Parliament's S&D group. “The EU does not need new members with problems”, he justified.
For Nasser Selmani of the Association of Journalists of Macedonia, “the EU must do nothing more than ask our authorities to enforce the laws”. “They must speak out loud and clear and directly” to the authorities to push them to “respect basic values”, he added. He regretted that media freedom is not one of the priorities put forward by the EU to the authorities of his country, which, in his view, gives an excuse for politicians not to implement legislation.
Together with their colleagues from Serbia, Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina, they denounced the intimidation and attacks against journalists, the policy of impunity for the perpetrators, the problem of media ownership, etc. Maja Vasic-Nikolic of the Association of Independent Journalists of Serbia described the situation in her country as “a hostile and violent environment for journalists”. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)