April 26 (SeeNews) - Serbia has fallen seven spots to 66th position in the latest freedom of press ranking compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the international non-governmental organisation said on Wednesday.
The media work under harsh financial and editorial pressure and those that are most critical of the government are attacked publicly, with investigative media groups BIRN and CINS, daily Danas, and weekly Vreme being often targeted, RSF said.
Serbia occupied the fourth highest position among the countries in Southeastern Europe (SEE), after Slovenia, Romania and Bosnia, the RSF's 2017 World Press Freedom Index showed.
"Media freedom has declined ever since Aleksandar Vucic, Slobodan Milosevic’s former information minister, became prime minister in May 2014," RSF noted.
“Hostile” media are subjected to frequent arbitrary financial and administrative inspections. Three laws complying with European “standards” on freedom of information were approved with the aim of facilitating admission of Serbia to the EU but were never put into effect, RSF pointed out.
Published by RSF annually since 2002, the World Press Freedom Index measures the level of freedom available to journalists in 180 countries using the following criteria – pluralism, media independence, media environment and self-censorship, legislative environment, transparency, infrastructure, and abuses.