Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called on the European Union (EU) and its member states, in advance of the upcoming EU-Western Balkans summit in Brussels, to demand candidate countries commit to upgrading their laws to promote a free, independent, and pluralistic media landscape in the Western Balkans, as press freedom in all six Western Balkans countries, and especially in Serbia and Albania, has deteriorated, N1 reports.

Citing the RSF World Press Freedom Index for 2024, which indicates that media freedom has worsened across all Western Balkan countries, head of RSF’s EU-Balkans Desk Pavol Szalai outlined five key measures to address the situation.

Pointing out that Albania and Serbia score the worst in the EU-Balkans zone, and that press freedom remains extremely fragile in other Western Balkans countries, Szalai said that in most of these nations, journalists are targeted by public authorities and private interest groups.

“Recent events illustrate how journalists in the region continue to fear for their safety. In Serbia, where RSF had previously called on public authorities to crack down on Russian propaganda, journalists for the investigative media outlet KRIK face relentless attacks on a near-daily basis,” said Szalai.

In both Bosnia and Albania, at least two investigative journalists have been targeted with assassination attempts because of their work on organized crime.

In North Macedonia, a video of journalist Miroslava Simonovska meeting with a source was recently broadcast on national television in an attempt to intimidate and discredit her. In Kosovo, journalist Vehbi Katjazi found a tracking device underneath his car during a routine maintenance check-up.

“The absence of a safe environment for journalists is a major concern for RSF and the local organisations representing them. The serious threats we observed in the past few weeks should serve as a wake-up call for the region’s governments, and prompt them to accelerate the reforms necessary to improve the state of press freedom,” emphasized Szalai, adding that the EU, which is eager to preserve stability in the Western Balkans, should also make journalists’ safety a non-negotiable criterion for accession to the EU.

In line with the Statement and Recommendations developed by the Ethical Journalism Network (EJN), RSF calls on all relevant stakeholders in the Western Balkans region, including governments, to step up their efforts to support a pluralistic, independent and sustainable media environment.

Most notably, said RSF, the EU accession talks should be seen as an opportunity to highlight the following priorities: media outlets in the region must be encouraged to maintain transparency, ethical standards and credible self-regulation, while support for both public and private news media from international bodies, donors, and national authorities should be conditional on assessment and certification systems vetting the quality, transparency and standards of their journalism.

RSF also recommended that the companies behind social media and other digital platforms should be obliged to give due prominence to news media that self-regulate in the manner described, giving them preferential treatment in the algorithms powering their search engines.

“Digital platforms and technology companies should engage in good faith with media outlets that demonstrate compliance with the requirements of widely recognised self-regulatory programmes, such as the Journalism Trust Initiative, to avoid abusive suspensions or unjustified restrictions on their content,” said RSF.

It noted that several news organisations in the Western Balkans are leading the way in ethical journalism and sound editorial management through their brand new JTI certifications, such as Center for Investigative Reporting (CIN) and Valterportal.ba in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Faktograf.hr in Croatia, and Istinomer in Serbia.