Bujanovac –  The Serbian and Albanian journalists said during a meeting, by which May 3, the World Media Freedom Day, was marked in Bujanovac for the first time, that the situation in the media in Serbia was not sufficiently good, not only in terms of their freedom to work, but also in terms of the financial status of journalists.    

According to the data of the Association of Independent Journalists of Serbia, Bujanovac, in relation to its population, has a record number of media outlets, since 18 of them are registered in that municipality, while the largest number of media outlets, 24 of them, are registered in the area of Vranje.   

Giacomo Bosisio, the Head of the OSCE’s Office in Bujanovac, said that the media were an important factor in monitoring institutions at all levels of the government, and that free media and free-lance journalists were the greatest correctors of society as a whole. 

"The OSCE Mission shall continue to work with other structures of the society, too, for the purpose of improving the situation in the media, while last year, we, together with the Ministry of Culture, worked on improving the procedures for supporting projects of public importance," Mr.Bosisio said.  

Skender Sacipi, the editor – in – chief of the Titulli.com Internet portal in the Albanian language,  said that, given the various pressures, objective journalism in Albanian was "a difficult, even an impossible mission." 

He said that most of the media in Bujanovac and Presevo served to promote certain political structures, while a smaller number of them promoted the information of public interest. 

He also said that the hacker attacks were regularly reported to the police, but that they were never prosecuted.  

Ljiljana Stojanovic from the Jugpress regional agency said that the media were daily faced with various pressures and threats, and that journalists were financially the most vulnerable part of the community.  

Radoman Iric, the Commissioner of the Association of Independent Journalists of Serbia, said that 64 media outlets were registered in the Pcinj district, of which 18 were in Bujanovac.   

The journalists also said at the meeting that the information published by one media outlet was often taken over by another media outlet without citing the source of information, that there was no solidarity among journalists, that there were both direct and financial threats, as well as self-censorship caused by the fear of reprisal of people close to the government. 

The World Media Freedom Day has been observed since May 3, 1993, when it was established by the UN General Assembly.   

Source: “Beta” news agency, Bujanovac News and Coordination Body