Reporters Without Borders (RSF) expects positive changes for press freedom in the biggest Balkan country, which aspires to join the European Union.

The organization said this in a press release issued after "a wide-ranging discussion with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic at the presidential palace in Belgrade" on Monday, and added:

The discussion between President Vucic and RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire, which lasted 90 minutes and took place in the presence of the head of RSF's EU and Balkans desk, Pauline Ades-Mevel, was direct and concrete, and covered all aspects of media freedom, including journalists’ safety, editorial independence and journalistic ethics.

RSF voiced its concern about the safety of investigative journalists six weeks after reporter Milan Jovanovic’s home was destroyed in an arson attack. Three persons are now detained on suspicion of throwing the Molotov cocktails that started the fire, which could have killed Jovanovic and his wife.

RSF has seen a decline in the press freedom climate in Serbia, which fell 10 places in the latest World Press Freedom Index and is now ranked 76th out of 180 countries.

When RSF urged Vucic to appreciate the gravity of the many verbal and physical attacks on journalists and to respond appropriately, he provided specific information about some of the police investigations currently under way and recognized the need to shed light on several murders of journalists in the 1990s and the 2000s.

RSF also deplored the lack of independence of many Serbian media outlets, especially the pro-government media, and the arbitrary way that state advertising its allocated. Describing Serbia’s media as polarized, which he said he regretted, Vucic denied the discretionary nature of state subsidies for the media.

See at: https://www.b92.net/eng/news/world.php?yyyy=2019&mm=01&dd=24&nav_id=106057