What does the 2021 RSF World Press Freedom Index tell us about media in the Balkans?

This year’s annual RSF World Press Freedom Index saw little movement from a number of Balkan countries. Albania improved by one from 84 to 83, while Bulgaria dropped down a place from 111 to 112. Serbia remained unmoved at 93.

The bitter truth is that almost nothing has changed in a region where press freedoms are being constantly undermined.

 Harassment of journalists, legal intimidation and attacks on the independent press from government-aligned tabloids were listed as some of the most concerning issues.

This won’t be news to any close observers of the region.

The few remaining independent media outlets are under increasing pressure and their audiences are declining. Meanwhile, fake news peddled by pro-government tabloids and social media has emerged as a growing problem.

Of course, these rankings do not tell the whole story. They can be overinflated and alarmist, and they can be manipulated or gamed.

But there is no doubt that the 2021 World Press Freedom Index sheds harsh light on the Balkan media landscape where freedoms are at risk.

In Serbia, the index reports journalists are “subjected to almost daily attacks that increasingly come from the ruling elite and pro-government media.”

Worse still, there is little impunity for those committing these attacks. The index highlights the particularly shocking development which saw the conviction of four people for the 1999 murder of the journalist Slavko Curuvija overturned by an appeal court last year.

In Bulgaria, the “few outspoken journalists are constantly subjected not only to smear campaigns and harassment by the state, but also to intimidation and violence,” says RSF. Again, the situation is made worse as these acts go unpunished in a system where “no one is interested in investigating or condemning violence against journalists.” 

In Albania, too, “physical attacks are common and the authorities fail to punish them.”

But the issues in the Balkan media landscape are more pervasive. 

The systems for correcting untruths, both those made by politicians and within the media itself, are not fit for purpose. It’s a trend felt internationally with disinformation, rumour and conspiracy surrounding Covid-19 becoming out of control.

Likewise, media ownership is increasingly coming under the control of the authorities. To take Serbia as an example, the state co-owns two daily newspapers (Večernje novosti and Politika), the news agency Tanjug, the public broadcasting service and the dominant cable TV and broadband provider in Telekom Srbija.

These problems might not cause journalists direct harm, but they strip public discourse of any accountability. Government tabloids and officials can smear independent journalists in the mainstream media without consequence. Falsehoods go uncorrected daily, magnified by social media where there is even less control.

Such issues are harder to capture in rankings, but they are insidious factors in the larger decline in media freedoms. They must not be ignored.