Abstract
Ahead of the Serbian election,
Two weeks later, when journalist Ana Lalic published a piece about the shortages of personal protective equipment in a hospital in the city of Novi Sad, contradicting the government line, she was arrested for “inciting panic and disturbing public opinion”.
Index caught up with her to find out what happened next, and what her worries are about the state of journalism today.
Lalic, a magazine journalist for Nova.rs, said that on the day of publication, “at around 10pm six policemen showed up on my doorstep with the search warrant”. She added: “Before they came in, I managed to send to my newsroom our response to the hospital’s denial, which was published while I was being arrested. They took my mobile phone and laptop. After I gave my statement to the police, the prosecutor ordered, by phone, 48 hours’ arrest. They took me to prison where I spent the night sitting on a bed next to which was a toilet behind a couple of dirty blankets. At 9am the next day, the police took me to the prosecutor where I presented my defence and denied all the charges. They let me go but they didn’t drop the charges. I had to defend myself outside the prison.”
Serbian reporter Ana Lalic, who was arrested in March for reporting on shortages of protective gear at hospitals
The problem, according to Lalic, who is a board member of the Independent Journalists’ Association of Vojvodina, was that “I contradicted everything that the Serbian government wanted to present as a truth: that the country was absolutely prepared for the pandemic, that we had the best health system in Europe and that, with regards to medical equipment, we had more than we need”.
In reality, she added, Serbian hospitals have been falling apart in the last 30 years and doctors are emigrating because of the catastrophic working conditions. At the beginning of the epidemic, for two weeks it was impossible to get masks, gloves or disinfectant gel in any of the pharmacies. “By arresting me they wanted to hide the real situation. But they triggered the opposite reaction: many health workers started to confirm that they worked with the minimum of protective equipment. They’ve been provided with one mask and one pair of gloves on a daily basis while treating tens of patients.”
The health institutions, according to internal information, banned all employees from talking to the media, at risk of being fired. Unofficial sources were the only way to get to the truth.
The independent media in Serbia have been constantly targeted over the last eight years, during the time that Vučić has been in power. He was previously minister of information during the [Yugoslav leader] Slobodan Milošević regime. While Vučić was minister of information, from 1998 to 2000, he implemented an information law under which journalists were sanctioned with enormous fines if they were critical of the Milošević regime.
We are called traitors and foreign spies on a daily basis. We’ve been accused of working against Serbia. This attitude towards journalists is a reason why we’ve been receiving negative reactions and threats on the streets from citizens as well. Government representatives refuse to answer our questions containing any critical points.
While I’m answering your questions, in front of my house there are security guards provided by my magazine. Every time I leave my house, I carry a panic taser. On the same day I received a Deutsche Welle award for reporting during the pandemic, somebody cut my car tyres.
Apart from centralised and prepared information that the government and the crisis centre are providing, it’s impossible to get to the official sources. That’s why the journalist’s job during the pandemic in Serbia is almost impossible if you are not part of the regime media that publishes only everything that government wants you to. If you try to be a journalist, you risk what I just experienced.
On 7 May, the state of emergency ended, so reporting is supposed to continue as before the pandemic. But this won’t bring a huge change in our work, because the division between the pro-regime media and those who are not has never been greater. In Serbia we are moving towards our next electoral campaign for the parliamentary elections, due to be held on 21 June. This could hold new dangers: media freedom will become more restricted, and there will be a massive propaganda push by the government.
It’s unbelievable but, increasingly, independent journalists will tell you that we haven’t experienced such conditions before – not even during the Milošević regime [during the Balkan Wars]. Even under this wartime regime there was more media freedom, and more media were reporting objectively and professionally. Proregime tabloids today are leading a campaign not just against political opposition parties but also against their colleagues that work in the independent media. This didn’t come even to Milošević’s mind.