Human Rights – A Voice of a Young Journalist From Southern Serbia

As a student of journalism and political science at the University of Belgrade, I have spent years studying the role of media in democratic societies. We learn about responsibility, watchdog journalism, editorial independence, and the role of media in protecting the public interest. These are the ideals journalism should represent.

The pressure on journalists is personal

But  growing up in Vranje, in southern Serbia, has taught me something equally important - journalism does not happen in a vacuum. In small communities, journalism is never just a matter of professional ethics. It is a matter of power, relationships, fear, and survival. 

The pressure on journalists in southern Serbia is deeply personal. This is perhaps the most important thing people outside small communities often do not understand. In Belgrade, pressure may come through political attacks, smear campaigns, or institutional obstacles. In smaller towns, it comes through much more intimate channels. The person you report on may be your neighbor. The local official you criticize may be a family friend. The business owner whose advertisements keep your outlet alive may be someone you see every day in the city center.

Everyone knows everyone. And when everyone knows everyone, pressure does not need to be loud to be effective. A single phone call. A warning disguised as advice. A suggestion that “this story might not be good for you.” A subtle reminder of who controls public funding, local institutions, or access to information. These forms of pressure are often invisible from the outside, but they deeply shape journalism.

Such an environment creates something that may be even more dangerous than direct censorship - self-censorship.

In Serbia, discussions about media freedom often focus on national television, attacks on investigative journalists, or political influence over major media outlets. These problems are real and serious. But local journalism deserves far more attention, because it is precisely at the local level that democratic backsliding most quietly becomes normalized.

Local media in Serbia face enormous structural challenges. Financial sustainability is one of the greatest. Many outlets depend on project-based co-financing from public funds or on a limited local advertising market, both of which can create dependency on local power centers. When your economic survival directly or indirectly depends on those you are supposed to hold accountable, editorial independence becomes fragile.

Local CSOs under the same pressure

This is not just a media issue. It is a democratic issue. In many smaller communities, local media are the only realistic source of information about decisions that directly affect citizens’ lives—municipal budgets, public spending, urban planning, environmental issues, employment, education, or abuse of institutional power. When journalism weakens, institutional accountability weakens as well.

As someone who works as the program director of the youth organization “Our World, Our Rules” in Vranje, I also see the other side of this reality. Civil society organizations and independent media in smaller communities often face similar pressures. If you challenge local authorities, you may lose access, partnerships, opportunities, or public legitimacy. Critical voices are quickly labeled as problematic, politically motivated, or disloyal. This creates a culture in which silence becomes a rational choice.

For many young people in Serbia, especially in smaller and economically weaker communities, distrust in institutions is not an abstract concept, it is built through everyday experience. We see institutions that fail to respond, we witness the consequences of public criticism, and we observe people adapting instead of speaking openly. Such experiences shape political culture long before someone enters a newsroom.

The media environment in Serbia has been repeatedly criticized by the international community, including Reporters Without Borders, due to political pressure, limited media pluralism, and a hostile climate for independent journalism. But numbers and rankings alone cannot fully explain what pressure looks like at the local level. Because in small communities, pressure is as emotional as it is political. It affects not only careers, but also relationships, reputations, and everyday life. That is why local journalism requires a special kind of courage.

Despite everything, courageous local journalists still exist across Serbia. Many continue to report despite financial insecurity, political pressure, legal intimidation, and social isolation. Their work is often less recognized than that of major national media outlets, but it is essential for democratic life.

Media freedom - between the laws and reality 

As a journalism student, I often think about the gap between what journalism should be and what the environment allows it to become. As someone from southern Serbia, that gap is deeply familiar to me.

Media freedom cannot be understood only through laws, rankings, or formal safeguards. It must also be understood through the reality of everyday life in local communities. A country may formally guarantee freedom of expression while simultaneously creating an environment in which speaking openly carries a personal cost. That contradiction matters.

Because democracy is not tested only in national parliaments or televised political debates. It is also tested in local newsrooms, municipal offices, and small communities where power is concentrated and oversight is difficult.

Protecting media freedom in Serbia means taking local journalism much more seriously. It requires creating sustainable funding models that reduce political dependency, stronger protection mechanisms for journalists facing pressure and intimidation, and greater transparency in public media funding. It also requires understanding that democratic resilience depends not only on national institutions, but on the strength of local civic and media ecosystems.

Above all, it requires the protection and promotion of human rights, one of the goals of the EU project „Shifting Narrative: Human Rights, Human Voices“ which our organization implements in partnership with Helvetas Serbia and the Community Development Center “LINK” from Sombor.