Serbian ruling party protests against attacks with “media lies” exhibition

Serbia’s ruling Progressive Party opened Uncensored Lies yesterday, an exhibition of press articles that it hopes will bolster the notion that there is no censorship of the country’s media by the government.

The party has stated that the exhibition, which is taking place at a Belgrade gallery, aims to document unjustified attacks on the government, not to target critical journalists.

“There is pluralism on the media scene despite the attacks on the government saying that it is exerting pressure on the media,” said Vladanka Malović, a member of the Progressive Party’s presidency, at the opening, stressing that the exhibition contains 2,523 examples of negative media against the government.

Not everybody has responded positively to the exhibition, however. According to Vukašin Obradović, president of the Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia, Uncensored Lies serves to demonstrate that the Progressive Party does not truly understand the meaning of media freedom.

“Making this kind of mass ‘wanted’ list, with all the media that are critical of the prime minister, is anti-democratic,” Mr Obradović told the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, going on to accuse the government of creating an atmosphere of hate towards the media, in which journalists who are critical of the government are cast as enemies of the state.

Source: Balkan Insight