After “students who want to learn” – journalists who want to write: Association of Journalists of Serbia or just another bad reality show

(Source: N1) After the Journalists’ Association of Serbia (UNS), one of the oldest professional organizations in the world founded 144 years ago, and the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (NUNS), established more than 30 years ago, Serbia may now get – the Association of Journalists of Serbia – led by the Praetorian guard of the regime’s media machinery.

After students who want to learn, here come journalists who want to write. On the government’s bulletin board, over a hundred media workers already familiar to the public information authorities have signed an appeal to form a new journalists’ association.

“It’s time to remember why we chose this profession and what responsibility we have toward the society we live in.”

Have regime-friendly journalists suddenly grown a conscience overnight, after everything they’ve done to public discourse in Serbia?

“We invite all those who believe in free and responsible journalism to join us in building the future of our profession together.”

Are names like Ivana Vučićević, Minja Miletić, Milomir Marić, Olivera Zekić, or Jovana Jeremić the first that come to mind when you hear the phrase free journalism?

No, and with good reason, say legitimate representatives of journalists in Serbia.

“It’s interesting because this group consists of people who are record-holders in violating the Journalists’ Code of Ethics, and now they’re gathering to supposedly uphold that same Code – as if the Code just came into existence yesterday when they decided to form this new association,” says Tamara Filipović of NUNS.

For once, both traditional journalist associations are in agreement. The Journalists’ Association of Serbia (UNS) says: it would be funny if there weren’t serious doubts that this was all carefully planned – and with bad intentions.

“We probably need another Branislav Nušić, Radoje Domanović, or Duško Kovačević to immortalize this true tragicomedy in a drama or comedy so we can all laugh at our own misery,” said Predrag Rava of UNS.

One of the central issues is a man whom NUNS refuses to even call a colleague – because he openly takes pride in disrespecting the profession.

“I don’t accept the Press Council. I don’t recognize it. I’m not a signatory, as they say. I refused to participate in the Press Council’s work. Why? Because the Press Council is a para-political, hater organization,” said Dragan J. Vučićević, owner of Informer, in 2023.

Is Serbia becoming a country of parallel institutions or a parallel universe? Scenes of civilians in party uniforms taking on the role of the police have become daily routine, and the government regularly invents its own counterparts to existing institutions.

“Just like there are parallel student associations – and you’ll see, in a few years, maybe even months, since it’s been planned – they’ll form a ‘regulatory body’ to rival REM or the Press Council. Because they can’t shut down what exists officially, they aim to undermine and dilute the strength of professional and objective journalism,” Rava explains.

All of this, Rava suspects, so that the government can present these new associations as examples of pluralism and democracy, while in reality stifling the legitimate representatives of the profession.

“I think this will turn into just another reality show – which, frankly, is the only thing they know how to produce,” Rava concludes.

Author: Miodrag Sovilj