For Zoran Strika, a journalist at the Novi Sad-based portal 021.rs, workdays have become almost unbearable.

Since the collapse of the canopy at the entrance to Novi Sad railway station killed 16 people last November, there has been no letup in the wave of anti-corruption, anti-government protests across the country. The Novi Sad tragedy is widely seen as a symbol of all that is wrong in Serbia.

With all this going on, the pressure in newsrooms across the country is mounting: There's more work, fewer resources and the threats to journalists are becoming increasingly blatant.

After years of facing verbal abuse, Strika says that he was recently physically attacked for the first time while reporting.

Physical assault

He was filming supporters of the ruling SNS party gathering for a rally in Belgrade when he witnessed a violent assault on a passerby who had tried to take a photo.

"Three men knocked him to the ground, started beating him, took his phone and threw it into the Danube. Then one of them saw that I was filming and came after me, trying to grab my phone," Strika told DW.

The situation briefly calmed down, and Strika attempted to help the injured man by lending him his phone. Then their attackers returned.

"I explained that I was a journalist, told them to back off, and that the police had been called. They snatched my phone from the injured man's hand. I tried to get it back, but they threw it into the Danube," says Strika.

Attacks on journalists increasing

The Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (IJAS) recorded 128 cases of attacks and the exertion of pressure on journalists in Serbia in the first five months of the year compared to 166 for all of 2024.

"Physical attacks are on the rise, and what's concerning is that they happen even in the presence of the police. Journalists are portrayed as instigators simply for doing their job, and the police do not intervene," Tamara Filipovic Stevanovic, secretary-general of the IJAS, told DW.

The biggest issue, she says, is the lack of accountability: Attacks rarely have legal consequences, which allows government-aligned media and public officials to continue targeting independent journalists.

The surveillance of journalists is also a growing concern. Amnesty International has reported that Serbian authorities have unlawfully monitored journalists' and activists' phones.

One of those targeted is local journalist Slavisa Milanov from Dimitrovgrad, who said that spyware was installed on his phone while he was in police custody — without a warrant from the prosecutor.

"Are we criminals that such software is used on us?" he said on the N1 television channel. "Whatever happens to me or to someone close to me, I will hold the state responsible."

EU withholds millions in response to sluggish reform

Local and international watchdogs monitoring media freedom in Serbia have for years been drawing attention to the threat to journalists' safety.

Demands for free media have been at the heart of every major civil protest in Serbia over the past decade.

The European Union has even included these demands in its requirements relating to Serbia's EU accession process.

The country's new reform agenda — which outlines the reforms it must implement by 2027 — prioritizes changes to media laws and the appointment of members to the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM), which among other things issues broadcasting licenses and supervises TV and radio stations' compliance with the law.

After Serbia failed to implement these reforms, the EU delayed the payment of €111 million ($126 million) in aid.

The government reacted swiftly, launching a new procedure to select REM members and distributing draft media laws to working groups, which in some cases included experts and representatives of NGOs and unions.

"Please send us your comments on all three draft laws within the next 48 hours, so we do not further delay the adoption process and slow down Serbia's European integration," read an e-mail seen by DW that was sent by the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications to working group members.

Retaliation against independent media?

The IJAS says that it does not feel it is delaying any reforms or slowing down the country's European integration in any way.

In response to encouragement from the EU and other international organizations to engage in dialogue with Serbian authorities, the IJAS has done so, even though it feels that it has repeatedly been betrayed by the state.

"We are exhausted because we keep working tirelessly, only to find that all our effort, expertise and engagement were in vain," says Filipovic Stevanovic. "Even when something ends up in the law, there's no guarantee it won't be abused or undermined by bylaws that completely alter its intent."

That's exactly what happened with the media co-funding system, she explains. People without relevant experience or credibility were appointed to commissions that decide how public funds are allocated to the media. As a result, Novi Sad-based 021.rs did not receive a single dinar from this funding system for the first time in 2025.

Zoran Strika says this is "state retaliation against media outlets that reported professionally on everything that occurred in Novi Sad and Serbia since November 1."

According to DW's sources, the funds instead went to outlets with close ties to the ruling party — many of which routinely violate journalistic ethics.

'It will only get worse'

"Reforms must be real — not just a checklist on paper," said EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas during her recent visit to Serbia.

But behind closed doors, says the IJAS, there are no assurances that the EU will make sure that Serbia will take a genuine reform path.

Indeed, there is a widespread sense of pessimism in Serbia's media sector, with many expecting the situation to deteriorate further.

"The media are a crucial tool of this government, and it's very clear that the goal is not to improve the situation but to tighten control even further and turn the media more completely into a propaganda machine," says Tamara Filipovic Stevanovic.

Nevertheless, Zoran Strika is hopeful that the protests will lead to a shift in public awareness of the importance of a free and independent media in Serbia.

"I hope citizens will recognize the importance of the local media that have truly invested themselves in delivering quality over the years — and that they will be the ones to keep these media alive," he says.

Edited by: Aingeal Flanagan