ACCOUNTABILITY

On February 14, regime-controlled tabloids published articles filled with disinformation, accusing Jelena Jovanović, Operations Manager of the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP), of orchestrating local protests allegedly funded through BCSP projects. These accusations are entirely unfounded and represent yet another attempt to criminalise civil society in Serbia.

Civil society in Serbia strongly condemns the targeting of Maja Stojanović and Dragan Popović by the President of the Republic of Serbia, which has directly led to new threats and intimidation through pro-government tabloids.

The network of associations of citizens, journalists and media standing up against violence, that supports the civil demands of the “Serbia against violence” protests, reminds the Minister of the Interior Bratislav Gašić and the Director of the Security Intelligence Agency (BIA) Aleksandar Vulin of the citizens’ demand to resign and thus open up space for the reform of the security system that, captured by party interests, currently fails to stand in the way of widespread violence.

In connection to yesterday’s announcement in which it was declared that six migrants were arrested (among them two people suspected of having committed criminal acts) in an operation aimed at suppressing criminal activity and felonies committed by migrants and in connection to a statement given by the minister Vulin that not one smuggling gang will pass, Belgrade Centre for Security Policy and the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights – YUCOM, demand that the Prosecutor’s office for organized crime, during the processing of human smuggling perpetrators, seriously investigate all the information about the connection between senior officials in the Ministry of Interior and the smugglers.

How the pandemic was managed in Serbia and what are the recommendations for better coping in similar situations in the future, read in the analysis made by BCSP in cooperation with the Union of Doctors and Pharmacists of Serbia.

What do Serbian citizens think about the COVID-19 pandemic? What are their opinions about vaccination? Do they trust the institutions that were managing the pandemic? We present you an analysis of citizens' attitudes on these topics.

Only in the first 10 months of 2021 in Serbia, 21,000 more citizens died than in the same period of 2020. Last year, 136,000 citizens of Serbia died, which is 18% more than in 2020, which, according to statistical data, is the worst year since the end of the Second World War. By the end of February 2022, 147 doctors had died from coronavirus. This was highlighted at today's conference organized by the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy and the Union of Doctors and Pharmacists of Serbia.

What do the citizens think about the state of democracy in Serbia, how much do they trust the institutions and are they ready to join an activist initiative? We present you an analysis of citizens' attitudes on these topics.

On the occasion of the open call for physical violence by the Member of the National Assembly, Aleksandar Martinović, civil society organizations gathered in National Convention on the European Union working groups for Chapters 23 and 24 and cross-sectoral groups for political criteria and freedom of expression and the media demand a reaction from the President of the National Assembly from the position of Chairman of the Committee on Administrative, Budgetary, Mandate and Immunity Issues.