SPECIAL SEENEWS: Freedom of press on decline in many Western Balkan countries - Freedom House - Serbia Q1 GDP falls 1.9% y/y – flash estimate

Freedom of press on decline in many Western Balkan countries - Freedom House

SOFIA (Bulgaria), April 30 (SeeNews) - Many countries in the Western Balkans continued to exhibit a worrying pattern of press freedom violations in 2014, independent watchdog organisation Freedom House said.

"These media environments feature several common problems: the use of defamation and insult laws by politicians and business people to suppress critical reporting; pro-government bias at public broadcasters; editorial pressure from political leaders and private owners that leads to self-censorship; harassment, threats, and attacks on journalists that go unpunished; and opaque ownership structures," Freedom House said on Wednesday upon the release of its 2015 Freedom of the Press ranking.

Five countries in southeastern Europe (SEE) improved their score in the ranking, two kept their positions and four dropped in the ranking. Slovenia was the region’s only ’free’ country in terms of press freedom. "Macedonia’s score has declined 10 points in the past five years, making it the worst performer in the region," Freedom House said upon the release of the ranking. "Several opposition-oriented outlets have been forced to close during this period, and journalist TomislavKezarovski remained in detention throughout 2014 on questionable charges that he revealed the identity of a protected witness in a murder case," it added.

Serbia’s score declined from 37 to 40 as a result of increased government harassment of journalists and restrictions on their work, as well as a decrease in the diversity of media after the cancellation of major political talk shows, Freedom House said.

According to Freedom House, conditions in Montenegro have also deteriorated with independent outlets such as Vjesti, Dan, and the Monitor suffering lawsuits, unprosecuted physical attacks, and hostile government rhetoric.

Following are details about the countries in SEE from Freedom House’s Freedom of the Press 2014 report.

Rank Country Status

41 Slovenia Free

75 Bulgaria Partly Free

78 Montenegro Partly Free

80 Croatia Partly Free

80 Serbia Partly Free

84 Romania Partly Free

97 Albania Partly Free

97 Kosovo Partly Free

107 Bosnia and Herzegovina Partly Free

118 Moldova Partly Free

125 Macedonia Partly Free

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Serbia Q1 GDP falls 1.9% y/y – flash estimate

BELGRADE (Serbia), April 30 (SeeNews) – The Serbian economy contracted by real 1.9% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2015, the country’s statistics office said in a flash estimate on Thursday.

The office said it will release more details on the country’s fourth-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) on May 29.

The Serbian economy contracted by an annual 1.8% in the fourth quarter of 2014 with the full-year drop standing also at 1.8%.

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