The pressure on activists advocating for human rights, environmental standards and freedom of speech has escalated in Serbia in recent months, raising major concerns over the rule of law and democratic standards there.
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00:00The Youth Initiative for Human Rights is busy getting ready for the opening of
00:04the exhibition Stories of Ongoingness. The stories in the Belgrade exhibition
00:09are of young people from Serbia and Kosovo who have come together to build
00:12bridges and foster dialogue. But it is just this kind of peace activism that
00:17has put Sofia Todorović on the Serbian state's blacklist. As a result, she has
00:23to get permission from the country's Security Information Agency to leave or
00:27enter the country. Sofia has been detained no less than 12 times at border
00:31crossings and airports.
00:56Milica Ranđeljević from Novi Sad has had a similar experience. Border police officers
01:11stopped her at the airport, allegedly to check her luggage, and brought her in for
01:15questioning by inspectors from the criminal police directorate. They wanted
01:19to talk to her about her activities on social media.
01:26The post in question called for a protest against lithium mining. That's why Milica
01:52was accused of calling for a violent change in the constitutional order. And
01:56she's not the only one. In recent months, dozens of activists have been detained
02:02and interrogated for their activism against lithium mining in Serbia. The
02:07Interior Ministry did not respond to DW's questions about the exact number of
02:11people who have been detained and interrogated or what they are suspected
02:15of. And it's no longer a secret. Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin has
02:33openly stated that he personally drew up such blacklists while he was Interior
02:37Minister and head of the Security Information Agency. And it's not only
02:41Serbian citizens who are on the list. So too are foreign citizens, people who, as
02:46Vulin explained, have said negative things about Serbia. These include pop
02:51stars, actors, politicians and Russian citizens who joined protests against
02:55Vladimir Putin's war policy. I made the lists according to the law and according
03:00to my conscience. And I regret that I didn't dedicate more time to them,
03:04because I can see now how many scumbags have been wrongly forgotten. Civil
03:09society is not the enemy of the state, says the National Convention on the
03:13European Union, a civil society network of 850 NGOs in Serbia. It warns that
03:19government pressure on civil society could halt Serbia's European integration.
03:40The European Commission has said that while Serbia has the right to carry out
03:47security checks at its borders, this should not limit the freedom of
03:51individuals, including that of foreign nationals. And any such measure imposed
03:57on the basis of expression of political view or political preference is
04:01problematic. It's problematic and is subject to strict limitations as laid
04:07out in Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights. Neither
04:11Milica nor Sofia have been under official investigation. The same applies
04:16to other detained activists who spoke to DW. They believe the government's only
04:20goal is to intimidate them.
04:30Preparations for the exhibition are almost complete. Sofia is ready to
04:34continue her fight and says she is not afraid. She believes that the state's
04:38attempts to silence activists like her will only encourage other citizens to
04:43stand up and take action.