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

Protests have not let up since the collapse of the canopy at the entrance to Novi Sad railway station killed 16 people last November.

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.

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."

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.