BELGRADE – A new campaign in the Serbian pro-government media against civil society organizations started in mid-August, with the participation of numerous government officials and ruling party members. A group of prominent CSOs condemned the campaign, which claimed that they were organizing an overthrow of the government, and stressed that it accompanied a large number of unfounded arrests of participants in the ongoing protests against lithium mining.
The campaign was motivated by the publication of a report on the activities of the US National Endowment for Democracy (NED) by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, in which Serbia is mentioned several times. The report claimed that in May 2023, after two mass shootings, NED-sponsored human rights groups staged mass demonstrations to demand the resignation of the Serbian government. The evidence of the involvement of such groups was not presented.
In the following days, this topic dominated pro-government television channels and newspapers, pushing a well-established narrative that the “foreign mercenaries” in the civil society are planning to overthrow the government of Serbia in a “coloured revolution” by organizing protests, including the latest series of protests against the lithium mining. Members of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party and government officials supported this narrative in their statements to the media.
In a press release published on 22 August, 21 civil society organisations stated that “it is impossible to count the number of times over the past decades that the story of foreign mercenaries has been activated, always with malicious intent towards those who fight for human rights, democracy, and the rule of law, even though civil society organizations are entirely transparent about the donations they receive from abroad”.
“In this regard, it must be emphasized again that the vast majority of foreign donations go to the state of Serbia and its institutions”, the statement reads.
The campaign culminated in a one-hour special on a pro-government Informer television on 20 August, during which the owner of the television Dragan J. Vučićević presented the “scheme” of financing of prominent CSOs, including the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy, Crta and YUCOM, most of whom focus on the issues of democracy and the rule of law. Vučićević strongly alluded throughout the segment that the organisations are receiving funding for destabilizing the country.
In a press release on 22 August, civil society organizations condemned Vučićević’s remarks.
“It was an extremely cheap, yet equally dangerous attempt to manipulate the public, targeting a large number of people who work honestly in civil society organizations”, the statement reads.
The CSOs pointed out that Vučićević used some information that is not publicly available, for example, the earnings of the employees in the organizations, which points toward coordination between the state institutions and the pro-government media.
The campaign also consisted of outright fabrications, such as an invented gathering in May organized by the Centre for Contemporary Politics (CSP), a think tank, during which an overthrow of the government was supposedly planned. According to the article published by Večernje Novosti on 16 August, which was later published in the newspapers Politika and Informer, representatives of NED, the opposition, and civil society attended the meeting.
The Centre for Contemporary Politics has strongly denied these claims, stating that such an event was never organized. Although the law requires media outlets to publish the CSP’s rebuttal, only the daily Politika has done so.
EU Delegation to Serbia posted on X on 23 August that “pressures on NGOs and threats to them hinder their dedicated work for the community and are against the established principles of a democratic and pluralistic society”.
“A large number of unfounded arrests” of protesters against lithium mining
In the press release from 22 August, CSOs assessed that the campaign against them was accompanied by “a large number of unfounded detentions and arrests of citizens in recent weeks” following a series of mass protests against lithium mining.
Since the protest in the capital of Belgrade on 10 August, dozens of activists across Serbia have been brought in for questioning by the police, had their residences searched, devices confiscated and were charged with “preparing acts against the constitutional order and security of Serbia” and “calling for a violent overthrow of the constitutional order”.
There have been varying reports on the number of these activists, with some sources mentioning around 40. Most of them are not prominent nationally and are not among the main organizers of the protests.
Activists from Belgrade, Čačak, Vranje, Vrbas, Šabac and other places have been approached by the police in this manner. Most of these cases are apparently unrelated to the blockade of the railways that took place in Belgrade on 11 August and are not connected to any act of violence or civil disobedience.
Critics described these actions as intimidation attempts, arguing that the charges are disproportionately harsh and that there is no ground for such treatment of the citizens.