The well-known pro-government Serbian tabloid, Informer, wrote on Monday under the headline "America and the European Union pay liars and frauds" accusing the investigative media organizations KRIK, CINS and BIRN, as well as the daily Kurir, of being financed by Western countries. destabilize Serbia.

She quoted an analyst named Dragomir Angjelkovic who said that Serbia should follow Russia's example and adapt a special law to keep non-governmental organizations in Serbia under control.

Russian law allows prosecutors to declare foreign and international organizations undesirable and shut them down.

Slobodan Georgijev, editor of BIRN, whose photo was published on the Informer's front page, said the article marked "another step towards the criminalization of journalists."

"We were talking about criminalization by people who have power. They are creating an atmosphere to label us as outside mercenaries, to force us to apologize for doing our job,” he said.

Branko Cecen, head of CINS, said that labeling journalists as spies was becoming a habit to hinder their work in Serbia, but added that CINS had continued with this work despite the growing pressure.

"The Russian Law on Non-Governmental Organizations has practically banned the sector of non-governmental organizations in this country, so what Angjelkovic said may be the statement of the wishes of some of the Serbian executive," Cecen told BIRN.

Since President Vladimir Putin was appointed to Moscow, 120 journalists have been killed in Russia, he pointed out.

Stevan Dojčinović, head of KRIK, called the latest Informer article only "a refresh" of their previous efforts in this area.

"We have two new donors this year, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Civil Rights Defenders, and it's all public, we're not hiding it. It happens that they (Informer) call us once a month for no reason," he said.

"This has been going on for a long time and you just have to get used to it, although I don't underestimate it," added Dojčinović, referring to the tabloid.

On November 4, Informer wrote that the Serbian Security Service, BIA, has received information from Russian colleagues that the Americans had deliberately pushed Serbia into crisis.

Informer claimed that the CIA was planning the assassination of Prime Minister Aleksander Vučić and to present it as a mafia war, or to stifle loud criticism of the government and blame the killers in the government.

The article sparked outrage on social media, with some suggesting that Informer may be setting the stage for attacks on government critics and independent media.

Tamara Skrozza, a member of the Appeals Commission of the Press Council of Serbia and a reporter for the weekly magazine Vreme, said the latest Informer report has added to feelings of insecurity among many journalists.

"I am worried about the possible results of this campaign. In my opinion, the security of the mentioned journalists is under serious threat, so if the prime minister supports the rule of law, he should be the first to react to this," Skrozza told BIRN.

She said that the tensions in Serbia are increasing in an unprecedented proportion, creating an even more dangerous environment for critical minds.

On October 25, Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic said authorities in Podgorica would investigate Russian involvement and Serbian involvement in the coup attempt there.

20 people, including former Serbian gendarmerie commander Bratislav Bikiq, were arrested in Montenegro on October 16 on suspicion of plotting to topple Djukanovic.

On October 24, Serbian Prime Minister Vucic said that Serbian authorities have arrested several people who allegedly followed Djukanovic and planned illegal acts in Montenegro. However, he also insisted that they are not related to the Serbian state but to an unnamed third state.

The Serbian prime minister also claimed that a number of members of "powerful foreign intelligence agencies", from the west and the east, had increased in number in Serbia. He added that a police officer had been arrested for "revealing confidential information" to foreign intelligence services.

Amidst the unrest caused by the Montenegrin claims, the weapons cache was found near Bucic's house in Jajince.

Concerns had been raised that the weapons had been deliberately used against Vucic or his brother, especially after Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic said on Tuesday that the prime minister had expressed fears for his brother's safety.

Informer has a history of accusing independent journalists' organizations of working against Serbia as some politicians do.

Last week, Georgiev's journalist was labeled as an enemy of the state who "wanted to see something happen to the prime minister under the conditions of a murder" by the Minister of Social Affairs, Aleksandër Vulin, during a debate on state television, RTS. /BIRN/

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