The Press Freedom Foundation, an independent organization in the Hungarian media space in Vojvodina, fights for the openness and transparency of public life – this is stated at the very top of our mission statement. Based on this, the Foundation’s Board of Directors decided to issue a statement in support of the nationwide protest of university students in Vojvodina and Serbia.
It is a tragic circumstance that it took a deadly incident for a significant part of the Serbian public to courageously and consciously stand up against the corruption that permeates society and paralyzes its development, democratization, and European integration. University students have the most to lose: they want to protect and make their future freer instead of letting it fall into the hands of oligarchs, autocrats, and even foreign dictators.
As part of the democratic public opinion in Serbia, journalists and other public workers working in the Hungarian-language media should also accept the task of standing up for the decency of social, political, economic, and cultural life through conveying objective and truthful information and – depending on their profession – participation, by pointing out the actions of forces, which suppress them and by doing everything in their power to prevent such abuses in peaceful ways.
Vojvodina and Serbia – together with the entire former Yugoslav region – have their place in Europe and in the European Union, what can only be attained through straightforward, courageous political action, not by surrendering to foreign dictators who want to prevent it or abuse it. By eliminating nation-state exclusivity, hard borders, and oligarchies that wink at each other over the shoulders of their peoples, every nation – including Serbs and Albanians, as well as the majority of transborder Hungarians now that Romania has also joined the Schengen area – can breathe, work, and flourish wherever they please, under jointly agreed fair and transparent rules and without borders.
Board of Directors of the Press Freedom Foundation
Zenta/Senta, January 18, 2025
Protesters in front of the Serbian Public-Service Television headquarters in Belgrade (Photo: nova.rs)
