“They failed to silence us”: the harsh reality of investigative female journalists in the Balkans

Women journalists in the Balkans face daily threats, sexist insults, verbal and physical attacks, most of which go unpunished. Some of them live under constant police protection. Despite it all, they continue doing their work

It is not easy to arrange a meeting with Jelena Jovanovic, a journalist from Vijesti in Podgorica. For the past four years, Jelena has lived, worked and traveled with two police officers who must approve all of her appointments. She was assigned police escort and protection in 2021, when Montenegro’s security services assessed that her safety was at risk.

“I have been investigating organised crime and corruption for years now, which inherently carries great risks. The moment I publish information about the suspicious actions of high-ranking individuals - whether from the criminal underworld or political structures - I become a direct threat to their interests”.

“That is exactly what provokes such strong reactions, because we are talking about people who are used to operating from the shadows and are ready to do anything to protect their positions and the illegal businesses they are involved in”, says Jovanovic.

The latest in a series of death threats came in April this year from a woman named Milica Cuk, allegedly the sister of a Serbian citizen mentioned in one of Jovanovic’s articles. The threats were made via phone and email, and a police investigation is currently underway.

Jelena says she has always known who was behind each attack and why, but that she has never even considered giving up investigative journalism.

“Because no matter what they did, they failed to achieve their goal - to silence me”, explains Jovanovic.

Jelena’s experience, unfortunately, is not an isolated case in the Balkans.

Women in journalism – especially in investigative reporting – face pressure, threats, verbal and physical assaults, insults and exhausting legal battles aimed at silencing and intimidating critical voices.

Our investigation shows that attacks on female journalists in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia have been on rise in the last five years, especially on social media. Meanwhile, the institutions of these countries either cannot or choose not to protect them.

While attacks on men journalists are also common, those targeting women journalists point to a gender-based dimension: women in journalism face almost daily sexist and misogynistic insults and comments. They are attacked not only because of their work, but also because they are women.

The data presented in this investigation, along with the personal stories of interviewed journalists, indicate a troubling trend: in most countries, measures to protect female journalists are nearly non-existent and the silence of relevant institutions remains the dominant response, allowing attacks to go unpunished.

An analysis of data obtained from authorities in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia, and the records from the regional organisation SafeJournalists Network and the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) project – which includes some of Europe’s leading media organisations – show that the most common types of attacks on female journalists are verbal attacks (both online and offline), defamation and smear campaigns, sexist insults and threats, political intimidation, and SLAPP lawsuits which aim to threaten journalists financially and professionally.

Physical attacks, fortunately, are less frequent, but they do occur, especially during public events, protests and court reporting.

“Today, I am in Tirana and he is in prison”

From January 2020 to the end of April 2025, every fourth attack on media workers in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro targeted female journalists. Out of 750 reported cases of attacks on media professionals and organisations, 200 involved women.

In Serbia, the Ministry of Internal Affairs responded to our request for access to public information, stating that it only keeps general data on attacks against media workers, but no specific statistics on attacks targeting women in the media.

According to the available data, Serbia has recorded 43 physical assaults and 72 attacks on media professionals while performing their duties over the past five years. The real number is probably higher, as many incidents go unreported due to fear of reprisal or a lack of trust in the judicial system.

This trend is particularly pronounced in Montenegro and Albania.

In Montenegro, the percentage of attacks targeting female journalists rose sharply from 35.3% in 2020 to over 52% in 2024 – the highest in the region.

Albania has also seen a steady increase, with attacks on female journalists rising from 30% in 2020 to over 44% at the beginning of 2025.

Ola Xama is one of the journalists frequently targeted in Albania. She describes the threats as a form of intimidation campaign that began in 2023, after she published an investigation about the then mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, and his involvement in corruption.

“He did not respond to my request for comment before the article was published. After it was published, he sent me a message, called me a serial killer and said that I should be ashamed of what I had done because my article was inaccurate”, explains Xama.

At the end of the message, Veliaj wished her a nice weekend. However, during that “nice” weekend, pro-government media outlets across Albania published a story about Xama, spreading the mayor’s accusations.

But it did not end there. The campaign against Xama continued with a series of fake news about her and her husband, baseless accusations and sexist comments.

Despite all these challenges, Ola Xama never considered quitting investigative journalism.

“I continue to do my job, and after all this, I have published many stories about organised crime and corruption. I am in Tirana today and Veliaj is in prison ”.

Xama’s case is far from an isolated incident. The state, including high-ranking officials and political leaders, is often behind attacks on female journalists. They openly insult them, call them foreign mercenaries and deny them access to press conferences.

In Montenegro, the Minister of Justice forcibly took a journalist’s phone during a press conference. In Bosnia Herzegovina, a photo of a journalist with offensive content was printed and shared in her neighborhood.

In Serbia, the sexist remark of the then – and current – Minister of Defence Bratislav Gasic still resonates: “I love these female journalists who kneel so easily”.

“We are doing something important for the public and the profession”

Women journalists in Serbia also face attacks in the digital sphere, including insults, death threats and sometimes even physical assaults. At the end of March this year, a forensic analysis by the international organisation Amnesty International revealed that two journalists from BIRN Serbia were targets of a failed attempt to install the Israeli Pegasus software on their phones.

They received an SMS from an unknown number with a link, that, fortunately, they did not click. If they had done so, Pegasus would have granted full access to their messages, emails and all their data, without their knowledge.

Sadly, the attacks do not end there.

In Serbia, SLAPP lawsuits (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) have become more frequent in recent years. These legal actions are used as a tool to intimidate, silence and discourage critics and opponents by abusing the legal system. They financially and professionally drain journalists and media organisations.

SLAPP lawsuits have become a method of targeting independent journalists and activists who cover topics of public interest and report on legal violations and the links between politics and crime. This is further supported by the fact that Serbia does not have a law to prevent these problematic legal procedures, which are most often initiated by government officials and individuals close to them.

According to the latest report of the Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe (CASE), Serbia ranks tenth in Europe in the number of SLAPPs filed, and first in the Balkans.

Journalists from the award-winning investigative media outlet KRIK have become almost accustomed to these lawsuits: they currently face eighteen of them.

KRIK journalist Vesna Radojevic explains that these legal proceedings take up a lot of time and money, but also “mental effort to understand the judges’ actions, prepare the best defense and communicate with the public”.

Vesna experienced this firsthand when she and her colleague from the editorial team, Dragana Peco, were sued by Nikola Petrovic, the godfather of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

The legal process dragged on for a long time. Vesna went to court even in her advanced pregnancy and when her baby was just two months old. Her husband often waited outside the court so that she could breastfeed the baby as soon as the hearing was over.

Although the case became statute barred this year, Vesna still clearly remembers the details.

“The process was unpleasant and at times disturbing. In my case, it was a private criminal lawsuit, and we were ‘guilty’ in court. We had to appear every time, while Nikola Petrovic did not have to. It was as if everything was shifted onto the defendants – we were presumed guilty and had to prove our innocence, not the other way around”.

Vesna says the situation was made easier by the fact that she and her colleague did not fabricate anything in their article and that all their claims were supported by evidence.

“I think the first line of defense is the collective awareness that we are doing something important for both the public and the profession. That is what keeps us going and makes us stronger. Another thing, which can also be problematic, is that you get used to it. Tabloids and the government have been portraying us as enemies, foreign mercenaries and criminals for years. And we write all the time about real criminals, real corruption scandals, we are the ones who shed light on the facts”.

“The institutions have failed to justify their existence”

According to data from the international project Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), in 2023 verbal attacks accounted for 42.7% of all attacks on women journalists, compared to 31% for their male colleagues. Online harassment is even more concerning, as nearly a quarter of all attacks on women journalists occur in the digital world – twice as much as for their male counterparts.

Even when these cases end up in court, it usually does not mean that female journalists will see justice. The legal status of most reported cases is discouraging and verdicts are rare. Even in cases where the police intervene or charges are filed, the judiciary often reduces the incidents to misdemeanors or does not initiate proceedings at all, making court rulings extremely rare. Pre-investigation and investigative procedures drag on for years or remain at a standstill.

For example, in Montenegro and in Bosnia and Herzegovina many cases dating back to 2020 are still unresolved.

In Serbia, despite the growing number of reported attacks, only a few resulted in formal charges, and practically none led to significant penalties. Furthermore, the murders of journalists from the 1990s and early 2000s in Serbia are still unsolved.

In 2024, the Appellate Court in Belgrade definitively acquitted those charged with the murder of journalist Slavko Curuvija in Belgrade in 1999, sparking outrage and condemnation from local and international media organisations and human rights activists.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, unsolved cases include threats and attacks on journalist Natasa Miljanovic-Zubac from the public broadcaster of Republika Srpska (RTRS). Over the past five years, Natasa has faced constant attacks, threats and intimidation. An international journalist organisation helped her relocate from Trebinje, her hometown where she no longer felt safe, to a secure place.

Although the police assessed that her safety was threatened, Natasa was never provided with police protection or escort.

“I have been exposed to various attacks for a long time, from attempts to publicly discredit me morally, to having my car set on fire and receiving threatening messages such as the one with a headless Barbie doll covered in red paint, which was left at the doorstep of the house where I lived, and even direct death threats. In my sons’ cottage, someone wrote 'Die NMZ’, and on my front door a chilling message was left: ‘Dead mouths do not speak’”.

In a Zoom conversation, Natasa explains that for years she has been followed while driving, intimidated, receiving threats written on the walls and various warnings.

“All of this has become part of my daily life”, says Natasa.

She emphasizes that the institutions of Republika Srpska and Bosnia and Herzegovina did nothing to protect her.

“These institutions have failed to justify their existence. Only recently have the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Intelligence and Security Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) taken some steps, but this has not led to concrete results”, explains the journalist.

“My distrust in the institutions deepened after the head of the police of Republika Srpska changed my security assessment in August 2022, which increased the risks. Since then, my life depends solely on ad hoc protection”.

In neighboring Montenegro, nearly 40% of all attacks on media workers are directed at women journalists. In 2024, more than half of the cases reported were attacks on women journalists. As in other countries, a small number of these cases have resulted in appropriate court rulings.

Danica Nikolic, editor of the M portal, received death and rape threats, but none of these cases had a judicial epilogue. Journalists from Vijesti Jadranka Cetkovic and Jelena Jovanovic were physically attacked in front of the courthouse and threatened for their reporting on crime and corruption.

On 26 April, 2025, Magdalena Celanovic , a journalist for Gradska TV in Podgorica, reported Dr. Vladimir Perunicic from the Clinical Center of Montenegro for sending her insulting, threatening and sexist messages. The misdemeanor court in Podgorica fined Perunicic 1,000 Euros with the mandatory security measure of compulsory treatment for alcoholism, to be carried out in outpatient conditions while remaining free.

Culture of impunity

Inadequate responses of the judicial system send the message that journalists – especially women in journalism – are legitimate targets.

According to available data from the SafeJournalists Network, a total of 239 attacks on journalists were reported to the police and/or prosecuter’s office in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia in the period 2022-2024. Of these, only about 17% (40 cases) were resolved in court.

When asked whether the state and competent institutions are doing enough to protect journalists, especially women in investigative journalism, Jelena Jovanovic replies that it is difficult to talk about the protection of journalists in a country, like Montenegro, where, more than twenty years after the event, it is still not known who ordered the murder of journalist Dusko Jovanovic.

“I am aware that the authorities are making certain efforts and that there are mechanisms in place, but I do not think that it is enough, especially for women in investigative journalism. We often face additional pressures, such as attempts to discredit and intimidate us on social media”, says Jelena Jovanovic.

Natasa Miljanovic-Zubac agrees.

“Young people who are considering a career in investigative journalism must understand that in Bosnia and Herzegovina almost no one will stand behind them; support comes only from a few individuals”, explains the journalist.

“In my case, even the management of the media company I work for did not support me. Why? Because I call out people in power, while the management, regardless of the illegality of their actions, protects the ruling structures. So, in my case, even my employer turned against me”.

Vesna Radojevic says that KRIK has teamed up with several other organisations in Serbia that are also facing SLAPP lawsuits in order to jointly fight this practice and raise awareness, also among the judiciary, about what SLAPP lawsuits actually are.

“Anyone can file a lawsuit, the problem arises when the system is abused and when the judiciary (out of fear or ignorance) does not recognize it as abuse”, explains Radojevic.

Danger also lurks on social media: women journalists are threatened with rape through Facebook, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter), face doxxing and baseless accusations. There have even been cases where private photos were published and video clips were fabricated.

The regional network Safe Journalists, composed of media organisations from all Western Balkan countries, notes that the lack of strong institutional support is one of the biggest problems for women journalists in the region.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, for example, online violence is not recognized in the law, even though it is one of the most common forms of violence faced by female journalists in the country.

In Albania, there are no tailored protection mechanisms for women journalists, support structures are weak and the possibility to safely report threats is very limited.

“Sexist insults, misogynistic comments and prolonged targeted campaigns against women journalists occur in all Western Balkan countries. Experience has shown that the best defense is still bringing threats into the public eye, supported by editorial teams, journalist associations, and society”, say experts from the Safe Journalists network.

“Threats on social media are especially severe because women journalists are often subjected to prolonged harassment. Unfortunately, the police and prosecutors do not recognize these attacks or protect security appropriately because they are heavily influenced by government representatives who are the main instigators of violence in society”.

What needs to change?

Our interlocutors, as well as local and international media associations, believe that urgent action is needed across the Western Balkans in order to ensure press freedom and put an end to the decades-long impunity of those who stifle these freedoms.

In their opinion, it is crucial that police, prosecutors and courts conduct investigations into attacks on media workers regulary and in accordance with the law. Also, changes are needed in laws related to defamation, insults, SLAPP lawsuits and other forms of attacks and pressure on the media. Politicians must be held accountable for their actions and statements, and companies like Meta and X must respond more efficiently to harassment and threats on social media.

Until these changes occur, journalists – especially female – must not allow fear to discourage them, says Jelena Jovanovic.

“Indeed, this is not an easy profession. It comes with challenges, risks, and pressures. But I truly believe that when you work in the interest of truth and the public, you feel enormous moral strength. And never accept silence if your story can help even one person in the world find a path to justice”, adds the journalist.

Jelena Jovanovic, like Vesna Radojevic, Natasa Miljanovic-Zubac and Ola Xama, emphasizes the importance of building a support network within the newsroom, among colleagues and with people outside journalism.

Additionally, it is crucial to invest in work with younger generations of journalists who are entering the profession. For KRIK, this is the primary defense against increasing pressures and attacks.

“I think that, in the long run, this is the best defense against all pressures – a new network of people who will continue this work and do it as best as possible”, says Vesna Radojevic.

Despite all the pressures, compromised safety, relocation, car burnings, bloody Barbies and the lack of institutional support, Natasa Miljanovic-Zubac remains in journalism.

“It is not easy to go day by day knowing that someone has put a target on your back. But as long as I can speak and write, I will not give up. If journalists are silenced, who will be left to tell the truth?”, concludes Miljanovic-Zubac.

This research has been supported by the European Fund for the Balkans within the Engaged Democracy Initiative. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) alone and do not necessarily represent the positions or views of the European Fund for the Balkans.