BIRN journalist: Media workers in Serbia exposed to digital attacks and secret surveillance – most cases go unnoticed

Journalists in Serbia are often exposed to espionage, digital attacks, and secret surveillance, but most of these cases go unnoticed, Aleksa Tešić, a journalist with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), told FoNet.

He points out that attacks such as website shutdowns or correspondence disclosures are the only visible evidence and that “no one really knows what the BIA has and what it uses it for.”

“Journalists usually see when they already have evidence—the website has been shut down, the correspondence has been disclosed—and they say: it’s probably the BIA, there’s no one else. The Pegasus attack was the same – we had it, we have no confirmation of who did it, but we assume it was the Security and Information Agency (BIA) or someone from the government, because no one else has the means to pay for Pegasus,” said Tešić in a series of FoNet interviews about the media scene, Kiosk.

He emphasized that secret surveillance is legally permitted by order of the prosecutor’s office and the court, but “the problem is how to justify to the judge and prosecutor why journalists should be monitored.” He listed the personal data protection commissioner, the human rights ombudsman, and the higher prosecutor’s office as institutions that journalists can turn to, adding that “they either don’t understand cyber threats or pretend not to understand.”

Tešić added that state institutions had received cyber training, but “they do not use this knowledge.”

When a journalist receives confirmation that their device has been compromised, the next step, according to him, is “to file a criminal complaint and take legal action, which is time-consuming, but it is important to leave a trace.”

“The other thing journalists can do is apply public pressure—you have your own channel, your own portal, which you can use to demand that institutions do their job,” Tešić emphasized.

He cited local journalists as a particularly vulnerable group, who “have no protection because they are not visible in the national media, so they are an easier target.”

Speaking about specific cases, Tešić said that two BIRN journalists had received suspicious messages with strange links, which was “personalized phishing – a message written specifically for these journalists and addressed to them, playing on their journalistic curiosity.”

“It’s best not to click on these links at all,” Tešić said, adding that raising awareness about digital threats is crucial.

“Every journalist can read the articles and see what the Ministry of the Interior and the BIA have planned, because once you are informed, you can decide what security measures to implement.”

He believes it is important to find a balance between security and practicality.

“I could use the most encrypted apps and phones, but that would waste a lot of time. I have to choose between convenience and security,” Tešić explained.

When asked about the so-called friendly conversations with the police, for which journalists receive calls, Tešić explained that journalists “are not obliged to provide their phone codes or accounts” and that “they can be present during forensic investigations together with a lawyer.”/FoNet/