status, but also by pressures, offensive and degrading treatment, direct threats and physical assaults by the participants of the public space. Such assessment of the condition in the sphere of media in Serbia was also confirmed by international reports. The European Commission in its six-month report21, published in November 2019, stated that Serbia needed to improve the freedom of expression, because the cases of threats, intimidation and violence against journalists as well as political and economic impacts on the media were concerning. In the previous year, journalist associations presented different data on the number of attacks on journalists. The Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (NUNS) in its database22 recorded 119 attacks on journalists among which predominant are pressures, even 80 of them. The Journalists’ Association of Serbia (UNS) in the database23 for 2019 recorded 90 cases in which journalists and media workers complained to the association about attacks, pressures and threats or these incidents were published in the media. This association estimated also that the number of attacks and pressures on journalists in 2019 increased in comparison to two years before. Simultaneously, the Press Council issued a statement24 that in the second half of the last year eight printed dailies violated the journalist code in 5,057 cases, which resulted in the trend of increase of the number of violations of the code continuing in 2019. The Council states that most frequently the violations of the code refer to the violation of innocence assumption, direct or indirect revelation of victim identity and publishing of the assumptions without evidence support. The Protector of Citizens during previous year on a few occasions warned about more frequent and brutal attacks on the media, starting with attacks and threats on social networks, via prevention of journalist teams to attend events and direct attacks on journalists and editorials, to one-day physical blockade of TV station. In public statements, the Protector of Citizens reminded about poor work conditions of media workers, work under inconvenient contracts and lack of developed mechanisms of protection of the safety of journalists, which does not contribute to strengthening of media freedoms and establishment of responsible and independent media. Human rights in the media In 2019 also the trend of reporting about tragic events in lives of our citizens in which there was multiple violation of their rights continued and among them dominant are articles about children. Media content in which cases of sexual abuse of children, lives of children who grew up in poverty, violence within family or school are reported contain published data which disclose the identity of children and destroy their dignity and dignity of their families. Furthermore, the Protector of Citizens for years has been warning in his reports about children being exposed to detrimental content which include both pornographic and violence scenes „Non paper“ on current condition in Chapters 23 and 24 for Serbia, November 2019 available at: http://www.mei.gov.rs/upload/documents/eu_dokumenta/non_paper_23_24/non_paper_pg_23_24_19_sr.pd f. 22 Available at: http://www.bazenuns.rs/srpski/napadi-na-novinare. 23Available at: http://www.uns.org.rs/desk/UNS-news/93323/uns-prosle-godine-90-napada-na-novinare-imedijske-radnike.html. 24Available at: http://www.savetzastampu.rs/cirilica/monitoring-postovanja-kodeksa-novinarasrbije/132/2020/02/19/2265/-rezultati-monitoringa-postovanja-kodeksa-novinara-u-dnevnim-novinama-odjula-do-decembra-2019.html. 21 - 17 -