Award presented in Lisbon for investigation ‘Killing for a Photograph’, described as ‘fascinating story that raises many previously unexplored questions’.
The award was presented in Lisbon as part of the European Press Prize, one of Europe’s most prestigious journalism awards. Each year, the jury grants the Special Prize to an outstanding project that transcends conventional categories and disciplines.
Matejcic’s investigation examines a photograph taken during 1993 in the war in Bosnia, in which a Belgrade photographer documented an execution from extremely close range.
Those images were distributed worldwide by Reuters and later won a World Press Photo award, becoming part of the visual record of the conflict. But for more than three decades, key questions surrounding the circumstances in which the photographs were taken remained largely unexplored.
How was the photographer able to capture the killing from such close proximity through a sequence of images? Did the presence of the camera influence what happened?
Drawing on nearly 30 firsthand sources, as well as court records and war crimes documentation, Matejcic reconstructs the events surrounding the photograph while confronting ethical questions that remained outside the frame. The article explores war, photography, accountability and the role of witnesses.
The jury described the investigation as “a fascinating story that raises many previously unexplored questions” and “a fantastic piece of journalism with perfect dramaturgy.”
“Killing for a Photograph” was also published in the Croatian weekly Novosti and generated significant regional attention. The investigation prompted extensive discussion among readers and within the professional communities of journalists, photographers, editors and researchers in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia. It has been widely regarded as one of the most important and thoroughly researched investigative stories produced in the Balkans in recent years.
One of the most significant outcomes of the investigation was the correction of a decades-long injustice toward the victim and his family.
After Matejcic contacted the World Press Photo Foundation and presented evidence gathered during her reporting, the foundation amended the original caption accompanying the photograph, which had incorrectly identified Husein Krša as a sniper for more than 30 years.
Following publication of the investigation, the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia, acting with the consent and at the request of Krsa’s family, initiated proceedings before the World Press Photo Foundation seeking the withdrawal of the photographer’s award. The process remains ongoing.
In May 2026, the investigation also received the prestigious Dejan Anastasijevic Award for the best investigative story published in Serbia during the previous year.
Her awarded work examined the circumstances under which photographs from the war in the former Yugoslavia were taken in Brcko in Bosnia in May 1992, documenting acts of execution at close range.
Matejcic’s investigation raises critical questions regarding the circumstances that enabled the creation of these photographs, the roles of their authors, and the factors that made such documentation possible.
In the film, they present new documents and revelations to the public about the multi-year, secret project to build a luxury hotel on the site of the heavily damaged General Staff Building, which was conducted without informing or involving the public. The complex was targeted during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 and was left largely derelict.
In the category of investigative stories in local media, a group of authors – N. Stevanovic, Ivana Jovanovic and Dejana Cvetkovic were awarded for a series of texts about the position of Albanians in Serbia.
As in previous years, the audience voted for the shortlisted reportages. The reportage with the most votes was “N1 Journalists at the SNS meeting – from recruitment to payment of daily wages,” by young reporters Sara Sekulic and Milos Zekic.
“There is hope for our society as long as there are journalists who, despite everything, write in the public interest,” said NUNS President Zeljko Bodrozic at the award ceremony.
He added that investigative journalists and other professionals have worked in a “hostile environment created by the government” for more than 10 years.
Since 2020, the award has been named after the longtime Vreme magazine journalist Dejan Anastasijevic, who died in 2019.
The award is given on the occasion of World Media Freedom Day because investigative journalism is important for developing journalism, fighting corruption, resisting government and other power pressures on individuals or organizations, and supporting democratic development.
With this award, NUNS aims to support and affirm journalists who, in a serious and professional manner, address topics of great importance to the public in Serbia.
The National Coalition for Decentralisation has awarded Radmilo Markovic the Svetionicari award for exceptional contributions to combating corruption in Serbia in the journalism category.
The jury stated that Markovic’s work focuses on uncovering corruption, criminal networks, and institutional irresponsibility – “precisely where the consequences are not abstract but directly affect citizens’ safety, the rule of law, and trust in institutions.
“His journalism is not based on speed, but on thoroughness. On patiently reading court files. On analysing police documents. On verifying data from multiple sources. On persistently asking questions. It does not accept the silence of institutions, selective application of the law, or keeping cases ‘in a drawer’ as acceptable,” the jury wrote.
The jury members were journalist Vuk Cvijic, Miroslav Mijatovic, from the Podrinje Anti-Corruption Team, Zlatko Minic, from Transparency Serbia, Pavle Dimitrijevic, from CRTA, and Zoran Gavrilovic, from BIRODI.
They described Markovic as “an example of professional integrity and personal courage,” noting that he has brought facts to the public that were often uncomfortable – but necessary.
“His articles expose concrete mechanisms of abuse of power, institutional cover-ups, and the lack of accountability. His investigations have helped raise awareness that corruption in the security and judicial sectors is not only a matter of financial abuse, but also a matter of citizens’ safety and equality before the law. At a time when facts are relativised and the media face pressure, his journalism remains firmly rooted in verifiable data and the ethical standards of the profession,” the jury concluded.
The Svetionicari Award is presented in three categories: activists, journalists and civil society organisations.
In the civil society organisation category, the award was given to the investigative portal KRIK and the Becej Youth Association (BUM).
The winner in the activist category is geological engineer Zoran Djajic, who spoke about irregularities in the work of Chinese and Serbian companies engaged in the reconstruction of the railway station in Novi Sad. After the collapse of the station’s canopy in November 2024, 16 people were killed.
The Svetionicari Award is presented by the National Coalition for Decentralization with the support of Sweden as part of the Belgrade Open School programme, “Civil Society for Advancing Serbia’s EU Accession – Europe ASAP.
From November 24 to 26, 2025, BIRN welcomed some 120 participants – journalists, civil society activists, tech experts, academia, relevant institutions’ representatives and citizens at large – in Prishtina (Kosovo) for a regional annual conference and the Internet Freedom Meet event on digital rights and freedoms.
What unfolded was more than a presentation of cold statistical data. We witnessed a collective reckoning with how rapidly emerging technologies are advancing, and with how weak oversight and shrinking civic spaces are reshaping – and often endangering – people’s everyday lives across the Western Balkans and beyond.
From Project Roots to Regional Reality
The third and final annual conference is built on BIRN’s three-years project, Reporting Digital Rights and Freedoms, funded by the European Union and implemented by BIRN Kosovo and its regional partners BIRN Hub, BIRN Albania, BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina, BIRN Macedonia, BIRN Montenegro and BIRN Serbia in the Western Balkans region and Turkey. The project aimed at strengthening media and civil society capacity to document and report digital rights and freedoms violations. Through training, capacity building online and offline events, fellowships, subgranting as well as editorial and other technical support, the project equipped newsrooms and individuals, journalists and activists with tools to first and foremost understand and then monitor and report about issues such as online abuse, to challenge disinformation, and bring somewhat hidden digital violations into public debate and for institutional reaction.
BIRN Kosovo director Jeta Xharra opened the conference and noted that there was very little knowledge about digital rights and that the project has contributed to educating both journalists to report on and the public to understand digital rights.
In a high-level speech, Kosovo’s President, Vjosa Osmani, sent a strong message of support towards the internet as a free space, and on the importance of exposing tech-facilitated abuse, be it online manipulation, promotion of hatred, violence against women or harassment of children.
The Deputy Head of the EU Office in Kosovo, Eva Palatova, emphasised the EU’s commitment to a human-centric digital environment, noting recent key policy instruments, the Digital Services Act, the AI Act and the European Democracy Shield, aimed at protecting users.
The work done throughout the project pointed to the importance of addressing internet governance-related topics systematically. The latest BIRN regional report, launched at the opening of the conference, documented 1,440 violations from September 2024 to August 2025. Over the three years of the project, based on BIRN’s monitoring methodology, we captured over 4,000 cases of digital rights and violations mapped.
From September 2024 to August 2025, the most frequent types of trending violations include misuse of artificial intelligence (AI) to facilitate sexual, gender-based violence and fraud, threats to the freedom and pluralism of information, attacks on digital assets and economic rights and harmful and threatening online behaviour.
The conference was attended by around 120 participants including 30 Internet Freedom Meet fellows from the Western Balkans region selected following a public call for participation.
Throughout the three-day event, the fellows played a dual role. They followed conference panels on the main stage, bringing sharp questions and contextual knowledge; and in parallel, they immersed themselves in dedicated workshops with international trainers, diving deeper into some of the most urgent challenges shaping the digital landscape.
In these workshops, fellows confronted real-world dilemmas: how to investigate online harassment while keeping victims safe; how to trace disinformation networks across borders; how AI-generated deepfakes and algorithmic bias threaten vulnerable groups; and how online/street surveillance erodes civic freedom. Fellows additionally enriched the discussion with local knowledge and lived experiences.
Photo: BIRN Kosovo
Humans Behind the Numbers
The conference focused heavily on the human impact behind the numbers – giving a platform to stories of and about real people – journalists, activists, citizens’ – whose lives were impacted and shaken by digital abuse, such as threats, surveillance or disinformation.
Participants heard worrying testimonies: journalists recounting smear online campaigns after exposing corruption, activists exposed to harassment and doxxing following their online advocacy, and citizens becoming victims of AI-driven scams, identity theft or deepface-based abuse.
Speakers emphasized a critical truth: digital rights violations are rarely isolated incidents. They are more often than not entwined with inequalities – especially in terms of gender, LGBTIQ+ persons, minorities, people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups. As Albanian technology policy expert Alba Brojka noted on the panel about gender-based violence, “It is a mirror of what is happening in the society and is amplified online.”
Photo: BIRN Kosovo
New Technologies, Same and Worse Dangers
Emerging technologies, such as generative Artificial Intelligence, are accelerating threats, while legislation and institutional oversight – and to a valuable extent also the media and civil society pace of understanding technological changes – lag dangerously behind.
Experts on the panels warned of AI-facilitated fraud, voice-cloning scams, deepfakes and more – noting that they are all increasingly used to exploit individuals’ vulnerabilities, especially women, young people and children. We heard how deepfakes have become so realistic that more and more people, especially with the information overload, cannot differentiate between real news, manipulated content or disinformation – which directly leads to undermining public trust and discourse influencing democratic and public informed participation.
Panelists looked into [weak] legal frameworks and selective enforcement, which make digital space a fertile ground for censorship, repression, threats and surveillance. We heard from several speakers sharing stories from Serbia or Turkey of unlawful surveillance, spyware deployment and non-transparent use of digital technologies and tools to intimidate critical voices of activists, journalists or even whistleblowers. While on one side, we see an “implementation gap” of those appropriate laws that exist, on the other side, in many places, we encounter outdated institutional settings, limited resources or political pressure, which stays unbothered while critical voices under attack stay unprotected and often with severe online or offline consequences.
Photo: BIRN Kosovo
Digital Rights are Human Rights – Not Optional Extras
One underlying message seconded by all participants – and participation was truly multistakeholder – is that digital rights are human rights, and are not marginal issues for tech-savvy urbanities but fundamental rights, deeply tied to dignity, security and democratic participation. Beyond the number of captured digital rights violations, those numbers represent people. At least one person per case. At least one more friend or family member was affected by it. And often entire communities.
Numbers cannot tell the whole story. Data reveals patterns to which the BIRN team, together with our partners, fellows, subgrantees, gave context. Living in the online space is not abstract – it shapes people’s safety, identity and freedom. Every violation is a life interrupted, a voice shaken, a right diminished. By documenting abuses, amplifying testimonies and exposing the systems that allow them to keep happening, the project brought human stories back to the centre.
Photo: BIRN Kosovo
From Talk to Action: What Needs to Happen Now
By the end of the conference, participants agreed on several urgent and concrete steps for the region:
Update and enforce legislation regionally, looking into good practice, to keep pace with technological change: laws should address AI-driven abuse, data protection, online harassment and digital surveillance
Support for victims/survivors, ensuring accessible reporting mechanisms, provide legal, psychological and social support, including protecting anonymity whenever needed
Empower independent media and civil society, including sustained grants, training and mentorship, so that civil society and journalists (media) can continue documenting abuses safely and effectively
Promote digital literacy and public awareness, as a necessary continued effort to educate citizens at large about ever-evolving online risks and understanding their rights
Fostering regional cooperation, as digital threats do not respect borders – cooperation among media, civil society, institutions, technical community and academia across countries is essential.
Why This Matters and Appreciation Words
For many years we have lived in a world where technology evolves fast – outpacing our social, legal and institutional capacity to adapt. As the closing conference in Prishtina underscored, these are not abstract policy questions. They are about people’s lives, freedom, trust, safety and dignity. They are about our future.
By bringing together journalists, experts from different fields and policymakers, over the three-year project we jointly took responsibility for protecting digital rights not as a niche project but as a core human-rights obligation that shapes people’s realities in the digital age. The Reporting Digital Rights and Freedoms initiative proved that when knowledge, evidence and human stories are brought together, digital rights can no longer be dismissed as technical issues “in the cloud”. They become what they truly are – essential rights that protect the very fabric of democratic society.
BIRN Kosovo wishes to extend its gratitude to project partners, coordinators, editors, monitors, journalists, researchers and authors, subgrantees, fellows, participants of physical and online training and community meetings, and the colleagues and individuals who contributed to the project’s delivery and success.
The Annual conference and Internet Freedom Meet were organised within the framework of the Reporting Digital Rights and Freedoms project, implemented by BIRN Kosovo and supported by the European Union.
With extensive media experience and a strong background in project management, Dragana joined BIRN in February 2006, only a couple of months after its establishment, as project manager. She was promoted to country director in 2007.
Dragana previously worked for prominent international organisations, such as the Stability Pact for SEE, Transparency International and the European Agency for Reconstruction, as well as for electronic media.
Under her leadership, BIRN Serbia has been recognised for its professionalism and ability to influence the public agenda in the fields of media development and good governance.
But she only learned about the organisation a few days before her job interview.
“A colleague asked me if I’d like to meet Dragana Solomon, who was then the [BIRN Serbia] director. I still remember that meeting clearly. The office was in Jovanova Street, in Dorćol, a historic part of Belgrade. It was an informal, chatty meeting, and she was enthusiastic about what they had just started: five brave women. She wasn’t even sure exactly what they needed from me, but she was open to ideas. I remember that I felt this was the place where I could grow,” Dragana says.
In her opinion, it was great to be part of a team building something from scratch.
“Those of us who are here [in BIRN] from the beginning grew professionally alongside the organisation. Back then, we were just three people. Today, BIRN Serbia is a leading, award-winning investigative outlet that sets standards in the profession. We’re just now working on new projects about AI in journalism, kickstarting a community programme, and redesigning our website. It never stands still, and as long as we manage to remain relevant and at the forefront of media development, I assume expectations are met,” explains Dragana.
“Someone more cynical might say journalism has failed. But despite that, I was never ashamed to say where I work, in a country that has seen a dramatic decline of professional journalism, which is already a success,” she says.
BIRN has experienced many changes over the last 20 years. One of the most significant is growth.
“From a small group of enthusiasts with shared values, the BIRN network became a professional organisation with more than 300 people across the region. Of course, that changes the working culture. But I do believe our core values are still intact,” she adds.
“Managing these positions is possible because I have a great team and devoted partners. I’ve been doing both almost since the beginning and for me it’s the perfect balance. As director of BIRN Serbia, I am deeply rooted in the local scene, and the Fellowship broadens my horizons. I’ve met the brightest journalists from across Central and Eastern Europe,” she explains.
The Fellowship’s alumni network now has about 150 members.
“It keeps my curiosity alive. Some of the things that I learn from them we are also trying to implement in Serbia. If anyone needs tips from the Balkans to the Baltics, I’m your person,” Dragana says.
However, during her work in BIRN Serbia, Dragana, along with the rest of the team, has encountered various obstacles.
“Obstacles are many, unfortunately. First and foremost, financial challenges. There’s no sustainable business model for public interest media globally, and especially in politically captured markets like Serbia.
“Then come threats to physical safety, smear campaigns and digital threats, including spyware attacks on my colleagues. Add to that, non-functional institutions, and most recently, a new form of pressure, SLAPP lawsuits; we’re currently facing five of those,” explains Dragana.
Still, against all the odds, “we’re alive and kicking,” she adds.
“We keep reporting on corruption and systemic problems. We tell stories that people can relate to. We help them see the truth and understand it better. And in that context, being attacked means that we are doing our job well,” Dragana says.
As BIRN means “freedom to do what she believes in”, would she have done anything differently in her professional path, if she could?
“It’s a very hypothetical question. I could have done many things differently, but then the outcomes would be different as well, and I quite like what we’ve made. So instead of looking back, I’d rather focus on what’s coming next. We still have so much to do,” she says.
Speaking of how she sees BIRN in the next 20 years, Dragana says “the entire environment in which we work has changed” in the last 20 years.
“The main social and political concepts have changed globally, also affecting the media and its role in societies. We have also witnessed major technological developments. I sometimes joke that I became a director because I was the only one who knew how to use Excel, and since then, things have accelerated. The way we communicate, access and consume content, and the demands of the market, have completely changed, while the threats to information integrity are mounting.
Dragana with Denis Dzidic, BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Director, and Ana Petrusheva, BIRN Macedonia’s Director
“Exactly because of that, I believe that real, hardcore journalism will be even more relevant in the years to come. So, I see BIRN adapting to new realities and staying faithful to its mission – to bring important stories to people,” she adds.
Those important stories are brought to the people through trusted independent journalism. September 28 is World News Day, a global campaign dedicated to highlighting the importance of fact-based journalism. Alongside hundreds of news organisations, media support associations, and individuals from over 100 countries, BIRN is participating in this year’s World News Day, which aims to raise awareness about the value of credible news reporting.
“Trusted journalism helps people make sense of the world, which is precisely why it is often seen as a threat by those in power who work hard to undermine it,” Dragana says.
“It prevents citizens from being left in the dark or manipulated by propaganda and lies, especially in times of crisis. For instance, since the recent protests in Serbia began, independent media have experienced a notable surge in audience. In societies where professional journalism is in decline and threats to reporters are increasing, producing fact-based, independent, trusted reporting becomes not only a public service but also an act of resistance,” she explains.
Outside of work, Dragana is a mother, daughter, sister, and friend. “People are what drive me, in work and in life. So, in my free time, you’ll probably find me surrounded by my gang,” she concludes.
BIRN on Thursday published “Serbia on the Streets”, a comprehensive collection of reports by Balkan Insight about Serbia’s mass protest movement from November 2024 to May 2025.
The e-book is free to download in PDF and EPUB formats. It opens with the first report published by Balkan Insight about the Novi Sad railway station disaster of November 1, 2024, which left 16 people dead – the initial spark for the protest movement.
In the aftermath of the disaster, people took to the streets all over Serbia, accusing the authorities of corruption and negligence.
The reports compiled in the e-book document how students took the lead in the movement with faculty occupations, street blockades, pickets, marches and rallies. Analysis pieces, interviews and on-the-spot reportage articles look deeper into the issues raised by the protests.
“Balkan Insight’s journalists have covered the protest movement since the beginning and have produced a wealth of in-depth reportage and analysis as it developed. The material compiled in this e-book represents an important document of a complex period,” Gentiana Murati, BIRN’s deputy regional director, said.
“It includes numerous voices from the streets and squares, but also valuable expert views on the crisis, which is still ongoing,” Murati added.
The first prize for the Dejan Anastasijevic Award, named after the late highly respected Serbian journalist, in investigative journalism was handed to Aleksa Tesic for the series on the wiretapping of Serbian activists. The third prize was won by Sasa Dragojlo and Avi Scharf for their series on Serbia’s arms exports to Israel.
Aleksa Tesic, a BIRN Serbia journalist, received the prestigious first Dejan Anastasijevic Award for investigative journalism, which was awarded on May 8 by the Independent Journalists Association of Serbia (NUNS).
The award was given to him for the series of articles “Silent Spying: How Serbian Intelligence Hacks Activists’ Phones – Without Them Knowing”, in which it was revealed Serbia’s Security Information Agency (BIA) used the Israeli technology Cellebrite to unlock the phones of activists it interrogated. Some phones were infected with NoviSpy, a spyware developed in Serbia. The research used the findings of a digital forensic analysis conducted by Amnesty International.
“For me, this award is an incentive to continue doing investigative journalism,” said Tesic. “This story revealed the core of espionage in Serbia, which started with the appearance of mobile phones and their mass usage in our country, from the purchase of spyware as early as 2012.
“Today, our whole lives are on the phone. The phone knows more about us than our parents, our closest people. The police, the government, and the secret services want to discover our deepest secrets. It is one of the biggest topics currently in the digital space, it should be the focus of investigative journalists,” said Tesic.
“We will continue to work on this topic. This is not the end, there is still a lot to say. Thank you to Amnesty International, the partners in the project, and the newsroom for their absolute support. I would also like to thank the editor, Milorad Ivanovic, who made all this possible, with whom I worked on this story. We don’t stop here, our appetites are big. Competitiveness is healthy in the journalistic world because it brings better stories.”
The jury described Tesic’s story as “terrifying and complete in equal measure”. It continued: “A society that can produce such stories and such journalists cannot be without hope for the future. Ironically, it is a story about those who try to extinguish that hope.”
The jury consisted of BIRN founder and investigative editor Gordana Igric, investigative reporter and founder of CINS, Branko Cecen, Radio Free Europe investigative editor Mirjana Jevtovic, and reporter, editor and trainer Sasa Lekovic.
“I am so glad that this story was awarded, because I think it is, or should be a number one topic globally,” said Dragojlo. “The Serbian ruling regime has increased its ammunition export to Israel by 30 times, in a year marked by one of the most horrific and cynical crimes in Gaza – crimes that have been ignored or even supported by the most powerful Western countries that often label themselves as bastions of humanism.
“I am also happy because of the collaboration with Haaretz, a media outlet that faces pressures in Israel, as well as BIRN in Serbia. We showed that there are no taboo topics for us and that professional journalism is always at the forefront of the fight for truth and justice, no matter the obstacles.”
Special awards for investigative stories about the Novi Sad train station disaster, and for local journalists
Special awards this year were awarded to Nova Ekonomija journalists Filip Rudic and Aleksandra Nenadovic, and Forbes Srbija journalist Ivan Radak. The jury considered they deserved special recognition because of the subject of their reports.
“The fascinating speed with which they mastered a very complex – but also the most important – topic in Serbia did not affect their high standards in their continuous discovery of key facts about what we were all feverishly interested in – the reconstruction of the railway station in Novi Sad and its tragic collapse,” the jury said. “In short, they showed why there can be neither democracy nor justice without free and professional media.”
As a sign of support for local journalists who work in particularly demanding conditions, NUNS awarded Juzne Vesti journalist Tamara Radovanovic for the report: “Millions for two companies in the last 4 years of the SNS government in Nis“. In its explanation, the jury pointed out that the report was used as evidence by investigators in the indictment against the recent mayor of Nis, Dragana Sotirovski.
Two journalists from BIRN in Serbia were the targets of a failed attempt to install the powerful Israeli spyware Pegasus on their phones, a forensic analysis conducted by Amnesty International has confirmed.
On February 14, within an hour of each other, two BIRN journalists in Serbia each received a Viber message written in Serbian and sent from the same unknown number.
“Do you have any info that he is next? I heard something completely different…” read one, written as if it could be from a journalistic source. Each message contained a link, which set alarm bells ringing. Neither journalist clicked on it, and BIRN enlisted the digital forensic support of Amnesty International’s Security Lab.
Six weeks later, BIRN can confirm that both messages were part of an attempt to install Pegasus spyware on the journalists’ devices.
“We discovered that the text messages contained hyperlinks to a Serbian language domain name which we have determined with high confidence to be associated with NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware,” said Donncha Ó Cearbhaill, head of the Amnesty Security Lab.
Developed by the Israeli cyber-intelligence firm NSO Group, Pegasus is one of the world’s most sophisticated and invasive digital surveillance tools, providing access to an infected phone’s messages, emails, camera, microphone, and files, all without the owner’s knowledge. Journalists have been frequent targets.
“When I received the message, I was at home, which I consider a violation of my privacy; the constitution guarantees that surveillance and eavesdropping are prohibited in my home,” said one of the targeted BIRN journalists, who asked not to be named.
“As soon as I saw the message, I noticed the sender wasn’t in my contacts, they were communicating directly without introducing themselves, and I wondered who had given them my number.”
Without clicking on the link, the journalist replied to the message, asking for the sender to identify themselves. The message failed to send. When the journalist called the number, it was unavailable.
Amnesty International concluded there was a high probability that one or more actors within Serbia’s state apparatus, or agents acting on their behalf, were behind the ‘one-click’ Pegasus attack.
“Today, it’s me,” the journalist said. “Tomorrow it could be someone else. It’s the story that matters, not me.”
A warning?
Both journalists received the messages on February 14 from a Viber account registered to the Serbian phone number +381 65 994 0263. The number was registered with Serbian state-owned telecommunications operator Telekom Srbija and has been unreachable since that date.
Jelena Veljkovic, an award-winning BIRN journalist, received the message at 12:55 PM on her Android phone and did not open it. The second journalist, who requested anonymity, received their message from the same number less than an hour later, at 1:46 PM on an iPhone. The message contained Serbian text and a link leading to a Serbian-language domain.
Amnesty International’s digital forensic team determined with high confidence that the domain in the link was connected to Pegasus spyware. It is a conclusion based on years of research into the abuse of such spyware, which NSO Group says it sells only to “vetted state clients” to for the purpose of fighting “crime and terrorism”.
Amnesty opened the link in a secure environment; it redirected to a fake version of the N1 news website at https://n1info.com. The experts noted that a previous Pegasus attack in July 2023, which targeted a Serbian anti-government protest leader, used the same fake news site for redirection.
“The message was blurred by Viber as a security measure,” said Veljkovic. “I didn’t dare do anything that might allow installation. I don’t know what was written, but I could see that it had two lines of text in white letters and two lines in blue letters – a link to something.”
Veljkovic immediately blocked the number.
“I wouldn’t have paid much attention to the message, but when I got home and checked our newsroom chat, I saw that another colleague had received a message from the same number at nearly the same time,” Veljkovic said, adding that it felt deeply unsettling, particularly because she used her phone both for work and in her personal life.
Veljkovic said she took it as a warning.
“Knowing that someone had both the motive and the money to deploy such a tool, knowing all that Pegasus can do… it can be interpreted as a warning, as pressure: ‘Watch out, we’re watching you’, because the attacker could count on the fact that BIRN journalists wouldn’t click on the link so easily.”
“We don’t know who is behind this attack. I have my suspicions, but I don’t want to speculate. I don’t even know why they chose me and my colleague specifically – maybe it was a warning to the entire BIRN newsroom.”
Not the first, unlikely to be the last
NSO Group says its products are used exclusively by “state intelligence and law enforcement agencies in the fight against crime and terrorism”.
In a letter to Amnesty International, the Israeli firm said that all its systems are “sold exclusively to vetted state clients”.
In a response to BIRN, NSO Group said it adheres to international human rights regulations and export laws and could not accept Amnesty International’s findings without conducting an internal evaluation.
Amnesty has documented the misuse of Pegasus in Serbia before.
In November 2023, Amnesty International, alongside Access Now, the SHARE Foundation, and Citizen Lab, documented two cases of Serbian civil society members being targeted by ‘zero-click’ Pegasus attacks, requiring no user interaction. The investigation also uncovered a third, previously unreported case in which a Serbian activist was targeted with a ‘one-click’ Pegasus attack in July 2023.
Amnesty contacted Serbia’s Security Intelligence Agency, BIA, for a response in November 2024 and again in March 2025, but received no reply.
Rodoljub Sabic, a lawyer and Serbia’s former Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, told BIRN:
“The illegal use of all these ‘tools’ – when practiced by the authorities – is incompatible with the idea of the rule of law and violates multiple constitutionally guaranteed rights of citizens. From the perspective of media freedom and journalists’ rights, it is especially dangerous because it threatens one of the fundamental standards of journalism – the confidentiality of journalistic sources.”
Milorad Ivanovic, editor-in-chief of BIRN Serbia, said the organisation would not be intimidated.
“Although the espionage attempt was sophisticated, the message it sends is primitive: that we should be silenced, retreat, and be afraid. This will not stop us,” he said.
“On the contrary, we will be even more determined to do what we do best: uncover the truth, protect our sources, and serve the public interest. Because you cannot silence the truth with spyware. You only make the truth more necessary.”
The targeted journalist who requested anonymity said the spying on journalists was unlikely to stop.
“I don’t believe we’ll be the last in the newsroom to experience this; I had sensitive contacts during that period – maybe that’s exactly why we attracted attention,” the investigative journalist said.
“In our job, we all have such sources and stories, so it won’t stop with just the two of us. They don’t need to install spyware on my phone. We publish our texts publicly, so anyone from the intelligence services can read them for free. Investigative journalism is patriotism. We don’t get badges and weapons, we don’t carry repressive power, but we expose what needs to be exposed for Serbia to be better, by uncovering what is wrong.”
BIRN journalist Sasa Dragojlo was assaulted by a member of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party while covering a protest in Belgrade, but police refused to identify the assailant.
Journalists’ associations have called for a proper investigation after a Serbian Progressive Party activist attacked BIRN journalist Sasa Dragojlo while he was reporting on a protest in Belgrade’s Zvezdara district on Sunday.
The attack happened in front of several police officers, who removed the assailant but ignored calls to check his identity.
The incident happened while local residents were demonstrating against Serbian Progressive Party activists who had set up promotional stands outside an open-air market to attract new members to the ruling party. The promotional effort, which came amid ongoing mass protests across Serbia about official corruption and negligence, sparked anger among some locals.
“This kind of attack would be unacceptable against any citizen, and the police should have responded. But in this case, it’s clear the attack was escalated because I was on duty as a journalist,” Dragojlo said.
“You can clearly hear me identifying myself on the recording. The attacker reacted aggressively, saying, ‘Oh, you’re a journalist, huh?’ before lunging at me,” he added.
Despite presenting his press credentials, Dragojlo’s request for the police to identify the attacker was ignored.
“The officers were more focused on me than on the attacker, which only reinforces the impression that they weren’t just failing to do their job – they were biased,” he said.
The case has been reported to prosecutors through the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia, NUNS. Both NUNS and the Journalists’ Association of Serbia, UNS, condemned the attack and called for those responsible to be held accountable.
“This was an attack on a journalist while on assignment – one who had clearly identified himself,” said Dragana Zarkovic Obradovic, director of BIRN Serbia.
“We’ve reported the incident and are closely watching how the authorities respond, not just to the attack itself, but also to the fact that police officers on the scene failed to identify the attacker. If there’s no proper response, it sends the message that attacks on journalists are acceptable,” she added.
Protests have been continuing in Serbia for several months, sparked by anger and grief about the Novi Sad Railway Station disaster in November, which left 16 people dead. The student-led protest movement has become the biggest challenge to the rule of President Aleksandar Vucic and the Serbian Progressive Party since the party came to power in 2012.
Aleksa graduated in journalism and communications at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade. As one of the youngest members of our network, he feels “a sense of responsibility, respect for the organisation, and a desire to prove myself.
“We, the young members, are here to push the organisation towards innovation and open it up to new trends. On the other hand, we stand on the shoulders of experienced media professionals, and personally, I strive to learn and absorb as much as I can from them”, he says.
He enrolled in journalism largely because of the investigative aspect.
“After my first job in marketing, I was at a crossroads and decided to pursue investigative journalism. Even during my studies, I attended a panel where I listened to my now-colleague from BIRN. His story completely intrigued me at the time – the investigative aspect and the adrenaline that comes with it,” he recalls.
When he started working at BIRN, he wasn’t initially that attracted to the topic of the misuse of personal data of citizens, journalists and activists. But it grew on him.
“This topic was simply assigned to me as part of a project. However, through discussions with my editor, I soon realised how interesting this could be to the public – especially since, at that time, no one in Serbia was specifically covering these issues; the topic was just emerging.
“The more I investigated, the more personally connected I became to these topics. I realised how difficult it is to obtain information, which, in turn, motivated and challenged me to break through. A few months later, my first big discovery came – the encrypted phones for EPS (Serbia’s state electricity company).
“Throughout the process, the most valuable thing for me was learning how to uncover and investigate. The final product, the investigative stories, came as a natural consequence of that learning process, and over time, it became easier,” he says.
Recently, the Novi Sad School of Journalism awarded him the Marina Kovacev Annual Award in the Best Investigative Journalism, Young Journalists Category, for his work in the above-mentioned field.
“For me, this award means recognition from my peers, which I deeply appreciate. Investigative journalists often get so immersed in their next investigation that they forget what they’ve already accomplished – they don’t stop to smell the roses or reflect on their achievements in the constant pursuit of the next big story,” he says.
“This is not just my award – it was given to me for my contributions, but those contributions were made possible with the support of many people: colleagues, sources, experts, institutions… I would love to see more young investigative journalists every year because they are greatly needed, and competition is healthy,” Aleksa adds.
One of the main BIRN programmes is Reporting and Monitoring Human Rights and Freedoms, focusing on Digital Rights. BIRN Serbia often reports about this and about technology in general. Aleksa explains what some of the commonest digital/online scams are, and how to detect them.
“Mostly phishing, Ponzi, and pyramid schemes. For years now, various phishing and Ponzi scams have been spreading via SMS and the internet. And those schemes still thrive in Serbia; some have been running for years, even though it’s common knowledge that they are scams.
“Serbia is not unique in this regard; digital fraud always finds fertile ground in countries that have a weak response to these issues. And Serbia is known to be one of them. The fact that all of this has gone unpunished and unchecked for years speaks volumes about the weakness and negligence of institutions. Since individuals are mostly left to fend for themselves, people need to educate themselves and develop awareness of cybersecurity threats. Digital literacy is often the first step,” he adds.
Digital supervision is sensitive, especially in Serbia, where the government seems oriented towards suppressing critical voices in the country.
“Digital channels and technologies are highly useful tools for this purpose. However, security services should primarily focus on actual threats, which is what citizens pay them for, while the regime should respond to public criticism professionally, civilly, and in accordance with the law. Digital repression and electronic surveillance of activists, students, civil society representatives, and journalists are anything but lawful,” Aleksa continues.
Although technology is the core of his work, he likes to spend his spare time away from it.
“I enjoy visiting galleries, film screenings, going to basketball games, reading classics and exercising. I own a parrot, and when the opportunity arises, I like to make a mess in my apartment with acrylic paint or clay. Lately, I’ve also developed an interest in making sweets and Indian food,” he says.
“One of the ‘downsides’ of investigative journalism is that it’s addictive; it constantly tries to consume a journalist’s time, and the real challenge is resisting that and carving out time for yourself. I once heard a saying along those lines: ‘If journalism is the only thing you know, then you’re not a good journalist,’” he concludes.
