Reporters Without Borders has asked the European Union to hold Serbia accountable for hosting Russian state media network RT, which RSF calls "Vladimir Putin's factory of lies."
Reporters Without Borders, which goes by its French acronym RSF, says that the EU should take these steps because RT Balkan uses its office in Belgrade to "adapt the Kremlin's narratives" and broadcast propaganda throughout southeastern Europe.
RT and other Kremlin-controlled media have been under sanctions imposed by the EU since Russian launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. But in Serbia, which did not join the sanctions even though it is a candidate for EU membership, these Russian media outlets work without hindrance, RSF said.
Pavol Szalai, head of the RSF office for the EU and the Balkans, told RFE/RL in an interview on October 2 that RSF is calling on the EU and member states to address this problem in its negotiations with Serbia on EU membership.
"And we will, through our communication channels with the European Commission and the member states, raise this issue," Szalai said.
"The fact that a sovereign and proud country like Serbia hosts Putin's factory of lies and is used by Russia to spread Russian propaganda is not tolerable for Serbia, or for the European Union," the RSF official added.
The Paris-based organization launched an initiative called the Propaganda Monitor on September 30 to inform the public about the mechanisms behind propaganda and disinformation. It dedicated its first report to Russian propaganda spreading in the Balkans with a particular focus on RT.
RSF researchers looked into RT’s operation in Serbia and said that thanks to RT Balkan, the Kremlin's war propaganda is "blooming within the borders of the EU."
Russian narratives are adapted to the local audience in Serbia before being distributed throughout the region, RSF said.
Szalai stressed in the interview with RFE/RL that Serbia’s actions ran contrary to its wish to become an EU member state.
“Entering into the EU means respecting some rules, and these include aligning with EU's security and foreign policy,” Szalai told RFE/RL. “And now here the situation is clear. Serbia is not respecting this rule. And this is why we said that it should be held accountable by the EU institutions, by the member states in the negotiations.”
Serbia was awarded EU candidate status along with other hopefuls in 2012.
RSF said there are several reasons why RT chose Serbia as its Balkan office, including long-standing relations between Russia and Serbia and a common culture of Slavic heritage and Orthodox Christianity.
RT Balkan has "adapted the Kremlin's narrative to a highly receptive local audience, allowing it to spread more easily across the region," RSF said.
"Perhaps nowhere in the world were we more eagerly awaited than here," said RT editor in chief Margarita Simonyan in a news release issued when RT Balkan launched in November 2022.
The research done by RSF says that, while RT Balkan does not have a television channel, its website remains the main platform for video content.
RSF said that the editors and columnists of RT Balkan "act more like influencers than journalists" and they are frequent guests on other media outlets to ensure visibility.
"Presented as journalists or analysts associated with RT Balkan, they get a wide platform for legitimizing and spreading the Kremlin's propaganda," according to RSF.
RT Balkan promotes itself as an online broadcast service and multimedia website in the Serbian language whose goal is to provide an "alternative perspective on regional and world events."
Since its founding in Moscow in 2005, RT has developed a network of television channels, websites and social media accounts that publish content in English, Spanish, French, Arabic, German, and Russian.