Government of Serbia Demands Access to Bank Records of Journalists and CSOs

The Administration for the Prevention of Money Laundering of Serbian Ministry of Finance has created a list of media and CSOs, and individuals demanding access to their bank records to determine whether they are connected to money laundering or operations to finance terrorism. The Office for cooperation with Civil Society recalls that the cooperation with CSOs and the establishment of an adequate mechanism for monitoring the non-profit sector, significantly contributed to the improvement of the system against money laundering and terrorist financing BCSDN’s member Civic Initiatives in a statement calls the Government to stop abusing the mechanism for preventing money laundering and terrorist financing by intimidating organizations, media, and individuals that are critically oriented towards Government’s actions. Please find an open document of the statement with all the signatures, where you can provide support to our Serbian colleagues as well.  BCSDN supports its member Civic Initiatives in this statement, and encourages Serbian CSOs to apply for ad-hoc grants intended to support the CSOs in combating such attacks and pressures as the CSOs in Serbia are facing with at the moment.

Source: Civic Initiatives/ European Western Balkans/ BCSDN/ Office for cooperation with Civil Society