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| - Western embassies in Belgrade on Thursday expressed concern at a campaign of "intimidation" by Serbian pro-government media and ruling party MPs against NGOs and journalists. The alleged smear campaign began after Serbian police arrested the suspected leaders of an organised crime syndicate last month, after which several dailies and TV stations accused local investigative outlet Crime and Corruption Reporting Network (KRIK) of "collaborating" with an organised crime group. At the same time, ruling Serbian Progessive Party's officials disclosed personal details about members of democracy watchdog CRTA, and called NGOs "criminal enterprises". "Media and civil society can only perform their crucial work if they are respected, and allowed to operate freely without threats or intimidation," the Belgian embassy said, while the French, US, Italian and Dutch embassies issues similar statements almost simultaneously. The award-winning investigative outlet said the campaign was "revenge". "We were the only ones who wrote many investigative stories, explaining and documenting different ways of how the state was protecting members of that group and cooperating with them," KRIK said in a statement. Serbian and international human rights watchdogs regularly warn that President Aleksandar Vucic's SNS party's is suppressing independent media. On Wednesday, the head of the European delegation to Serbia Sem Fabrizi asked President Vucic "to improve the atmosphere in the country to (allow) the media and civil society to work without disruption." mbs/har
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