Right up until the last moment, Massimo Moratti’s colleague thought that the Serbian state would withdraw its decision to expel this media researcher from the country.

“But no,” says Luka Zanoni, editor-in-chief of Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa (OBCT), in an interview with Radio Free Europe.

At the beginning of September, Moratti received an order to be expelled from Serbia after applying for a temporary residence permit months earlier, in January. “He had 15 days to leave the country. And now the deadline has expired,” explains Zanoni, a long-serving editor at OBCT.

“And it is incomprehensible, because it’s not clear why they refused,” says Zanoni. The only stated reason is that Moratti represents a “dangerous risk to Serbia”, as stated in the application for the revocation of his temporary residence permit. “Apart from that, no one knows anything. It’s not clear why they did it,” he states. He believes that Moratti’s work is the only reason his permit was refused.

“I don’t see any other reason. He’s not a secret agent working on official state secrets; he is an ordinary man who does his job professionally.”

Luka Zanoni, editor-in-chief of Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa (OBCT)

As a correspondent, he also wrote about protests and is an expert on war crimes, Zanoni stresses. “Maybe because of that too, but I cannot confirm it.”

OBCT is a think tank that deals with South-Eastern Europe, Turkey, and the Caucasus, researching the social, political, and cultural transformations of six EU member states, countries involved in the EU enlargement process, and much of post-Soviet Europe covered by the European Neighbourhood Policy.

Meeting at the BIA

Maja Sever, president of the European Federation of Journalists, also says they know nothing more than that. In an interview with RFE, she points out that she has been in “serious shock” for several days over what happened to Moratti, with whom she has collaborated for years.

“We have been on several missions together and he is truly a peaceful, honest, and professional colleague,” says Sever.

“And we actually know nothing more than that, except that his appeal was also rejected and Massimo, who has spent ten years in this region, whose wife works in Serbia, now has to move out of the city where he lives and has chosen to live, along with his young child and wife, in the coming days.”

She adds that the appeals and requests from the European Federation of Journalists to annul the decision have not been accepted, nor have the requests of his lawyer. The enforcement procedure has not been suspended, Sever adds and goes on to say:”Even though no concrete explanation has yet been provided by the Serbian authorities.”

The Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs did not respond to Radio Free Europe’s queries regarding the reasons for the media researcher’s expulsion.

Massimo Moratti is an Italian citizen and a long-time human rights campaigner. He has lived in Serbia since 2022, when he moved to Belgrade after his partner got a job there.

“They have lived in Belgrade for the past few years. Massimo has always worked in the region – in Sarajevo, in Kosovo – he has worked a lot in that area, ever since the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” recalls his colleague Zanoni.

His partner’s temporary residence was approved in May. In June, Moratti received an invitation to a formal meeting at Serbia’s Security and Information Agency (BIA), which questioned him about his professional activities in the country. Zanoni says that Moratti informed them after that meeting and that he didn’t know “what they wanted”. The BIA did not respond to RFE’s enquiry about the nature of that meeting.

Upon returning to Belgrade, he began collaborating with the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) network, a mechanism that monitors media freedom violations in Europe and supports journalists under threat. The network also includes the European Federation of Journalists, OBCT, the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, and Article 19.

The consortium says that, although the Serbian authorities have not provided a concrete explanation for their decision, “there are grounds to suspect that the expulsion order is linked to Moratti’s activities in advocating for human rights and media freedom, to his reporting for OBCT on the growing social and political tensions in Serbia in recent years, or to his work within the MFRR consortium.”

It was precisely in July that this consortium published a report, together with the Council of Europe’s Safety of Journalists platform, on the state of the media in Serbia. Moratti also participated in that mission.

Some of the recommendations addressed to the Serbian government in that report include, among other things, that they “must stop calls for violence against media workers and investigate those cases,” as well as “refrain from dangerous rhetoric, verbal pressure, and the public denigration of media outlets and journalists.”

The MFRR recalls that they, like OBCT, have “documented the deepening crisis of media freedom in Serbia, including the escalation of physical violence against journalists and attempts by the Serbian authorities to censor and silence independent journalism and critical voices.”

In this context, they visited Serbia in March 2026 to carry out an advocacy mission, which Moratti joined on behalf of OBCT. “Our organisations consider that the refusal of his residence permit and the subsequent expulsion order constitute a form of administrative harassment aimed at intimidation as retaliation for his work and support for journalists in the country and the wider region,” states a joint statement by the consortium organisations and others, including Reporters Without Borders.

Maja Sever from the European Federation of Journalists says that Moratti was doing what she and anyone who fights for free media “does every day.” “He participated in our missions and discussions, both with decision-makers and with representatives of the journalistic sector in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and all neighbouring countries,” says Sever, adding: “I don’t know what could be the reason for expulsion in all of that.”

The deadline looms

According to the latest Freedom House report, Serbia is the country with the largest decline in freedom during 2025.

That year, the country lost three points “after the authorities retaliated by withholding salaries and employment contracts from teachers and professors who participated in widespread, student-led anti-corruption protests,” the report states.

The report states that Serbia is facing democratic backsliding under President Aleksandar Vučić and the Serbian Progressive Party, and that the police and intelligence services have used spyware to monitor journalists, activists, and protest organisers.

According to the 2026 World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders, Serbia is ranked 104th out of 180, placing it in the group of countries where the situation is described as “difficult.”

Sever stresses that by the time of Moratti’s expulsion, six journalists from Serbia had been forced to leave the country for their own safety. “That best shows what the situation is like for journalists in Serbia,” adds Sever, saying that they daily publish threats, targeting, and attacks against journalists on the Safe Europe platform. “If we were to really talk about the figures and the current situation, Serbia is a very dangerous place for male and female journalists right now, across the whole of Europe and beyond.”

The powerlessness to change the situation is, she adds, painful. “The whole of Europe is turning a blind eye to what is happening in Serbia.”

“It is even frustrating that all letters and requests ultimately yield no results, while more and more people who advocate for media freedom are being expelled from Serbia, like Massimo Moratti.”

Luka Zanoni says they could never have imagined that their colleague would be one of the cases they would be reporting on. When he spoke to Massimo earlier, he told him he had no reason to be afraid. However, Zanoni adds that considering his family is also involved in the whole case, “he is indeed worried.”

The deadline for Massimo Moratti to leave the country expires on Saturday, 19 September. Once he leaves, he will not be able to return to Serbia for a year.

By the time this article went to press, the Italian Embassy in Serbia had not responded to RFE’s enquiry as to whether they were aware of the case involving the expulsion of their citizen, nor whether they had addressed the Serbian authorities in connection with it.

(Radio Free Europe, 18.09.2026)

https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/srbija-massimo-moratti-novinar-protjeran-sloboda-/33858879.html