First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia Ivica Dacic participated in a media freedom event hosted by the United Kingdom on the sidelines of the General Debate at the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.

The event was hosted by Minister of State for the Commonwealth and United Nations Lord Tariq Ahmad of Wimbledon and co-chaired by UK Special Envoy on Media Freedom Amal Clooney.

UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay and Prime Minister of the Sudan Abdalla Hamdok also spoke at the meeting.
The event highlighted the importance of media freedom for the development of democracy, promotion of human rights, fight against corruption, and transparency.

It was pointed out that during the last decade media freedom around the world seriously eroded. Violence against journalists was on the rise, with 2018 being one of the most difficult periods so far with 99 journalists killed, 350 arrested and 60 held hostage. In the last three months alone, since the Freedom of the Media Conference in London, 13 journalists were killed, while about 90 percent of cases of violence against journalists remained unsolved, which is why the UK launched a campaign to form an international coalition to defend freedom of the media which was so far joined by around 30 countries, including Serbia.