Serbia’s Security and Information Agency (BIA) is accused of doing everything possible to bury a scandal that exposes its alleged illegal surveillance of journalists and a prosecutor. Now, instead of answering for the spying, the agency is reportedly trying to rewrite the documents that could expose it.
According to Radar, after publishing official BIA records concerning surveillance measures against an Organised Crime Prosecutor’s Office (TOK) prosecutor, Radar editor-in-chief Vesna Mališić, and journalists Sandra Petrušić and Milan Radonjić, the agency is now allegedly changing the reasons recorded for terminating those measures.
The apparent aim is to portray the published documents as forgeries and shift attention away from the agency’s own conduct.
Several sources reportedly confirmed that, on the orders of outgoing BIA director Vladimir Orlić, efforts were made to alter the disputed records. But there is one detail the agency cannot simply erase: the same documents are also held by the High Court in Belgrade, where the BIA had submitted its requests for the surveillance measures and their subsequent termination.
This is no minor administrative dispute. The allegations raise serious questions about whether Serbia’s intelligence service has been used to monitor journalists and a prosecutor, and whether its leadership is now attempting to manipulate official records to avoid scrutiny.
An agency entrusted with national security should not be operating as a shield for political interests, nor should journalists become targets simply because they expose abuses of power.
If the allegations are confirmed, those responsible must face consequences. The BIA cannot be allowed to spy, manipulate records and then expect the public to accept its version of events without answers.
Who authorised the surveillance? Who ordered the alleged alteration of the documents? And who is protecting those responsible? Serbia owes the public answers not another cover-up.
