Four Balkan states slipped down the latest press freedom rankings compiled by Reporters Without Borders.

Clashes broke out on May 1 when protesters tried to defy a ban on gatherings on Istanbul’s iconic Taksim Square.

Following the example of their Supreme Court colleagues, 17 of 39 judges of the Court of Appeal in Chisinau quit rather than come under the scrutiny of a vetting process.

Serbian Prime Minister-designate Milos Vucevic named two pro-Russian, US-sanctioned politicians as members of his new cabinet, which will also include a far-right party leader.

Dusko Knezevic, once a close ally of former President Milo Djukanovic, was extradited to Montenegro to face charges of involvement in corrupt financial deals.

The Bosnian state prosecution charged Serb nationalist activist Vojin Pavlovic with inciting ethnic and religious hatred by putting up posters and making a speech that denied the Srebrenica genocide.

Six out of 21 defendants were found guilty of homicide by negligence and other offences over a wildfire in Mati in Greece’s Attica region in 2018 that left 104 people dead, but political officials were cleared of responsibility.

Police arrested the fugitive Prince Paul-Philippe of Romania, who has been trying to evade a jail sentence for corrupt activities in his home country, at a resort in Malta.

Given the pattern that where the rule of law is eroding, so too is media freedom, it’s unsurprising CEE member states figure highly in the report.

Natasa Pirc Musar told BIRN she supports her predecessor, Borut Pahor, as the next EU special envoy for Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, highlighting Slovenia’s backing for Kosovo’s Council of Europe membership.