Reuters Report: The Governments’ Abuse of Anti-Money Laundering Guidelines to Investigate NGOs and Media

In a special report, Reuters discovers that in some countries worldwide, including Serbia, the authorities’ legislation to satisfy FATF standards was used as a mechanism to investigate journalists, NGOs, and lawyers. In July 2020, Serbia’s financial intelligence unit sent a letter to local banks requesting private data on 50 NGOs and media outlets recognized for criticizing the Serbian government. Ms. Maja Stojanovic, the Executive Director of BCSDN’s member from Serbia, Civic Initiatives, identified in the letter, stated that the government used the data for smear campaigns in order to undermine the work of the NGOs in the country. Read more here. 

Source: Reuters