Pro-government tabloids in Serbia launched on Friday a smear campaign against independent investigative outlet KRIK after it published transcripts from the prosecutor's questioning of the suspected leader of a brutal criminal group who claimed the country’s President Aleksandar Vucic repeatedly asked him for favors.

Serbia’s pro-government media launched a coordinated smear campaign against reporters of the investigative outlet KRIK on Tuesday, linking them to a recently arrested crime boss the same reporters investigated and determined to have frequently socialized with the president’s son.