Aleksandar Vucic is a busy president. The Serbian leader claims to work at least 15 hours a day, from early in the morning until at least 10:30 in the evening—“as long as I can endure.” And from his Russian lessons at 6:30 am—language skills he exhibited during the sumptuous January reception for Russian President Vladimir Putin in Belgrade—to almost daily press conferences, Vucic is in the press all day, every day.

The part many outside observers seem to miss, as evidenced by Vucic’s invitation to a panel on media freedoms at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last week, is that ever since Vucic’s ascent to power in 2012, the freedom of that press has been under attack.

Shock spread quickly amongst journalists and political observers after the announcement that Vucic would be part of the Davos panel titled “Media Freedoms in Crisis,” alongside Washington Post executive editor Marty Baron and hosted by Reuters editor-in-chief Stephen J. Adler. “Until the very last moment, I thought it wouldn’t happen,” journalist and Serbian media expert Tamara Skrozza told me. “I thought someone, somewhere would understand that this can’t happen.”

During the panel, Vucic shared his concern about press freedom in Serbia, but claimed he was working to solve such problems. “He definitely should not have been allowed to advertise his alleged successes, spread falsehoods and purport that he is something other than what we know him to be. It’s scandalous,” said Skrozza. Two of the leading journalist associations in the country condemned his participation in the panel, stating that Vucic had no “moral right to share recommendations on the media in the country.”

The Davos event only reinforced the feeling among Serbian journalists that their struggle to highlight abuses in the country are being ignored internationally. News about journalists being targeted by politicians, anywhere in the world, have a distressingly familiar ring these days. With the Trump White House recalibrating American expectations for openness, and usual suspects like Putin’s Russia and Saudi Arabia dropping in global press freedom rankings faster than most watchdogs can churn them out, smaller and consistently unstable countries like Serbia barely manage to register. But Serbian journalists aren’t alone in seeing a problem: Even with little acknowledgment from the international community, the country dropped 10 spots in Reporters Without Borders’ annual ranking last year.