September 16, 2018
Journalists’ associations have protested against a ban on teams of journalists filming the site of the deaths of two workers at the Belgrade Waterfront construction site.
This residential complex, today the largest construction site in Serbia, prompted numerous demonstrations in Belgrade in recent years, because – according to demonstrators – it is an example of the most valuable urban construction land in the city being given to a private company from the United Arab Emirates under very unfavourable circumstances and in an agreement the details of which have never been fully revealed.
The media representatives who came to report on the accident claimed that site security personnel refused to allow them to film the scene of the accident on the grounds that it was “private property”.
The Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia and the Association of Journalists of Serbia sought in separate statements for the most urgent confirmation of who issued the order under which security staff at the construction site prohibited the teams of journalists from filming the spot where the two workers died, as well as ensuring that those responsible enable the unhindered work and reporting of journalists.
According to KRIK’s portal Raskrikavanje, news was published on the B92.net site stating that security staff had escorted a TV Prva reporter away from the scene of the accident, but that this news was quickly removed from the site. On the Television Prva website, however, there is still a report in which a journalist of this television company reports on the conduct of security personnel.
