June 2, 2025
Journalists are increasingly being attacked in Serbia – more than 20 physical assaults have been recorded over the past seven months, since the start of mass protests against corruption in the country, while there have been many more threats issued and situations in which journalists and camera operators have been prevented from doing their work.
At least four physical attacks against journalists have been recorded in the last two weeks alone.
N1 cameraman Marjan Vučetić was physically assaulted while he was filming a gathering of ruling party supporters during a pre-election rally in Kosjerić. He was struck and kicked while filming Miloš Vučević, president of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, who served as prime minister of Serbia until recently.
Tamara Radovanović, a female journalist of regional media outlet Južne Vesti [Southern News], was assaulted following a rally of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić’s supporters in Niš, with the attacker twisting her arm while standing in front of the police cordon securing the rally. Rather than detaining the attacker, a plainclothes police officer merely moved the journalist away from the spotted where she’d been filming.
A TV N1 journalist and cameraman, as well as a journalist of local media outlet Glas Zaječara, were subjected to verbal attacks and physical violence while reporting from a gathering of ruling party supporters in the village of Jelašnica.
Journalists from the newsrooms of Glas Zaječara, TV Nova, Insajder and TV N1 were prevented from reporting from the gatherings being held in the build-up to next week’s local elections.
A journalist of Glas Šumadije from Kragujevac was also attacked.
Niš-based journalist Nikola Doderović, who police detained for no apparent reason during a gathering of supporters of President Vučić in Niš, said that there are “unreal pressures on journalists and their families” in the city.
