June 30, 2025
Several media workers were attacked while reporting on incidents from the major protest of students and citizens held in Belgrade on 28th June.
– A police officer struck with his truncheon Jovan Pavlović, an assistant camera operator from Television N1, who at the time was lying on the ground wearing a yellow press vest and who identified himself as a journalist. The blows caused him to receive bruises to his shoulder and arm.
– Darko Pavlović, a camera operator of agency FoNet, was struck several times in the back by police with a truncheon and sprayed with pepper spray.
– a second camera operator of agency FoNet, Zoran Drekalović, was struck by police with a truncheon on the hand in which he was holding his camera, after which he was knocked him to the ground with a shield.
– When Vojin Radovanović, a journalist of daily newspaper Danas, attempted to record the arrest, a plainclothes member of the Gendarmerie shoved him and grabbed his arm, only to kick him as he started to distance himself from the incident.
– A female journalist of weekly news magazine Vreme was ejected from the entranceway of a building where she’d taken refuge together with protesters. A plainclothes police officers forbade her from filming, saying: “I’m not interested that you’re a journalist”.
– As the student protest was unfolding, a single man prevented at least six media crews from working in the area of Belgrade city centre where a campsite of supporters of President Aleksandar Vučić has been erected. The police only removed him from the scene after an hour.
– The series of threats against journalists in the build-up to the 28th June protest included one that stood out for its brutality: the threat to rape the daughter of podcast author and columnist Nenad Kulačin in response to his post on X (Twitter).
