NUNS: Police also beat up journalists in Belgrade

AUTHOR:M.J. GDNUS

Numerous journalists from Belgrade media were attacked or harassed during Saturday's protest in Belgrade, and the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS) stressed that "the fact that most of the incidents were committed by police officers is particularly worrying" and that in several cases they did not adequately respond to journalists' reports.

In addition to condemning the multiple attacks, harassment and intimidation of journalists reporting from the protests, NUNS in a statement asks the Ministry of the Interior (MUP) to "urgently conduct an internal control and determine the responsibility of the police and gendarmerie officers who participated in these incidents". At the same time, it demands that the police and judicial institutions prosecute the persons who attacked and harassed the work of journalists and cameramen.

In its list of reported attacks so far, NUNS states that FoNet agency cameramen Darko Pavlović and Zoran Drekalović were the targets of physical violence by the gendarmerie, despite having their journalist IDs displayed and cameras in their hands, because they were repeatedly hit with a baton or police shield during the cordon intervention at the intersections of the main city streets.

Danas newspaper journalist Vojina Radovanović was kicked by a police officer after filming the arrest of one of the protesters, while TV N1 assistant Jovan Pavlović was injured during the police intervention when the police knocked him down even though he had identified himself as a media worker.

An aggressive participant in a rally of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party physically prevented the Insajder television crew from filming a poll in a fenced area in front of the Serbian Parliament where the Progressives organized a counter-rally to the student protest. The aggressive Progressive forced them to leave the area with threats and insults, and later interfered with the crews of N1, Newsmax, Al Jazeera, FoNet agency, and Danas newspaper.

N1 reporter Nenad Nešić was interrupted in his work by a young man who kept filming him on his phone and talking, getting into the camera.

A journalist from the weekly "Vreme" was thrown out of the entrance to the building where she had taken shelter with protesters when tear gas was fired on the street, and although she introduced herself as a journalist, a plainclothes police officer forbade her from filming, saying: "I don't care what you are, media."

The police also failed to protect a Beta contributor who was interrupted by a person from Pionirski Park, where Vučić's supporters and students who oppose the blockades of the faculties and the goals of the student movement have been living in a tent settlement since the beginning of April.

NUNS emphasizes that the police's behavior towards media workers during the protests is "unacceptable, worrying and represents a continuation of months of inadequate and unprofessional treatment of journalists."

"This behavior is not an incident, but yet another clear proof of the complete collapse of institutions in this country," NUNS emphasized, pointing out that the 2013 UN General Assembly Resolution calls on all states to promote a safe and supportive environment for journalists and the media so that they can do their job without interference.

The Ministry of Interior was asked to work "in accordance with the obligations" that Serbia assumed by accepting that UN resolution.