Announcements

The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), the Journalists' Association of Serbia (UNS), the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS), and Local Press point out that the evaluation of media projects and the allocation of funds within the project co-financing process continued in June, accompanied by numerous controversial decisions, irregularities, and a lack of transparency in the process.

During a police intervention in front of the Faculty of Law in Belgrade, and despite being legitimized, Vuk Cvijić, a journalist for the weekly magazine Radar, was struck with a shield and elbow and pushed away on the evening of Wednesday, July 2nd. His phone was taken from him, even though he did not interfere with the police intervention, as evidenced by a video recording.

Another physical assault, the attack on cameraman Mirko Todorović from Juronjuz television, on November 5, 2024, in Novi Sad, will remain unpunished, as public prosecutor Sanja Skakavac from the Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Novi Sad dismissed the criminal complaint for violent behavior in a public place. 

The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) strongly protests and demands that the Internal Control Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs determine who assaulted and tortured Aleksa Stanković, a student of the Faculty of Philosophy and a photographer for the website "Students in Blockade." Stanković was clearly marked as a media worker: he had a press ID and had insignias on three other places on his clothing indicating that he was on a journalistic assignment.

The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) calls on the relevant institutions to prevent the spread of false and disturbing news and to prosecute all those who spread false information that journalists and editors of N1 and Nova S TV are terrorists.

During the media coverage of two events organized on Vidovdan in Belgrade, as well as during the police intervention, journalists were attacked, beaten, injured, and prevented in various ways from performing their jobs professionally. Unfortunately, this has become a common behavior among representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as at every similar event, intervention units, particularly the gendarmerie, strike journalists and cameramen who are properly identifying themselves, without interfering with the police's work.

During the commemoration of Vidovdan organized by the SNS in front of the Serbian National Assembly, we were once again able to confirm that this area is "forbidden" for journalistic teams from certain editorial offices. The team from Insajder television attempted to conduct a survey in the enclosed space but was prevented by an aggressive young man, a participant in the SNS gathering, who physically obstructed them from conducting the survey while threatening and insulting them, insisting that they leave the area, which the team from this editorial office had to comply with.

As always when it comes to large gatherings in Belgrade, NUNS opens its doors to its members from the provinces and other journalists who come to follow the events, whether to send reports or to take a break. (UNS does the same.)

The SafeJournalists network, the Coalition for Media Freedom, and the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) strongly condemn the brutal threats directed at journalist Nenad Kulačin and his daughter via the social network X, from the account @Alek_Patriota.