ANEM ALARM: The intervention police cordoned off the KTV team from Zrenjanin.

They were stopped by plainclothes police officers and received a warning, followed by an order to withdraw. The news crew refused to leave while the entire event was being broadcast live on the KTV "Without Censorship" YouTube channel.

In addition to numerous plainclothes police representatives, a cordon of the Ministry of Interior's intervention unit was also engaged, forcefully pushing back the KTV news crew as well as the citizens present. Besides the pushback, Nemanja Šarović spoke live about the blows he received from the police cordon using shields, hands, and feet, being pressed against a pole with shields, and there were also attempts to obstruct the recording and endanger the equipment. In addition to the police cordon, the news crew was also pushed by police officers in civilian clothes.

"More than dozens of plainclothes police officers and members of the intervention unit prevented a single local television news crew from covering a public event in their city for two hours. This is a drastic violation of the Law on Public Information and Media, as well as an obstruction of the public's access to objective information. Members of the Ministry of Interior, using their bodies and equipment, surrounded the KTV news crew, limiting their movement by applying force through pushing and striking. Such activities and interventions represent a severe abuse of police power and a potential new model for limiting reporting, especially on events during the election campaign and on election day itself. The KTV crew has been under the pressure of police and paramilitary forces from the Serbian Progressive Party, composed of convicted aggressors and criminals, for many years. When institutions that should protect journalists and citizens are undermined, solidarity, support, and assistance from journalists and citizens during repression, as well as insisting on the prosecution of abuses by all members of the repressive apparatus, become very important. We must not allow such police abuse to become a new pattern of limiting the freedom of information," stated Veran Matić, president of ANEM and member of the Permanent Working Group for the Safety of Journalists.

ANEM will inform the ODIHR monitoring mission, the European Commission, and international organizations that protect freedom of speech and media freedoms about the methods and models of discrimination against journalists in Serbia and media during the election campaign, as well as the threats and attacks they face when attempting to report on events organized by the ruling Serbian Progressive Party.

The project "Improving the System Mechanism for Prevention and Response in Cases of Threats to the Safety and Life of Journalists in Serbia" is being implemented by ANEM in partnership with Insider TV and the Center for the Development of Local Media, with support from the European Union.