ANEM ALARM: Authorities urgently need to identify who attacked the journalists of Glas Šumadije and the portal Likvidno in Kraljevo during the president's visit.

At yesterday's gathering regarding the arrival of Aleksandar Vučić in Kraljevo, in the Ribnica neighborhood, journalist Jovana Ristić from the Glas Šumadije portal and journalist Nenad Simović from the LiKVidno portal were violently attacked at the entrance to the event where Vučić was speaking by unidentified men in black. A group of men formed in front of the journalists, who were visibly displaying Press credentials, and who were properly accredited for the event, demanding that they immediately leave the gathering.

According to Glas Šumadije, one of the men in black initially approached the journalists and grabbed the lens of Nenad Simović's camera, shouting for him to stop filming. Following him, other men appeared, demanding that the journalists stop recording, pushing them out of the event.

“The journalists attempted to explain that they had credentials and accreditations with them, but according to their statements, the men were not interested. Out of fear for their own safety, the journalists left the event,” the statement from Glas Šumadije reads.

ANEM reminds that all journalists and media, without discrimination, have the right to report from public events, especially those organized by the highest state officials, and thus any ban on the media performing their work is unacceptable.

Since this is the second attack on journalists from Glas Šumadije and the LIKVidno portal, ANEM has requested that the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Kraljevo react urgently, identify the perpetrators, and initiate criminal proceedings for endangering safety and violent behavior.

We remind that it is the police's job to ensure that media workers can operate without obstruction and to protect them, and therefore we publicly question the cabinet of the President of Serbia, who organized the event, as to why the police did not protect the journalists during Vučić's visit to Kraljevo.

We also call on President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić to publicly condemn such behavior towards media representatives, to urge the relevant authorities to investigate this and all previous cases of endangering the safety and obstructing the work of journalists, and to finally demonstrate that he advocates for media freedom in Serbia.

Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM)

The project "Enhancing the System of Mechanisms for Prevention and Response in Cases of Threats to the Safety and Lives 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.