ANEM: Unacceptable prevention of journalists from attending the session in the Tower and the Teaching-Scientific Council of the Faculty of Medicine.

Today, the second session of the Municipal Assembly is being held in Kula, where the mayor is expected to be elected. N1 reported that they were not allowed into the Assembly building, despite having sent their accreditation, and that no local journalist was permitted to enter the electoral session either.

A security guard stationed in front of the building told the N1 reporter that they had been instructed by their supervisor not to let them into the Municipal Assembly. When the N1 team asked why, the police officers, security personnel, and the aforementioned supervisor remained silent.

Meanwhile, in Belgrade, during a public session of the Teaching-Scientific Council of the Medical Faculty, which is supposed to confirm the election of the dean of this faculty, security removed journalist Vuk Cvijić from the weekly magazine Radar.

“They didn’t stop me when I was entering. After a while, two security personnel came in and asked me to leave the room. When I told them that the session was public, they said I could follow it from outside the room because the meeting was being recorded. It is obvious that those conducting dubious elections at the Medical Faculty of the University of Belgrade are bothered by the presence of journalists, which is why they asked security to throw me out, even though I was inside because I, as a journalist, entered the public session normally,” stated Vuk Cvijić.

ANEM believes that the role of the media in reporting on sessions of local and national parliaments, as well as the elections of leading figures at universities, is crucial for a democratic society and processes that concern all citizens of a state.

“Professional reporting on topics of public interest must not be prohibited, nor is discrimination against the media acceptable when granting accreditation to cover specific events. This does not contribute to the development of the rule of law and democratic values in a society, but rather hinders the controlling role of transparency and public scrutiny that the media possess,” stated Veran Matić, chairman of the ANEM Board of Directors.

We call on the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications to urgently respond in such situations and instruct all institutions to grant journalists and media access for reporting on events of public interest.

Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM)

The project "Enhancing the System of Prevention and Response Mechanisms in Cases of Threats to the Safety and Lives of Journalists in Serbia" is carried out by ANEM in partnership with Insajder TV and the Center for the Development of Local Media, supported by the European Union.