Attacks on journalists in Novi Sad during the protest "Serbia, Can You Hear Us?"

During the operation, police forces rushed into the University campus and began to push back students and gathered citizens, a significant number of whom took shelter in the building of the Rectorate and the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. After the intervention at that location concluded, and Dr. Zoran Đinđić Street was nearly completely cleared, a squad of the Gendarmerie, consisting of several dozen members, headed toward the Rectorate plateau, where journalist and cameraman for TV N1, Ksenija Pavkov and Aleksandar Milovanović, along with a few demonstrators, doctors, and medical personnel from the first aid team were present. The journalist saw one of the Gendarmerie members, who was then climbing the stairs, throw a stone at her colleague. The Gendarmerie officer was wearing a mask and body armor, while the cameraman had a helmet that saved his life. Judging by the dent in the helmet, the outcome of the blow would have been fatal without it. Journalist Pavkov showed Milovanović the face that was targeted. The cameraman managed to identify the officer and then recorded the moment the same Gendarmerie member threw objects at the gathered citizens.

The amount of tear gas used was substantial. The intervention of the Gendarmerie against peaceful demonstrators and visibly present medical teams was extremely brutal. Therefore, the journalistic team did not feel safe. As the police had surrounded the campus, they could not evacuate. They assessed that leaving the plateau by passing near the police units was very risky.

After briefly stepping off the plateau, the cameraman, the assistant, and the journalist paused in the university campus on Dr. Zoran Đinđić Street to record what was happening at that moment for their program. Apart from them, there was no one else on the street. From the direction of the Faculty of Philosophy, a group of Gendarmerie members approached the journalistic team at a quick pace. When they were just a few steps away, one of the officers pulled out a baton, swung it towards the journalist, and before physically moving her, said: "Get away!".

Ksenija Pavkov was wearing a helmet with a press label, her journalistic accreditation was prominently displayed, and she held a microphone with the TV N1 logo in her hand. Cameraman Aleksandar Milovanović also had visible press credentials. Neither as a journalistic team nor individually did they in any way obstruct the intervention (at the moment the journalist was attacked by police officers, there was not even an ongoing intervention). Furthermore, Dr. Zoran Đinđić Street is wide enough that police officers could have passed by the journalistic team without obstruction if they had wanted to.

Ksenija Pavkov and Aleksandar Milovanović filed a complaint with the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ Internal Control Sector regarding the behavior of the Gendarmerie members. Along with the complaint, they provided corresponding recordings and photographs as evidence for their claims. The process is ongoing.

***

That same night, at the same protest, journalist of the weekly Vreme, Katarina Stevanović, who was also wearing a yellow vest with a press label, was forced by Gendarmerie members to lie down, with her head pressed to the ground, her face turned toward the earth, and her hands on her head. In an authored text published in Vreme, the journalist described the event in full.

At one point, together with a group of people, she was cornered against the fence of a children's playground. Some of the police officers were told by a few that they were members of the first aid service, and the journalist informed them, showing the inscription on her vest, of her role in the field. However, for the Gendarmerie members, that information held no significance. They ordered the cornered individuals to lie down. On the ground, in the described position, Katarina Stevanović remained for about fifteen minutes. During that time, she stated, she repeated more than five times that she was a journalist. She requested the police officers to contact her editorial office. Their response was that they did not care that she was a journalist. They threatened her not to record, and then, as she described, confiscated her phone to check if recording was on. Once they confirmed that it was not, they threw the phone at her feet, stating that if it was determined that she was a journalist, they would inform her editorial office from the station. All of this, Katarina Stevanović writes, was accompanied by "various insults" uttered by the police officers.

Then a command was heard over the radio to begin identifying and taking people to the station. The journalist lay there for another five minutes, after which she was ordered to get up. They requested her identification and asked who she worked for. If everything was in order, they told her, she would be allowed to leave and continue reporting. Only after they took her documents did they allow her to make a phone call, asking if she was injured and needed medical assistance. One of the police officers claimed they did not see that she was a journalist. After about ten minutes, Katarina Stevanović was returned her documents and was apologized to for the incident.

***

Student of the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad, Boris Kojčinović, who that night informed the public about the events at the Rectorate through the Instagram page of the Faculty of Philosophy, had his mobile phone seized during the live broadcast. In the Rectorate amphitheater, there were professors, students, and other citizens. According to media reports, the police identified them and kept them inside the building for over two hours.

In a video posted on the official page of the student blockades at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Novi Sad, a uniformed person, wearing a mask over half of his face and filming with a mobile phone, approaches Kojčinović and snatches his phone. As the student stated for the daily newspaper Danas, a Gendarmerie officer demanded that he stop filming because, allegedly, recording was not allowed. Kojčinović was curious why it was prohibited, given that those present were not being arrested and no actions were being taken against them. He received no explanation. The phone was simply snatched from his hand. The police officer did not want to identify himself, although, as the student recounted, he was repeatedly asked to do so.

After those present were released from the Rectorate, Kojčinović was allowed to retrieve his phone.

***

Among those detained in the Rectorate building were nearly all members of the editorial team of the student media Blokada INFO. That evening, they were reporting on the events in the campus from the Rectorate. Several editorial team members were taken to the police station, from which they were released only after giving statements.

In an open letter addressed to the rector of the University of Novi Sad, Dejan Madić, the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia and the Association of Independent Electronic Media stated that all of the equipment of the Blokada INFO editorial team, as well as the personal belongings of its members, were trapped in the Rectorate. The letter states that the Gendarmerie and MUP officers entered the Rectorate at the rector's request. The signatories of the letter strongly protested against such actions and demanded that the technical equipment and personal belongings be urgently returned to the Blokada INFO editorial team.

Journalist of that media, Iva Galicki, explained in a statement for the UNS that they were broadcasting events live and that they took shelter in the Rectorate after assessing that the situation was becoming dangerous. Throughout, they wore vests marked with "press" and had journalistic credentials.

***

During the night, while reporting on the dispersal of demonstrators on the quay, journalist Emir Kahrimanović from the portal 021.rs was also attacked. As described by the editorial team of that portal, at one point, there was a police charge. Trying to escape, Kahrimanović stumbled and fell. While lying on the ground, a police officer kicked him. In the video the editorial team published, Kahrimanović can be heard repeatedly stating that he is a journalist, after which he falls. He emphasized that he was wearing a press vest and showed his journalistic identification multiple times.

***

For Zrenjanin television KTV that night, Nemanja Šarović, leader of the "Love, Faith, Hope" movement, was reporting. During the broadcast, a police officer seized his microphone and smashed it on the ground. The KTV label on the microphone was visible; however, it meant nothing to the police officer. He persistently demanded Sharović's journalistic credentials and pushed him twice during that time.

***

The professional public reacted to numerous attacks on journalists during the protest "Serbia, can you hear us?". Journalistic associations and media associations demanded the urgent identification and sanctioning of all those responsible for the use of excessive force, the immediate return of seized journalistic equipment, an urgent cessation of all forms of intimidation and illegal identification of journalists, and the urgent prevention of recording police actions in public places, as well as the immediate enforcement of standards of necessity and proportionality in the use of force.

**This text is part of the [Monitoring of the Media Scene in Serbia for September 2025](https://bezbedninovinari.rs/article/1310/medijska-scena-srbije-u-septembru-2025).**