What was controversial in the police's response during the attack on the N1 team?

Journalist Maja Nikolić from N1 told Danas that she was supposed to meet historian Srđan Cvetković near Pionirski Park to prepare a report on how the area has become a sort of strategic stronghold in the meantime.

Before her interviewee arrived, Nikolić arrived early with her cameraman to film "cover shots" for the report in Pionirski Park, but found herself in an awkward situation, as she noted that a changeover of residents in the camp and police units was taking place.

“We were there at a certain moment of change, which shocked me quite a bit, because I had previously called a colleague to check if something was happening and whether any gathering had been announced, given the large number of people and police, as well as those entering and exiting that area. My colleague told me that the changeover starts at 2 PM. We just stopped there to film people coming in and out,” said Nikolić.

She stated that the attack occurred when one of the men, who had previously been moving from the direction of Pionirski Park and hiding his face from the camera, approached the N1 team and, without provocation, began to destroy their equipment.

“He systematically smashed that camera; it wasn’t just a random push of a tripod or something that happens in the heat of the moment; it was planned destruction to the point of complete annihilation. It lasted, he kept hitting the camera right in front of the police who were standing five meters away and did not react. One police officer later told me that they ‘only heard it when the camera fell,’ and I said – how could you not hear the man yelling at us? They didn’t react even when it fell; the man continued to destroy the camera. And all this happened in front of the police, and it was as if they didn’t see us,” Nikolić recounted.

After the attacker smashed the camera, Nikolić noted that she was taken aback by the complete lack of reaction from the police, who, she said, stood in close proximity throughout the incident but did not take even the most basic step to protect the team or secure the crime scene.

“The police were paralyzed. There was no report, nothing. We secured the crime scene ourselves, telling people not to walk by and not to step on the battery. At one point, I asked a uniformed police officer: ‘Are you a police officer?’ because the man was just standing there and not reacting to anything,” Nikolić stated.

She emphasized that she became particularly concerned and frightened when she received information from colleagues that the attacker had allegedly been convicted of murder and that they found out through the database of “Notorious Caci” created by the KRIK portal.

Member of the permanent working group for the safety of journalists and President of the Board of the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) Veran Matić arrived at the scene shortly after the attack occurred.

He told Danas that it is common for the police not to react when it comes to attacks on journalists, especially near Pionirski Park where the so-called Caciland is located.

“In all previous cases of attacks on journalists, the police present did nothing to prevent the attack, did not react during the attack, nor immediately after the attack. In all these cases, they were present and knew that these were ‘inhabitants of the forbidden city.’ They acted as if they were some sort of protection, rather than maintaining public order and peace,” Matić stated.

He said he arrived at the invitation of N1's program director Igor Božić, and on his way to the attacked team, he contacted points of contact in the police and the prosecutor's office, sending messages to the relevant authorities at the First Basic and Higher Public Prosecutor's Offices, and later tried to reach them by phone, but no one answered his calls.

“I called all the points of contact again. There was no answer. I then called the service 192 and asked for the Stari Grad police station. I reported the attack and then handed the phone to Maja to tell her what happened. I would say they didn’t have the information, which means something was concealed in communication. Shortly after, a member of the Intervention Unit approached me and told me he had been informed that the prosecutor said there would be no investigation and that we could go to report the case at the Stari Grad police station,” Matić emphasized.

However, the day after this attack, the First Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade ordered the police to urgently take actions to establish the identity of the attacker on the N1 team that occurred yesterday near the building of the Assembly and the informal camp settlement, the so-called Caciland.

According to Matić, it did not seem at the scene that the prosecutor's office would react appropriately.

“I called multiple phones, including Deputy Supreme Public Prosecutor Branko Stamenković, NUNS, the First Basic Prosecutor's Office, and then discussions about the attack began. Only 45 minutes after my first call. Then a contact point in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Bekir Dudić, advisor to Minister Dačić, responded. Then the mechanism was set in motion. A member of the Intervention Unit said they received information that an investigation would be conducted and at that moment they cordoned off the attack site,” Matić recounted.

Matić noted that thanks to a photograph taken by a passerby, it became apparent that the attacker could be a person previously convicted of murder, resulting in a sudden change in the behavior of the police officers, who had been present since the beginning of the incident but had shown almost no interest in the case until that moment.

“I was later informed that the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office immediately dismissed the report with the explanation that there was no criminal offense prosecuted ex officio, but they did not notify the First Basic Prosecutor's Office about this. They received that information from police officers and then requested a report on the attack,” Matić stated.

Attorney Kruna Savović, well-versed in media law, emphasizes that there are very clear procedures that the competent authorities must undertake when an attack on journalists occurs.

“If they are abused in such a way that they are ‘complicated,’ delayed, or omitted because they are waiting for someone else to react, it is clear that they are protecting the personal interest of those who instigate the abuse,” Savović said.

She stated that state authorities were obligated to respond promptly to this specific attack and to numerous other attacks on journalists.

“Instead of securing the space intended for citizens so that it is prohibited for citizens,” Savović said to Danas.

Source: Danas