October 31, 2024
Belgrade Mayor Aleksandar Šapić has devoted a press conference to criticising the reporting of independent Television N1 and insulting its journalists.
He prepared statistics on the news features of N1 journalist Miodrag Sovilj for this occasion. Šapić presented a board after the N1 journalist asked him about criticisms levelled against him by the coalition partner of his Serbian Progressive Party.
Instead of responding to the question, he accused N1 journalists of making up a feature about him and called them fraudsters and manipulators, after which some journalists left the conference.
“The direct attack of Belgrade Mayor Aleksandar Šapić against an N1 journalist is a disturbing attempt to silence and intimidate journalists who do their job professionally,” responded the Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation, which supported the journalist and stressed that utilising a press conference to attack journalists is unacceptable and represents a disgraceful exercising of public office.
