November 15, 2024
Journalists of certain media outlets that reported from the mass protests in Novi Sad found themselves working under extremely difficult conditions while being insulted, provoked and physically assaulted, with their cameras smashed. The police did not protect them.
Specifically, the accident at the Novi Sad railway station that saw a concrete canopy fall and kill 14 people prompted mass citizen protests. Protestors demanded accountability from the corrupt government, which citizens accused of causing the tragedy and suffering.
The protests culminated in violence, despite organisers having called for a peaceful expression of discontent. Certain individuals threw paint and stones at the Novi Sad local administration building.
Police arrested individual citizens, politicians and activists that same evening, but not those involved in the violence. Protest organisers claim that those who engaged in violence had infiltrated among peaceful citizens at the orders of the government.
Journalists and camera operators of Euronews and N1 were insulted and assaulted during the protest. The SafeJournalists network condemned the conduct of the police “who did nothing to prevent the violence against journalists, nor to arrest the perpetrators,” while they consider the authorities who ordered the police to silently observe events as being responsible for the violence that occurred. The attack against camera operators prompted the prosecution to launch an investigation, though its results are not yet known.
