July 1, 2024
Unknown assailants smashed the window display of Vranje’s “No Comment” cafe, which had previously operated within the framework of this south Serbian city’s radio station OK Radio.
OK Radio and the adjacent café, which supported the media outlet with its operations, have been targeted by vandals on multiple occasions over the last two and a half years.
Dejan Nikolić Kantar, a local bully and owner of numerous betting shops, was previously sentenced to 18 months in prison for threatening journalists and employees.
However, this did not bring an end to the threats and the No Comment café was forced to close.
Specifically, OK radio and the No Comment cafe are located in Vranje city centre, immediately next to a betting shop that’s backed by Kantar. In the two and a half years during which he attempted to take over their premises, he threatened employees several times and had the windows of the café smashed, while the furniture inside the café was sprayed with paint that rendered it unusable.
The illegal building owned by the betting shop, the walls of which served to brick up the windows of OK Radio, hasn’t been demolished some two years after it was built, despite being located right next to a garage that’s used by the local government.
