The Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (IJAS) strongly condemns a series of attacks, intimidation and obstruction of the work of journalists during their coverage of the elections in Negotin, Mionica and Sečanj, as well as the inadequate conduct of the police, which once again failed to ensure safe conditions for media workers to do their job.
Photojournalist Gavrilo Andrić was attacked while documenting events in front of a polling station in Negotin, when a group of people on quad bikes charged at him. One quad drove over his foot, while the passenger on the vehicle snatched his phone from his hand as he was filming.
Although Andrić located his phone and asked the police to accompany him so that it could be retrieved, the officers allegedly refused to do so. He then went to the parking lot location himself, accompanied by several people, where the phone was found – and where two inspectors were already present.
In the same town, reporter Katarina Golubović, who was preparing to go live for the Nova S TV news bulletin near the SNS premises, was obstructed by members of that party through pushing, insults and inappropriate remarks. Due to the obvious risk that the live broadcast, as well as the safety of the cameraman and herself, would be jeopardised, the journalist was forced to move away from that location in order to be able to do her job professionally.
Also in Negotin, journalists tried to film what was happening around a car where some commotion had broken out. On that occasion, a reporter from the student outlet Blokada info was attacked, his phone was snatched and destroyed, and he was punched in the nose. A reporter for the portal Mašina, who witnessed the attack and was filming the events, had her accreditation torn off, was hit in the shoulder and insulted by the attackers.
Journalist Milena Ilić from Za medija, who was covering the local elections for Newsmax Balkans TV, was also attacked in Negotin. She was on the scene together with her colleague Suzana Mihajlović Jovanović from the NG portal, when she was heavily struck in the shoulder, pushed and insulted, while Mihajlović Jovanović was hit in the back. The incident was immediately reported to the Negotin police, and according to testimonies of other colleagues, the hooded assailants boarded a bus with Belgrade licence plates after the attack and left the scene.
That same day, a reporter from Mašina was stopped and ID-checked by a policeman while filming what was happening in the street in Sečanj. He was clearly marked as “press” and repeatedly introduced himself to the police as a journalist. Instead of intervening against those disturbing public order, the police held him until they had checked his personal data.
In Mionica as well, the police, for unclear reasons, obstructed and prevented Mašina journalist Marko Miletić from doing his job.
This pattern of police conduct is no longer an exception but a rule: on the scene, the police fail to respond adequately in cases of attacks on media workers and citizens, do not check the IDs of the attackers, do not make official notes and do not approach suspicious groups that clearly appear to act in concert with those in power.
In this way, the Agreement on Improving the Safety of Journalists is emptied of any real meaning and its very survival is called into serious question, unless the Ministry of Interior (MUP) urgently demonstrates a genuine will to protect journalists and media workers and to sanction those responsible within its own ranks.
IJAS calls on the competent institutions to urgently and impartially carry out all necessary procedures, establish the facts and consistently sanction the perpetrators of these and all previous attacks on journalists and media workers. It is crucial that the police finally begin to act consistently, professionally and in accordance with the law, ensuring protection for journalists who work in the public interest.
It is also necessary that the Ministry of Interior promptly conduct an internal review into the inadequate conduct of police officers during the attacks on journalists in Negotin and the obstruction of reporters who were covering events on the ground.
We remind the institutions that it is their duty to provide conditions in which journalists can report freely about events of public interest, without intimidation, violence or selective treatment.
Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia
Belgrade, December 1, 2025
