On the night between April 22 and 23, 26 years ago, 16 employees were killed in the NATO bombing of the Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) building. The RTS building was struck at 2:06 a.m. during the broadcast of the news. The only person held accountable for this crime was former RTS director Dragoljub Milanović.
Those who were killed were: Jelica Munitlak, Ksenija Banković, Darko Stoimenovski, Nebojša Stojanović, Dragorad Dragojević, Dragan Tasić, Aleksandar Deletić, Slaviša Stevanović, Siniša Medić, Ivan Stukalo, Dejan Marković, Milan Joksimović, Branislav Jovanović, Slobodan Jontić, Milovan Janković, and Tomislav Mitrović.
NATO leaders tried to justify the attack on RTS by labeling it a propaganda machine and part of the apparatus of dictatorship and power of Slobodan Milošević.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) immediately condemned the attack, warning that it could lead to reprisals against independent journalists who had fought against the censorship imposed by the Milošević regime.
In 2002, Reporters Without Borders met with NATO representatives to raise questions about the selection of RTS as a military target. NATO representatives at the time responded by expressing regret for the killed RTS employees but insisted that the building was selected solely for military reasons, and that “a NATO military target is not necessarily a target of a military nature”.
After that meeting, Reporters Without Borders expressed concern that the military strike on RTS could set a dangerous precedent, paving the way for similar actions against media outlets in future conflicts—a concern that later proved to be well-founded.
The case was also reviewed by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which concluded that neither a comprehensive investigation into the NATO campaign nor investigations into specific incidents were justified.
The Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (IJAS) condemned the bombing of RTS and called for full accountability for that crime.
IJAS demands that the investigation—illegally terminated 13 years ago—into those who may have ordered the sacrifice of RTS employees on April 23, 1999, be resumed. RTS Director Dragoljub Milanović was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the grave criminal offense of endangering safety because he failed to take measures to protect and evacuate employees and equipment that night. There are indications that he was not the only one who knew what was coming, yet he was the only one prosecuted. Milanović is now a free man, and many questions remain unanswered—who sacrificed the RTS journalists and why?
We also wish to remind the public that, in addition to then-RTS General Director Dragoljub Milanović, neither the Ministry of Defense nor the Supreme Defense Council took any action to relocate RTS personnel and equipment to a backup and secure location following NATO’s open threat of attack. It also remains unclear who within the NATO alliance made the decision to bomb RTS, despite it being obvious at the time that the building had not been evacuated and that civilians were working there.
Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia
Belgrade, April 22, 2025
