The man who assaulted an N1 television crew near Caciland in Belgrade on Thursday and smashed our camera is, according to databases maintained by other newsrooms, very probably the same person who was sentenced to 15 years in prison for a murder committed in 1997, N1’s Program Director Igor Bozic said.
Caciland is a colloquial name for a fenced-off regime-supporter encampment located outside the Serbian Parliament and Presidency buildings and in Pioneers’ Park in central Belgrade. It was erected in early March 2025.
Speaking about Thursday’s attack – when a group emerged from the tent camp, approached N1’s cameraman and reporter from behind, and one of them destroyed the camera and tripod – Bozic said the message of the incident is that the people in Caciland consider themselves above the law.
Recalling that there have been at least 11 serious physical assaults on journalists from various outlets, Bozic said this may well be the final wake-up call for the authorities that this has to stop.
“Police officers cannot keep making exceptions for people in that tent camp just because they are loyal to the president. The president is not the state – the citizens of this country are the state,” Bozic said.
Although the camera was destroyed, the footage was recovered. It clearly shows a group of young men who came out of the camp together with the attacker.
“It is the police’s duty to look at this footage. From what I’ve heard, they have done a forensic examination because the man handled the camera with his bare hands – they could have taken fingerprints and DNA. And according to some databases that other investigative journalists have put together, this individual is very likely the same man convicted of murder in 1997 and sentenced to 15 years. If it turns out to be him – someone who himself said on a TV station with national coverage in 2021 that he killed over an unpaid debt and an insult – this could easily have ended in tragedy,” Bozic stressed.
Asked whether he believes the attack was ordered from above, Bozic said he doesn’t think anyone gave a direct order, but that these people clearly feel so untouchable and powerful that they can assault and beat others in full view of the police and face no consequences.
“If you watch the programs on pro-regime television channels, you will see our journalists – and our station as a whole – being openly labeled and targeted. We keep seeing warnings from the EU about the way the authorities treat journalists here, yet nothing changes. They continue doing the same thing, whipping up an atmosphere in which someone feels free to attack people in the street – in this case, journalists,” he said.
Bozic revealed that N1 formally asked the relevant prosecutor’s office to act and then waited around an hour for a decision.
“Why did it take so long to do the obvious – issue an order for police to secure the scene and to conduct an on-site investigation? That, too, is a political decision… When the regime needs something, people with criminal records can apparently do whatever they want,” he noted.
He believes this could all be resolved in a day – by ordering the police to simply enforce the law.
“I’m afraid the standing order is still ‘these are our guys, those are their guys’. Our side gets the best treatment; to their side you can do whatever you like. That’s the tragedy we are living through right now. Not a single person has ever been held accountable for attacks on journalists – especially not the police officers who have beaten our reporters in the field. The person who sent us a letter saying we would end up like the Charlie Hebdo journalists still hasn’t been found,” he said.
Bozic mentioned that two days ago he received a call from the Special Prosecutor’s Office for High-Tech Crime regarding a threat case from August of this year – noting that they only just received the report from the Prosecutor’s Office.
“So much for efficiency in solving attacks on journalists,” he emphasized.
He described the situation as completely abnormal: the reporter and cameraman hadn’t even spoken to these people, yet they were approached from behind, had the camera snatched and smashed on the concrete.
“That’s not just dangerous – it’s the Wild West. Everyone here is taking the law into their own hands. And journalists – the very people whose job is to show what is really happening and who are supposed to be protected under every international convention – clearly aren’t protected in this country,” Bozic said.
Source: N1
