Employees of Serbia’s public broadcaster RTS, united under the “Our pRoTeSt” initiative, announced Wednesday that the station is firing freelance contributors who called for objective reporting from the public service. At the same time, freelancers who worked during recent protests and blockades are being hired.
“RTS management continues to punish those who signed an open letter, backed by 400 employees, demanding objective reporting from the public broadcaster. Our colleagues have not had their contracts renewed and are now out of work. So far, about a dozen people have been affected,” the group said in an Instagram post.
According to the initiative, their immediate supervisors informed them of the terminations, with some explicitly told that signing the open letter was the reason for ending their long-term collaborations.
The group also highlighted that “suitable” colleagues from other media outlets are being brought into the news division, while some permanent staff members are being sidelined and face a form of workplace harassment known as “empty desk” mobbing, where they are given little to no meaningful work.
The initiative emphasized that they are doing everything in their power to support their fired colleagues and called on RTS management to stop what they describe as retaliatory actions.
