Hundreds of individuals in Serbia’s capital have rallied outdoors a pro-government TV station that protesters say promotes a tradition of violence
ByJOVANA GEC Related Press
Safety personnel stand in entrance of the Pink TV constructing throughout a protest in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, July 1, 2023. Hundreds of individuals rallied outdoors the pro-government tv station that the protesters say promotes a tradition of violence and needs to be stripped off a nationwide license within the wake of two mass shootings in Could that shocked the Balkan nation. (AP Picture/Marko Drobnjakovic)
The Related Press
BELGRADE, Serbia — Hundreds of individuals in Serbia’s capital rallied Saturday outdoors a pro-government TV station that protesters say promotes a tradition of violence and needs to be stripped of its broadcasting license after two mass shootings shocked the Balkan nation.
The protest began outdoors the Serbian parliament constructing earlier than hundreds marched towards the Pink TV constructing situated in a residential space of Belgrade that additionally hosts international embassies and residences. The protesters booed loudly in entrance of the station’s places of work, chanted slogans towards populist chief Aleksandar Vucic and his authorities, and threw rest room paper rolls on the constructing.
“This can be a manufacturing unit of evil that has been spewing poison for years,” mentioned opposition politician Radomir Lazovic.
Serbia’s populist authorities have rejected any accountability for the Could assaults. The president’s opponents, nevertheless, say hate speech and intolerance fueled by pro-government media and officers have helped foster violence in a society nonetheless reeling after a collection of wars within the Nineties.
Protesters have referred to as for measures to be taken towards Pink TV and one other industrial broadcaster, in addition to pro-government tabloids, after the shootings on Could 3-4 that left 18 folks lifeless and 20 injured, lots of them kids.
The anti-government protesters even have demanded the ouster of key safety officers and a media monitoring physique in the course of the avenue demonstrations — the most important in years towards Vucic and his authorities.
Vucic, a former ultranationalist who now says he needs Serbia to affix the European Union however who has confronted accusations of imposing more and more autocratic rule, has dismissed the calls for. Vucic has accused opposition leaders behind the rallies of exploiting the taking pictures tragedies to focus on him.
The shootings in Could shocked Serbia, significantly as a result of the primary one occurred in a Belgrade elementary college when a teen used his father’s gun to open hearth on his classmates. A day later a 20-year-old shot randomly at folks in a rural space south of Belgrade.
Critics have cited Pink TV’s actuality exhibits, with their violent scenes and appearances by crime figures and convicted struggle criminals as being among the many the reason why the TV station ought to lose its nationwide broadcasting allow.
Dozens of guards had been deployed throughout Saturday’s protest outdoors the Pink TV constructing, which was coated in an enormous Serbian flag. Smaller protests had been additionally held Saturday in a number of cities and cities in different components of Serbia following a blockade of primary north-south freeway on Friday.