Day 8 of the RTS blockade

The headquarters of the RTS, a public broadcaster under the law, has been blocked off as has the entrance to its studios in the Kosutnjak suburb. It aired its news from another station’s studios for the first few days, even managing a shorter version of its morning show but later giving up on live broadcasts and taping the news and replacing regular programming with reruns of popular shows and movies. The news took a stiff attitude towards the students, even likening them to Nazis.

The students who organized the blockade are demanding a new competition for members of the country’s electronic media watchdog the REM (a body that is supposed to be independent under the law but is alleged to be regime-controlled).

Tuesday’s morning news were a short version with taped reports and no live anchor in a studio with some videos from other TV stations. That news show recalled the NATO air strike on an antenna array in front of the central Belgrade RTS headquarters on the night of April 22-23 1999 which claimed 16 lives.

The RTS said repeatedly that the student blockade is illegal but the mood outside the building is festive after a quiet night with no police intervention. The students from Novi Pazar, which has a large Muslim population, came to Belgrade for Easter to stand in for their Orthodox Christian fellow students over the holiday.
The blockade began on the evening of April 14 and the streets around the RTS headquarters and Kosutnjak studios have been blocked for traffic, leaving a large part of the center of the Serbian capital blocked – regime supporters have expanded their tent camp between parliament and the presidency building from the park onto the street.