NUNS: Urgent investigation needed into attacks on reporters during Sunday elections

The association said photojournalist Gavrilo Andric was attacked while documenting events in front of a polling station in Negotin, when a group of people on quad bikes charged at him and snatched his phone from his hand as he was filming.

Although Andric located his phone and asked police to accompany him to retrieve it, officers refused. He then went to the parking lot himself, accompanied by several people, where the phone was found – and where two inspectors were already present, NUNS said.

The association said that Nova TV correspondent Katarina Golubovic and reporters from the student outlet Blokada Info, Masina portal, Za medija portal and NG portal were also assaulted while working.

“This pattern of police conduct is no longer an exception but a rule: on the scene, the police fail to respond adequately in cases of attacks on media workers and citizens, do not check the IDs of the attackers, do not make official notes and do not approach suspicious groups that clearly appear to act in concert with those in power,” NUNS said.

It added that Masina portal’s reporter was ID-ed by police in Secanj, despite being clearly marked as “press,” while in Mionica, police obstructed and prevented Masina journalist Marko Miletic from doing his job.

NUNS called on the competent institutions to sanction the perpetrators and urged police to conduct an internal review of officers' inadequate conduct.