Student blockade takes its toll on state TV

The third morning of the blockade did not see the police pushing through the crowd of students and supporters to take RTS staff into the building. Every entrance into the RTS headquarters was blocked on Thursday, including a passage through a local fast food shop.

The RTS did not air its usual morning show which was replaced with the movie Exodus: Gods and Kings.
The day-time news shows and the main evening news were aired from another station’s studio with some technical difficulties, with only one anchor in the studio and the weather woman and reporters in the field.

The students are demanding either the closure of the public broadcasters – the RTS and Radio TV Vojvodina (RTV) – or a new competition to fill the posts in the Council of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM), a body that is independent in theory but is viewed as loyal to the authorities.