(12 Dec 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
++NIGHT SHOTS++
++QUALITY AS INCOMING++
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Belgrade, Serbia – 12 December 2024
1. Protesters arriving in front of state TV headquarters
2. Various of protesters in front of state TV headquarters blowing whistles and booing
3. Protesters waving Serbian flag
4. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) Andrea Maletic, student:
”We are here because of all the demands students pointed (out). We don’t want people to beat us on the streets while we are expressing our civil rights and opinions. We don’t want repression, we don’t want to worry when we go out to public places that a ceiling or canopy or something similar can kill us. We believe that the state TV should report objectively and be the voice of all citizens and not only of those who are in power.”
5. Protesters
6. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) Masa Zdero, student:
”We are here to show discontent, to show compassion with our colleagues who are threatened on the streets as we are and to show that we want the state TV to report what the real situation is.”
7. Various of protesters booing and blowing whistles
8. Banners, including banner reading (Serbian) “Let’s change the planet”
9. Banners, including banner reading (Serbian) “Your hands are bloody”
10. Various of protesters waving mobile phone lights
11. Protesters in front of state TV blowing whistles
STORYLINE:
Hundreds of protesters led by university students on Thursday held a noisy rally outside Serbia’s state television headquarters in Belgrade despite the country’s president pledging to fulfil all their demands as he faced one of the most challenging threats to his populist rule.
The demonstration was part of wider protests that erupted after the fall of a concrete canopy in the northern city of Novi Sad last month, killing 15 people.
Blowing whistles, booing and jeering, the protesters said they are angry the state RTS television is carrying President Aleksandar Vucic’s accusations that the students were paid from the West and elsewhere to hold protests to overthrow his government.
Classes at more than 40 university faculties throughout Serbia have been suspended for days.
Many in Serbia blame the deadly collapse on rampant corruption in the country that led to sloppy renovation work on the station building in Novi Sad — part of a wider deal with Chinese state companies involved in a number of infrastructure projects in the Balkan country.
The canopy collapse has became a flashpoint for broader dissatisfaction with the president’s growingly autocratic rule, reflecting public demands for democratic changes.
Almost daily protests have been held since Nov. 1 in Novi Sad, Belgrade and other cities, which sometimes turned violent.
Vucic announced at a news conference on Wednesday evening that documentation regarding the renovation of the Novi Sad railway building would be made public, as students have requested.
Prosecutors have launched an investigation and detained 13 people.
But a government minister has been released, fueling widespread speculation over the probe as ruling populists also control both police and the judiciary.
The students on Thursday said they also want the thugs who attacked peaceful protesters arrested.
AP video shot by Ivana Bzganovic
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