(31 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Batajnica, Serbia – 30 January 2025
1. Various of students marching along road
2. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) Aleksandar Baucal, psychology professor at Belgrade University:
++PART OVERLAID BY SHOT 1 & 3++
“I think part of the answer is that we have had a wrong perception of the young people who live around us. For years, a narrative was established that the youth are interested only in themselves and in social networks, but now they have shown that we didn’t recognize their interest in the world they live in.”
3. Various of protest march
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Stara Pazova, Serbia – 30 January 2025
++NIGHT SHOTS++
4. Aerial shots of students marching in the road at night
5. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) Iva Djondovic, student from Belgrade:
++PART OVERLAID BY SHOTS 4 & 6++
“Since we left (Belgrade) an enormous wave of people joined us. I saw older people, younger people, people of all ages are joining us. The support for us is just incredible. I truly believe that we can succeed with this effort.”
6. Various of protest
7. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) Stefana Budimcevic, local resident who prepared food for students:
++PART OVERLAID BY SHOT 6 & 8++
“Students: we are with you. You are our hope. You are our force. You are our fight. Just keep on going until the end, you are giving us strong wind in our sails. Go forward students.”
8. Various of protest
STORYLINE:
Hundreds of Serbian university students reached the town of Stara Pazova as they take part in an 80-kilometer (50-mile) protest march from the capital, Belgrade, to the northern city of Novi Sad.
The feat is the latest endeavor in their widening protest movement over a deadly overhang collapse in November that killed 15 people.
Residents of Stara Pazova turned out to cheer on the students and offer them food, drink and blankets.
“Since we left (Belgrade) an enormous wave of people joined us. I saw older people, younger people, people of all ages are joining us," said Iva Djondovic, a student from Belgrade.
"The support for us is just incredible. I truly believe that we can succeed with this effort,” she added.
The students plan to join a massive blockade of Novi Sad’s bridges which is planned for Saturday to mark three months since a huge concrete construction at the railway station fell on people below on November 1.
Students have been camping at their faculties for the past two months while organizing daily protests, some drawing tens of thousands of people for the largest street gatherings in years in the Balkan country.
The immediate cause for the student strike was an attack on drama students on January 24 by pro-government thugs during a daily 15-minute commemoration for the victims of the overhang collapse.
A call for the perpetrators to be punished soon spread to all universities in Serbia.
The demonstrations have already forced the resignation of Serbia’s prime minister Milos Vucevic this week, along with various concessions from authorities unused to making them.
Many in Serbia believe that the collapse of the overhang at the train station was essentially caused by government corruption in a large infrastructure project with Chinese state companies.
The protests also reflect wider popular discontent in Serbia with President Aleksandar Vucic’s increasingly authoritarian rule.
The president and his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party have imposed a firm grip on all state institutions and mainstream media while facing accusations of stifling democratic freedoms, despite promises to lead Serbia into the European Union.
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