Students blocked the entrance to the Radio Television of Serbia building at around 11 p.m. on Monday, dissatisfied with the public service’s coverage of their protests that have been going on for more than three months.
Media in the region reported on Tuesday morning that students are still blocking all three entrances to the Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) building on Takovska Street in downtown Belgrade.
The action came as a surprise, announced on social media shortly before it began, and the students said that the blockade would last for 10 hours and called on citizens to support them.
The students were joined by a large number of Belgraders, and police closed traffic on two streets around Radio Television of Serbia (RTS).
The students announced on Instagram that they would allow everyone in the building to exit, but would not allow anyone to enter until “RTS is liberated” and begins reporting objectively on the protests.
Members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs securing the building of Radio and Television of Serbia, as before, did not and will not intervene against those who implement blockades, even last night, unless there is a violent intrusion into state institutions and the RTS building and an attack on the police, the Ministry of Interior announced.
The press release states that one of their members was injured when the police entered the RTS building.
In solidarity with their colleagues from Belgrade, the students of the University of Novi Sad gathered around midnight in the blockade of Radio and Television of Vojvodina.
The wave of protests in Serbia was triggered by the death of 15 people in the collapse of the canopy at the Novi Sad railway station on November 1 last year, and after the attack on students who paid tribute to the victims at a protest, more than 60 faculties of all four state universities were blocked.
In addition to daily commemoration with a 15-minute silence throughout Serbia, in the meantime several mass protests were held in Novi Sad, Belgrade, Kragujevac and Niš, and an irregular large protest was announced for March 15 in Belgrade, Fena news agency writes.
Photo: archive