The Serbia Center (SRCE), part of the opposition European Serbia coalition, has condemned threats of physical violence made against N1 television reporter Mladen Savatović while he was carrying out his professional duties outside the Belgrade City Assembly.
SRCE said the threats were a “direct consequence” of what it described as years of targeting independent media and publicly portraying journalists and other professionals as targets.
According to the party, the incident reflects a broader deterioration in the public environment surrounding journalists and citizens.
In a statement, SRCE argued that increasingly hostile rhetoric has spilled into the streets, alleging that the normalization of violence by political figures contributes to threats against members of the media and the public.
The party also referred to an earlier incident involving Belgrade Mayor Aleksandar Šapić and a city assemblyor, presenting it as an example of what it described as the institutionalization of violence at the local-government level.
Savatović was reportedly waiting to go live outside the Belgrade city administration when he was threatened that his “head would be smashed,” N1 reported earlier on Friday.
SRCE called for violence and threats against journalists to be condemned and for journalists to be able to perform their professional duties without intimidation.
