Latest news with #Informer
6 days ago
- Politics
Serbian protesters are back on the streets as clashes with government loyalists escalate
BELGRADE, Serbia -- Thousands of anti-government protesters returned to the streets in Serbia on Thursday after two days of clashes with loyalists of autocratic President Aleksandar Vucic and riot police that left dozens injured or detained. Police fired tear gas in at least two cities and numerous other incidents were reported throughout the country. In the northern city of Novi Sad, where the anti-Vucic revolt in Serbia started more than nine months ago, groups of young protesters shouted, 'He is finished,' as they demolished the offices of the president's ruling Serbian Progressive Party. The demonstrators broke windows on the party's downtown office and carried away some documents and pieces of furniture from inside. The police or Vucic's supporters, who have guarded the office for months, where nowhere to be seen. In Belgrade, the Serbian capital, and in Novi Sad, police in the evening fired multiple rounds of tear gas to disperse the protesters who then moved to other locations in smaller groups. Protesters in a downtown Belgrade area at one point scrambled in panic, some tumbling to the ground as they tried to run away. Videos on social media showed riot police beating up some protesters and a footage showed an opposition politician, his head bandaged. Vucic told pro-government Informer television that 'the state will win' as he announced a crackdown on anti-government protesters, accusing them of inciting violence and of being 'enemies of their own country.' He reiterated earlier claims that the protests have been organized from abroad, offering no evidence. The unrest throughout Serbia this week marked a serious escalation in largely peaceful demonstrations led by Serbia's university students that have shaken Vucic's firm grip on power in the Balkan country. Rival groups on Wednesday hurled rock and bottles at each other amid clouds of smoke and chaos. An army security officer at the SNS party offices at one point fired his gun in the air, saying later he felt his life had been in danger. Interior Minister Ivica Dacic on Thursday said there were gatherings at some 90 locations in the country the previous evening. The Serbian president has faced accusations of stifling democratic freedoms and of allowing organized crime and corruption to flourish in the country that is a candidate for European Union membership. He denies those allegations. The EU's Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos said the reports of violence were 'deeply concerning.' 'Advancing on the EU path requires citizens can express their views freely and journalists can report without intimidation or attacks,' Kos added on the social media platform X. Police officers on Wednesday formed a cordon around a makeshift camp of Vucic's loyalists outside the presidency building downtown. Dacic, the interior minister, accused the protesters of attacking governing party loyalists. He said 'those who broke the law will be identified and sanctioned.' University students posted on X to accuse the authorities of trying to 'provoke a civil war with the clashes' at demonstrations. The rallies so far passed for the most part without incident even while drawing hundreds of thousands of people. Occasional violence in the past months mostly involved incidents between protesters and the police, rather than between rival groups. 'Police were guarding the regime loyalists who were throwing rocks and firing flares at the protesters," a post by the informal group, Students in Blockade, said. The account is run by students from across Serbia who have been protesting the government since late last year. Demonstrations started in November after a renovated train station canopy crashed in Novi Sad, killing 16 people and triggering accusations of corruption in state-run infrastructure projects. The protesters are demanding that Vucic call an early parliamentary election, which he has refused to do. Serbia is formally seeking EU membership, but Vucic has maintained strong ties with Russia and China.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
A Serbian court swaps prison for house arrest for 3 out of 6 jailed activists after pressure
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — An appeals court in Serbia on Tuesday released three out of six political activists from jail following protests and international criticism of the populist government, which has faced monthslong anti-graft demonstrations. But the court in the northern city of Novi Sad ordered that the three remain under house arrest, pending legal proceedings on suspicion of anti-state activities. The court said that it would issue another ruling at some point about the other three jailed activists. The six were detained in March after secret recordings of their alleged plotting to take over state institutions was broadcast on pro-government media in Serbia before a major rally in the capital, Belgrade. Hundreds have been protesting for days against their prolonged detention. Those released from jail include a high school teacher who was transferred to a prison hospital in Belgrade last week after going on a hunger strike. The huge rally on March 15 in Belgrade was part of protests that started after a concrete canopy collapsed on Nov. 1 at a train station in Novi Sad, killing 16 people. Shaken by the tragedy, populist President Aleksandar Vucic's government has stepped up pressure on those involved while trying to curb the demonstrations. Lawyers for the jailed activists in Novi Sad say that the accusations against their clients are based on illegal wiretapping, and there's a lack of evidence. Vucic criticized the ruling in a statement on pro-government Informer television, saying it was the result of pressure from 'the gang' of protesters outside the court. He described the activists as 'terrorists," adding that 'there is not a country in the world' that would release them from jail. Protesters in Novi Sad said on Tuesday that they would continue with the demonstrations until all six activists are out of prison. Six more activists facing the same charges aren't in the country. Tuesday's ruling came as U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk arrived in Belgrade. Last week, Tonino Picula, the European Parliament's envoy for Serbia, described the activists as 'political prisoners," while Civil Rights Defenders group called it 'a clear attempt by the Serbian government to silence dissent.' Critics have accused Vucic of increasingly authoritarian rule that stifles the media and other democratic freedoms. The president says that he wants Serbia to join the European Union while boosting relations with Russia and China. Many in Serbia believe that widespread government corruption linked to major infrastructure projects fueled negligence and undermined construction regulations that contributed to the disaster on Nov. 1 at the Novi Sad train station, which triggered the protests.
Winnipeg Free Press
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
A Serbian court swaps prison for house arrest for 3 out of 6 jailed activists after pressure
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — An appeals court in Serbia on Tuesday released three out of six political activists from jail following protests and international criticism of the populist government, which has faced monthslong anti-graft demonstrations. But the court in the northern city of Novi Sad ordered that the three remain under house arrest, pending legal proceedings on suspicion of anti-state activities. The court said that it would issue another ruling at some point about the other three jailed activists. The six were detained in March after secret recordings of their alleged plotting to take over state institutions was broadcast on pro-government media in Serbia before a major rally in the capital, Belgrade. Hundreds have been protesting for days against their prolonged detention. Those released from jail include a high school teacher who was transferred to a prison hospital in Belgrade last week after going on a hunger strike. The huge rally on March 15 in Belgrade was part of protests that started after a concrete canopy collapsed on Nov. 1 at a train station in Novi Sad, killing 16 people. Shaken by the tragedy, populist President Aleksandar Vucic's government has stepped up pressure on those involved while trying to curb the demonstrations. Lawyers for the jailed activists in Novi Sad say that the accusations against their clients are based on illegal wiretapping, and there's a lack of evidence. Vucic criticized the ruling in a statement on pro-government Informer television, saying it was the result of pressure from 'the gang' of protesters outside the court. He described the activists as 'terrorists,' adding that 'there is not a country in the world' that would release them from jail. Protesters in Novi Sad said on Tuesday that they would continue with the demonstrations until all six activists are out of prison. Six more activists facing the same charges aren't in the country. Tuesday's ruling came as U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk arrived in Belgrade. Last week, Tonino Picula, the European Parliament's envoy for Serbia, described the activists as 'political prisoners,' while Civil Rights Defenders group called it 'a clear attempt by the Serbian government to silence dissent.' Critics have accused Vucic of increasingly authoritarian rule that stifles the media and other democratic freedoms. The president says that he wants Serbia to join the European Union while boosting relations with Russia and China. Many in Serbia believe that widespread government corruption linked to major infrastructure projects fueled negligence and undermined construction regulations that contributed to the disaster on Nov. 1 at the Novi Sad train station, which triggered the protests.
San Francisco Chronicle
20-05-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
A Serbian court swaps prison for house arrest for 3 out of 6 jailed activists after pressure
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — An appeals court in Serbia on Tuesday released three out of six political activists from jail following protests and international criticism of the populist government, which has faced monthslong anti-graft demonstrations. But the court in the northern city of Novi Sad ordered that the three remain under house arrest, pending legal proceedings on suspicion of anti-state activities. The court said that it would issue another ruling at some point about the other three jailed activists. The six were detained in March after secret recordings of their alleged plotting to take over state institutions was broadcast on pro-government media in Serbia before a major rally in the capital, Belgrade. Hundreds have been protesting for days against their prolonged detention. Those released from jail include a high school teacher who was transferred to a prison hospital in Belgrade last week after going on a hunger strike. The huge rally on March 15 in Belgrade was part of protests that started after a concrete canopy collapsed on Nov. 1 at a train station in Novi Sad, killing 16 people. Shaken by the tragedy, populist President Aleksandar Vucic's government has stepped up pressure on those involved while trying to curb the demonstrations. Lawyers for the jailed activists in Novi Sad say that the accusations against their clients are based on illegal wiretapping, and there's a lack of evidence. Vucic criticized the ruling in a statement on pro-government Informer television, saying it was the result of pressure from 'the gang' of protesters outside the court. He described the activists as 'terrorists," adding that 'there is not a country in the world' that would release them from jail. Protesters in Novi Sad said on Tuesday that they would continue with the demonstrations until all six activists are out of prison. Six more activists facing the same charges aren't in the country. Tuesday's ruling came as U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk arrived in Belgrade. Last week, Tonino Picula, the European Parliament's envoy for Serbia, described the activists as 'political prisoners," while Civil Rights Defenders group called it 'a clear attempt by the Serbian government to silence dissent.' Critics have accused Vucic of increasingly authoritarian rule that stifles the media and other democratic freedoms. The president says that he wants Serbia to join the European Union while boosting relations with Russia and China. Many in Serbia believe that widespread government corruption linked to major infrastructure projects fueled negligence and undermined construction regulations that contributed to the disaster on Nov. 1 at the Novi Sad train station, which triggered the protests.
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Disinformation surge targets Serbia's student protests
Massive student-led protests in Serbia have been met with a barrage of disinformation from pro-government media and social networks, in what analysts say is an attempt to undermine the anti-graft movement. The nationwide wave of demonstrations kicked off after a recently renovated train station roof collapsed in November in Serbia's second city Novi Sad, killing 16 people. With many blaming the deaths on state corruption and inadequate oversight, the protests have piled pressure on the nationalist government of President Aleksandar Vucic. Top officials and pro-government news outlets -- which dominate Serbia's media landscape -- for months have been portraying the students and their supporters as "foreign agents", violent troublemakers planning "a coup" or accused them of being funded by the opposition. The Kurir tabloid said students "terrorise Belgrade" while the Informer tabloid and TV station alleged they are paid by US aid agency USAID and billionaire George Soros -- a regular target of right-wing conspiracy theories. Another pro-government broadcaster, Pink TV, branded the protest movement an uprising supported by Albanian-majority Kosovo, which broke away from Serbia in 2008. - 'Enemies of the state' - Media expert and Belgrade University professor Snjezana Milivojevic told AFP such narratives aimed to frame the protests as an attempted "colour revolution", a reference to the pro-western revolts that shook post-Soviet states in recent decades. Media outlets and officials were also regularly spreading false news about the protesters "to discredit them", she said. In one recent example, students at the University of Arts in the central city of Kragujevac were filming a docudrama about the car ramming attacks that have struck several of the protests and left some people seriously injured. Media outlets such as Informer and TV Prva used footage of the students re-enacting the attacks to falsely claim the students were carrying out the attacks, painting them as perpetrators rather than victims. Bogdan Vucic, a student at the Belgrade Faculty of Political Science, told AFP that the pro-government reporting of the protests "contributes to the antagonisation of students, turning them into enemies of the state -- students who are the children and future of this country". Professor Ana Milojevic from the Faculty of Political Science's Journalism department at the University of Belgrade, said the misinformation sought to "delegitimise the protests". In another incident in March, a plain clothes police officer was injured during a student blockade of the headquarters of state broadcaster RTS in Belgrade. - Photos of old protests - Pro-government media accused the students of attacking the officer, a claim president Vucic repeated on his Instagram account along with an image of the injured officer. But video footage on social media showed the man being hit by a fellow police officer. Vucic later acknowledged that the officer "may have taken a few hits from his colleagues" but insisted that several blows also came from the students and others gathered near the RTS building. Serbia's pro-government media have been serving up "propaganda" for years, Milivojevic said, and their "tactics intensified once the protests started". "Their goal is to criminalise the protests, depict them as violent and show them as ineffective." The student protests are among the largest in recent Serbian history. The demonstrations have regularly attracted crowds of tens of thousands but pro-government outlets have used old photos or aired footage when crowds are dispersing to make turnout seem smaller. "According to media reports, more people gather in smaller squares for regime-backed events than in the largest squares during protests, and the number of students is constantly being downplayed," Milivojevic said. - Combating falsehoods - When high school students joined the blockades, Vucic claimed that minors had no legal right to protest. Pro-government media quickly echoed his words and published headlines, widely shared on social media, that claimed students had the right to protest but minors did not. However, according to the country's constitution and United Nations conventions, people in Serbia are allowed to protest regardless of age. The protesters themselves are not immune to falling for disinformation. One viral video purported to show the "arrest of RTS workers who want to expose the truth about protests". But it actually depicted the 2022 detainment of a small political movement's members who had stormed the RTS building. To combat false news and what they consider biased coverage, student protesters regularly turn to social media to expose perceived disinformation spread by pro-government media. They also have set up "Talk to a student" stands across Serbia to engage with citizens about misinformation, and created a group on messaging app Viber with more than 47,000 members to answer questions from the public. They also have rallied outside the RTS and Informer offices. mp/ks/mfp/fg/bc
