The N1 TV crew filming the tent camp code Assembly of Serbia, known to the public as "Chaciland”, was attacked today not far from that place.
An unknown assailant approached the N1 team and asked them to stop filming, and soon after that, he took the camera and threw it on the asphalt several times, reports FoNet.
The police who were in the vicinity did not react to the incident, but came only at the invitation of the N1 journalist, that media house announced today.
A person from the KRIK database is suspected
The program director of N1 TV Igor Božić said that the attacker, apparently, "was already known to the police", since he is in the database of the research portal KRIK, which lists people with suspicious biographies who stay in front of the Assembly.
"We saw him in the base of people who are in 'Ćaciland', it can be seen from the photo. The police need to establish that, but first they need to take him into custody and interrogate him," Božić said.
"The police let the attacker go"
He expects that the assailant will be detained and prosecuted ex officio after the investigation.
"At first they didn't even want to do an investigation, but then the prosecutor changed his mind. We demand that this case be prosecuted ex officio and that the attacker be brought into custody immediately," Božić told FoNet and emphasized that the police were present and witnessed the attack, but let the attacker leave unhindered.
The program director of N1 also points to the suffering they suffered, as their camera was also broken in the attack.
Condemnation of the attack
The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) condemned the disruption in the work and destruction of equipment of the N1 television crew in the vicinity of the Serbian Parliament and said that any kind of violence in public space is unacceptable in a civilized and democratic society, especially considering the non-reaction of the police present.
"When I received a call from the program director of N1 with information about the attack, I went to the scene, and in the meantime I sent messages to the contact points in the First Basic Public Prosecutor's Office and the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office, as well as in the MUP," said ANEM Board President Veran Matić.
He added that there were police officers from the Intervention Unit on the scene who said that they informed the authorities, and that after half an hour the same MUP representative approached the colleague from N1, informing her that they had received information from the prosecution that there would be no investigation.
"Since my colleagues from NUNS and I repeated our calls to the authorities in the prosecution, the officers of the Police Administration for Belgrade came and conducted an investigation, and the prosecutor will subsequently make a decision on the continuation of the investigation," said Matić, adding that he would not like it to be an attempt to cover up the attack on the N1 team in order to protect the attackers.
According to ANEM records, it is the 17th incident in a row in that area according to journalists in the last year, and in no case were the perpetrators sanctioned.
