Journalists Under Attack in “Ćacilend”

At least 35 attacks, threats, and obstructions of journalists at work have been recorded in the vicinity of Ćacilend, according to journalists’ associations and the database of attacks on journalists maintained by the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (NUNS).

In 10 cases, proceedings were initiated before the First Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade. So far, no one has been penalized; most cases are still ongoing, while one of the 10 was resolved by a complaint dismissal. In addition, one case saw the prosecution decide not to initiate proceedings.

The Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS) analyzed how far the investigations into incidents around Ćacilend have progressed and compiled the cases in which the identities of participants could be established – including Miloš Marin, previously convicted of drug possession, kidnapping, and abuse; Radmila Kočović from the Association of War Volunteers of 1912–1918, their Descendants and Supporters; Branko Laušević, a Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) activist whose parents are employed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP); Vladan Sretenović, previously convicted of murder and robbery; and Jelenko Pijevac and Aleksandar Šulc, participants in incidents at the 2025 protests.

Miloš Marin, Insajder, and the complaint that was dismissed

Insajder reporter Stefan Miljuš was reporting from a gathering in Belgrade on May 1, 2025. The atmosphere was tense. At Nikola Pašić Square, Miljuš noticed that a young man was filming him with a phone.

“Why are you filming me while I’m doing my job?” Miljuš asked him.

“You’d better run,” the young man replied, then hit the journalist twice on the arm and knocked the phone he was filming with out of his hand.

Miljuš nevertheless managed to steady the camera and film another, almost identical man standing nearby. He, too, addressed Miljuš in a raised voice: “Go do your job somewhere else.”

Insajder filed a complaint with the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade, which forwarded it to the First Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade.

CINS can reveal that the person who clashed with Miljuš was Miloš Marin.

Three and a half months after the incident, Marin told the police that he noticed “some young man” following and filming him while he was on the phone with his brother.

He claimed that he himself was not filming the journalist because he was on the phone, and that he did not even understand at first what Miljuš was answering when asked why he was filming.

However, the young man – who he later heard was a journalist – kept following and filming him. Marin said he wanted to avoid him because he “didn’t want trouble,” so he asked him to move away. The persistent filming annoyed him the most, so he turned and swung his hand toward the phone to stop it, during which, he believes, the phone fell.

His brother also gave a statement, saying that the persistent filming without explanation provoked Miloš Marin to “wave his hand” toward the phone, during which he hit Miljuš’s arm and the phone fell.

The Prosecutor’s Office dismissed the complaint against Miloš Marin, concluding that “you’d better run” was not a threat because it did not involve a concrete danger to the journalist. It also examined whether this constituted preventing the broadcasting of a program but found that it did not, because the footage was not being broadcast live.

According to information obtained by CINS, Miloš Marin had previously been convicted of unauthorized possession of drugs. In 2022, the Third Basic Court in Belgrade sentenced him for possession of a small quantity of drugs – 1.05 grams of heroin – to three months of house arrest without continuous electronic monitoring. Earlier, in 2018, the Second Basic Court had sentenced him for possession of 4.33 grams of cannabis to a one-year suspended sentence, or three months in prison if violated.

In addition to drug offenses, Marin has also been convicted of kidnapping and abuse.

In 2020, the Second Basic Court in Belgrade sentenced him to a three-year suspended sentence (or ten months in prison if violated) because three years earlier he had kidnapped a young man together with two minors. Accusing him of having “snitched to the police,” as stated in the verdict, they tortured and beat him, drove him around the city, and forced him to dig his own grave. Eventually, they took him to a house in Veliki Mokri Lug, from which he managed to escape. The verdict became final on the same day it was issued, as both Marin and the prosecution immediately waived their right to appeal.

Radmila Kočović and N1: From laying wreaths for heroes to attacking journalists

N1 journalist Žaklina Tatalović and cameraman Igor Skendžić were filming a TV report in front of Pionirski Park in mid-June last year.

With the camera rolling, an unknown woman approached them and began to protest: “Please stop filming me! … Stay away from me! …” she said in a raised voice while pushing the camera with her hands.

Several times, the woman stopped right next to the cameraman and tried to cover the camera with her hand. The cameraman said she hit him on the arm several times.

“Ma’am, you hit me,” the cameraman said repeatedly.

“Oh, please,” the unknown woman replied.

The blows shook the camera, and the recording captured the sound of hitting.

“Please don’t hit us. He’s not filming you,” the journalist said.

However, the unknown woman continued swinging at the cameraman and the equipment.

This attack is in NUNS’s database and was not reported to the Prosecutor’s Office.

Using the AI tool PimEyes, CINS managed to establish the identity of the woman who obstructed the N1 crew. It was Radmila Kočović, a member of the main board of the Association of War Volunteers of 1912–1918, their Descendants and Supporters.

In photos we found with the help of PimEyes, Kočović is seen with ministers of labor, employment, veterans, and social affairs – first Nikola Selaković, then Nemanja Starović, and later Milica Đurđević Stamenkovski. One photo of her also includes Belgrade Mayor Aleksandar Šapić. The photos were taken during various anniversary commemorations or wreath-laying ceremonies for national heroes, fighters, and those killed in military conflicts.

In a conversation with CINS, Radmila Kočović explained that the Association works on preserving the tradition of liberation wars and is very active, and that she is involved because her grandfather was a recipient of the Commemorative Medal of the Great Serbian Retreat.

However, she said she was not in Pionirski Park on behalf of the Association but privately. She felt uncomfortable when she saw the cameraman and the camera pointed at her, because she did not know who he was or why he was filming. She also did not know that the microphone the journalist was wearing was connected to the camera.

“I don’t like sudden confrontations. If you want something – just ask: ‘Good day, please, can we talk?’ I have no problem with talking,” Kočović said.

Regarding the N1 footage in which the camera is moving while the cameraman says Kočović is hitting his arm, Kočović told CINS that she did not hit the cameraman and said she moved the lens with her hand so she could pass.

Branko Laušević and KoSSev: SNS Youth and family ties in at MUP

It was early May. The area of the so-called Ćacilend had already expanded from Pionirski Park to the street in front of the National Assembly.

Tatjana Lazarević, editor of the KoSSev portal, stopped to photograph and film the newly set-up tents. At one point, a young man approached her: “Why are you taking my picture, ma’am?”

This marked the beginning of a verbal conflict between Lazarević and the unknown young man on May 7, lasting less than five minutes. The young man demanded that the KoSSev editor show her press credentials and called her a foreign mercenary.

“You should be ashamed of trying here to belittle your own people and to block and destroy the state,” he said.

After more than four minutes, police officers arrived and asked everyone to move away.

KoSSev later published the video.

NUNS reported the case to the First Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office, which decided not to initiate proceedings.

The Prosecutor’s Office told us there were no grounds to initiate criminal proceedings because, among other things, they assessed that the actions of the young man did not constitute elements of criminal offenses such as endangering safety or violent behavior. “At no point did the unknown man direct any threat against her life or body,” they stated, and therefore, in their view, she was not prevented from filming.

This decision was made by reviewing the video recording, without summoning the journalist to provide additional information, according to the Prosecutor’s Office’s response to CINS.

The same young man had appeared earlier in the vicinity of Ćacilend. He spoke live on Insajder TV, asking the journalist not to harass the people in the white tents.

“These are people who supported students who want to study, together with students who want to study – that is, students who do not want to participate in blockades and the destruction of the state,” he said.

It remained unknown who this young man was. While speaking anonymously for Insajder, he refused to introduce himself to the KoSSev journalist. He only said he was a high school student in Belgrade.

CINS can reveal that this person was 19-year-old Branko Laušević, an SNS activist.

Towards the end of February 2025, Laušević was photographed wearing a blue jacket with the signature of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić in the front, standing at an SNS booth in Voždovac. Earlier, he had attended an SNS meeting at the Gornji Voždovac local committee, chaired by State Secretary Marko Kešelj.

At the end of December, while Vučić was addressing gathered SNS supporters in Ćacilend in front of the National Assembly, Laušević was standing behind him.

CINS can reveal that Branko Laušević’s parents are employed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. While his mother is employed as a mounted police officer, MUP did not want to provide CINS with information about the position held by his father, Vladimir Laušević, in order not to endanger his safety.

Available footage shows that the father was present during the student protests near the Faculty of Law in July 2025, when Radar journalist Vuk Cvijić was injured. On that occasion, Laušević did not want to show his credentials.

According to available footage, after a uniformed police officer struck Cvijić with a helmet, Vladimir Laušević moved him by hand to sit on a bench. The gathered crowd repeatedly asked Laušević to show his credentials, which he refused. Because of the attack on Cvijić, NUNS filed a criminal complaint against police officers.

Video author: Igor Avžner

CINS tried to contact Branko Laušević via Instagram and through his father, Vladimir.

Vladimir Laušević did not want to give statements to CINS journalists.

“I have no authority to give any statements (…) So I’m warning you: if you publish anything about me or my son, we will see you in court,” Vladimir Laušević said, adding that journalists do not have his consent to publish any data.

When the journalist asked whether those words should be understood as a threat, he replied: “It’s not a threat. I’m just saying, I’m warning you. I will sue you if you publish anything.”

Vladan Sretenović and N1: Prosecution’s investigation and (lack of) police response

N1 TV journalist Maja Nikolić and cameraman Ivan Pavlović were filming Ćacilend towards the end of November.

According to them, a man approached them and asked them to stop filming. They explained that they were on public property and had the right to film, after which he walked away.

A few minutes later, the man returned, approached the cameraman from behind, and snatched the camera from his hands. He then repeatedly threw the camera onto the concrete and also broke the tripod it was mounted on.

The N1 team raised concerns about the police response in this case.

The journalist and cameraman noted that police were in close proximity when the camera was destroyed but did not intervene, only approaching after the attacker had fled.

When a different police unit arrived at the scene later, they initially told the journalists that the prosecutor had not approved an investigation, then a few minutes later contradicted themselves.

Nikolić saw the attacker up close and described him to the police, adding that witnesses had shown her photos of the person who destroyed the equipment.

In response to CINS, the First Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office stated that it immediately opened a case after the attack on the N1 crew and that the police submitted multiple reports, including one related to the identification of suspect V. S. and attempts to determine his location.

The case was then forwarded to the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office, which is tasked with examining whether the police’s actions involved any lapses that could indicate criminal liability of officers.

Meanwhile, information about the N1 attacker had already appeared in public.

N1 Program Director Igor Božić recognized him in KRIK’s database “Ćaci: Guardians of the Party” and stated that it was Vladan Sretenović. Media reports indicated that this was a man previously convicted of murder and robbery, which Sretenović confirmed in 2021 during his appearance on Happy TV.

Before the attack on N1’s crew, journalists from Radio Free Europe published a photo showing Sretenović conducting checks on citizens as they entered Ćacilend from Kralja Milana Street.

Jelenko Pijevac and Insajder: Investigation ongoing

Insajder journalist Nataša Mijušković was attacked by a group of men near the National Assembly in early November.

Mijušković had taken several photographs. The men then surrounded her, grabbed her arm, and demanded to see the pictures. They eventually forced her to delete the photos “so they wouldn’t break all her bones,” Insajder reported.

The journalist insisted that the men show their identification, but they replied that “it doesn’t matter who we are” and asked her: “How do you feel being a traitor working for Insajder TV?”

They then followed her to a police cordon, where one officer told her not to enter the camp again, according to Insajder.

When she asked whether it was “occupied territory” and noted that another officer had told her she could enter, she was advised to report the incident to the emergency number 192.

A few days later, Mijušković recognized one of the attackers among the photos in KRIK’s database: Jelenko Pijevac from Priboj, owner of several hospitality businesses, who had previously been involved in incidents at protests.

She reported the attacker’s identity to the First Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office, according to Insajder.

A few days before New Year’s Eve, the Prosecutor’s Office questioned Pijevac for the criminal offense of coercion. He was initially held for 48 hours, after which his detention was replaced with house arrest under electronic monitoring. He is accused of threatening journalist Nataša Mijušković with serious bodily harm to force her “to do something” while reporting on the protest outside the National Assembly.

Aleksandar Šulc, N1, and Insajder: Controversial protest follower who rarely leaves without causing tension

On June 28, late in the afternoon, a literary evening was taking place at Ćacilend. N1 reporter Nenad Nešić was live on air when an unknown young man stepped in front of him.

“Are we live? Are we on the show?” the young man interrupted.

For the next 15–20 minutes, he continued to disrupt N1’s work – standing in front of the camera, filming the reporter with his phone, and speaking to him while the broadcast continued.

“Why are you spreading lies?” and “Why don’t you ask those blockading what they’re studying?” the young man repeatedly asked.

According to the N1 reporter, the same young man had previously disrupted Insajder’s crew during a street survey, accusing them of “provoking,” just like he did with N1.

Both incidents are recorded in NUNS’s database of attacks on journalists, but no proceedings are underway before the prosecutor’s office.

In both cases, journalists’ work was disrupted by Aleksandar Šulc from Novi Sad. During 2025, he became a recognizable figure at protests, mostly in Belgrade and Novi Sad.

In November, Šulc appeared at the site where Milomir Jaćimović was on a hunger strike because his buses were confiscated. Claiming he wanted to “support” him, Šulc brought a toy bus and a bag of groceries, which those in attendance viewed as a provocation, and subsequently removed him from the gathering.

While some protest participants and media have described him as a “provocateur” or “government-linked activist,” Informer presents him as a “well-known Novi Sad TikToker, famous for his nickname ‘Lepi’ and humorous videos exposing lies and the shame of those blockading.”