Hundreds of student protesters have blocked Serbia’s public television station in Belgrade, accusing the broadcaster of bias in favor of President Aleksandar Vučić and pushing the country’s months-long protest movement into another high-profile confrontation.
The blockade began overnight on Monday and, according to the packet, was intended to last at least 22 hours. Students gathered around the building housing Radio Television of Serbia, or RTS, saying the station had not reported fairly on the demonstrations that have spread across the country since November.
Riot police used batons in an attempt to disperse the crowd, and at least one officer was injured during the clashes. Despite the blockade, RTS continued to broadcast because some employees were able to enter through a side entrance. The station condemned the protest, while one reporter interviewing Vučić on air referred to the demonstrators as a mob.
The protest movement began after 15 people were killed when a railway station canopy collapsed in Novi Sad. Since then, students have led almost daily demonstrations demanding accountability and arguing that corruption, poor renovation work and official misconduct contributed to the tragedy. The public broadcaster has become a target because protesters say its coverage favors the government and does not reflect the scale or seriousness of the unrest.
The political backdrop is important. Vučić has been in power for more than a decade through his Serbian Progressive Party and is widely accused by critics of controlling institutions and media. He has responded to the unrest by warning that participants in a planned weekend rally would face force and by saying many could end up behind bars. He has also accused the movement of receiving foreign support.
The packet shows that the movement is no longer only about one disaster. It now embodies a broader dissatisfaction with how power is exercised in Serbia, particularly around media freedom, accountability and the treatment of dissent. That explains why blocking the public broadcaster has become symbolic: it is both a tactic and a statement about who gets to shape the national conversation.
The event date is 2025-03-11. On that date, the verified facts were the RTS blockade, the police response, the injured officer and the protesters’ claim that the station is biased toward Vučić.
If the broader demonstrations were already one of Serbia’s biggest civic movements in years, the blockade of the national broadcaster made clear that the conflict had entered a new phase.
The blockade also exposed a communications struggle at the center of the protest movement. If the public broadcaster is seen as favoring the government, then occupying its entrance becomes a way of challenging not just official policy but official narration. That is why the action mattered beyond the building itself: it turned media access into part of the protest agenda and made RTS a symbol of the broader fight over power and accountability.
The students’ decision to keep the blockade going for at least 22 hours also showed a level of organization that goes beyond a one-off stunt. Sustained pressure on RTS suggests the movement wants to force a response, not just stage a symbolic appearance. In that sense, the blockade is both a protest and a message that the students intend to keep the broadcaster under scrutiny.
