Protest in Belgrade with the request that RTS reports on protests against lithium mining in Serbia

AUTHOR: M.J.
A protest demanding that Radio and Television of Serbia (RTS) inform the public about environmental problems was held on September 1 in front of the building of the public media service in Belgrade.
At a meeting organized by the Eco Guard movement, it was requested that RTS enable representatives of environmental organizations to address the public in the central news program Dnevnik.
"RTS has a deadline of seven days to fulfill the request. If he doesn't do that, we will use all legal means against the responsible persons," Eco Guard announced on Sunday.
The protest was held under the title "Safety is in numbers", as announced by Eco Guard, in support of civil activists who were detained by the police during protests against lithium mining in Serbia.
That organization stated that five of its activists were detained, that the police searched their apartments and confiscated their mobile phones and computers.
"We demand that disciplinary proceedings be carried out against the prosecutors who violated human rights, as well as that the confiscated personal devices be immediately returned to those detained," Eko Straža announced.
Activists: "Stronger government repression of citizens"
Activist Nina Stojanović said that the protest was organized because of the increase in repression against citizens who are fighting for a clean environment.
"It is estimated that 30 to 60 activists have been detained in the past two and a half months. We are here to protect human rights and stand by each other," said Stojanović.
Bojan Simišić, from Eko Straža, said that RTS did not broadcast any news about the arrest of environmental activities after the Belgrade protest on August 10.
"We pay the television surcharge. "RTS should be a citizen's service, not the Serbian Progressive Party," said Simišić.
Ivan Milosavljević, an activist from Homolje in the east of Serbia, a ranger fighting to save Homolje, said in an address to the crowd that he receives death threats.
"Last night we were taken to the police in Žagubica on the charge that we threw stones at the workers on the exploratory wells. Those of us who point out that the villages next to Bor are being displaced, that the same fate awaits eastern Serbia, are called foreign mercenaries and accused of subverting the constitutional order," said Milosavljević.
Mladen Vladić, one of the detained activists from Majdanpek, said in front of the RTS building that the fighters for the protection of water, air and land will not retreat.
"We will continue to speak regardless of censorship, violence and threats," said Vladić.
The organizers announced that RTS reported on this protest in the twentieth minute of Dnevnik and assessed it as a success of this gathering.
Obligation of public service to inform
The movement announced that it is protesting in front of the public media service building because RTS has an obligation to objectively inform citizens about problems in the field of environmental protection and all aspects of lithium mining run by the current government of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) of Aleksandar Vučić.
Arrests of speakers from rallies across the country, police debriefings with administrators of environmental websites and detentions of foreign nationals supporting protests in Serbia have been common in the weeks since the August 10 demonstrations in Belgrade.
Activists Ivan Bjelic, Nikola Ristic and Jevđenije Julijan Dimitrijević were arrested after an environmental protest in the capital of Serbia on charges of disturbing public order and sentenced to 40 and 30 days in prison. They spent two days in prison because they were released by the decision of the Misdemeanor Court of Appeal in Belgrade, which accepted the appeal of their lawyer. The case was returned to the Misdemeanor Court for retrial, in which the activists are defending themselves from freedom.
In the latest wave of protests against the exploitation of lithium in Serbia, demonstrations were held in about fifty cities across the country.
New protests began after the Government of Serbia continued the implementation of the Jadar project near Loznica in the west of the country by decree on July 16, although it ended it by its own decision two and a half years ago after mass demonstrations by citizens. Previously, on July 11, the Constitutional Court of Serbia declared the Government's decision unconstitutional.
Brnabić 2022: "We put an end to Rio Tinto in Serbia"
The President of the Government of Serbia, Ana Brnabić, the current President of the National Assembly and an official of the SNS, announced in an address to the public on January 20, 2022 that the Government has canceled the regulation and spatial plan of the area of ​​special purpose for the implementation of the jadarite exploitation and processing project, which was adopted on February 13, 2020.
"Thus, we fulfilled all the demands of environmental protests and put an end to Rio Tinto in Serbia. This is the end of the Jadar and Rio Tinta project. It's over," Prime Minister Ana Brnabić said at the time.
Two and a half years later, on July 19, 2024, the Government of Serbia in Belgrade signed a memorandum on strategic raw materials with representatives of the official Brussels, which provides a legal framework for supplying the European Union with lithium from Serbia, mostly from Germany.
In May 2022, the civic movement "Start-Change" sent the Serbian Parliament a people's initiative that was signed by 38,000 citizens to ban research and mining of lithium in Serbia.
That petition has not yet been included in the agenda of the state parliament.