“Sto plus” and Beta journalist Mejrema Nokič threatened while reporting from the SNS rally in Novi Pazar

The journalist of the radio “Sto plus” and correspondent of the Beta agency, Mejrema Nokič, faced intimidation and obstruction in carrying out her duty last night during the rally of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in Novi Pazar, as Danas reports.

While she was filming the party’s pre-election rally, the director of the Tourist Organization of Novi Pazar, Dejan Belojica, followed her and visibly filmed her for several dozen seconds, which made her feel unsafe and frightened, Beta’s reporter reported.

“I noticed he was moving and filming me, and at one point I saw he was zooming in on me with his finger on the screen, while the phone camera was pointed directly at me. I went to him and asked whether he was filming me, which he denied, but I am convinced he was, which is also clearly seen in the videos I made,” she said.

Nokič stressed that she was wearing a vest marked “PRESS,” was on journalistic duty and in a public space. She added that a little later a young man approached her, whom she knows to be a member of the security services, who told her to leave, telling her that SNS officials consider filming by journalists a provocation. “On the advice of a colleague, and since I already felt frightened, I decided to leave,” she added.

After being notified of the case, the commissioner of the journalists’ association NUNS called Belojica, who in the phone conversation told him he had not filmed the journalist, but the atmosphere at the rally.