In recent days, the social networks have been flooded with calls for a general strike in Serbia, which was officially called for on Wednesday by students, who have been protesting in cities across Serbia for two months. The protest demands criminal and political liability for the deaths of the 15 people killed in the canopy collapse that occurred on November 1, 2024, in Novi Sad, Media.ba writes.

The general strike was held last Friday, Jan.24, which implied a termination of work for one day. It was joined by media associations and civil society organizations and numerous faculties, cultural institutions, doctors, entrepreneurs, caterers, teachers and professors as well as other citizens and companies. The media that joined the general strike included: N1 Serbia, Nova.rs, Danas, Sport Klub, Cenzolovka, the news agencies Beta and FoNet, Vreme, Nedeljnik, the Balkan Research Network for Crime and Corruption - BIRN, Autonomija, Žig info, Južne Vesti, the Coalition for Media Freedom of Serbia, Radio Goraždevac and the KoSSev portal, the Association of Independent Electronic Media – ANEM, and its portal Safe Journalists and Other Media and Media Organizations and Associations.

The media that responded to the students' call for a general strike said that they will exclusively report on the topic and actions that will be implemented in cities throughout Serbia on their televisions, portals and other communication channels. A 15-minute interruption of the program and a temporary blackout of their official pages were also announced.

'As a media devoted to the public interest, we believe it is our responsibility to provide the citizens with timely and comprehensive information about events affecting our everyday life and society as a whole. That is why we will report on all the events related to the general strike so as to make sure that the public is fully informed about this protest', N1 Serbia announced, adding that their colleagues, whose work is not related to reporting, had to stay at home on Friday. They were joined by their colleagues from Danas.rs, who did the same.

By the decision of its editorial board, the portal Nova.rs and the newspaper Nova also responded to the call for a general strike, announcing a special, modified, 'protest' edition of their newspaper, which hit newsstands over the weekend and was exclusively dedicated to the strike. Sport Klub also stopped broadcasting any shows and its portal was also unavailable, while sporting events that would be broadcast live were aired without commentary and no new content was published on its channels on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and X.

N1 Serbia, Danas.rs, Nova and Sport Klub all belong to United Media, which also released the following statement on behalf of the group: 'Now is the time when it is crucial that the whole society should come together and show its support to the brave voice of young people, who demand respect for the law and the right functioning of the rule of law', they said.

The Coalition for Freedom of the Media of Serbia also called on the media and media workers to stop their work for 15 minutes on Friday and to report on the announced general strike in Serbia in the remaining period. Members of the coalition announced that on their communication channels there will be an illustration by Marko Somborac with the inscription 'general strike'. They also called on TV channels to black out their screens for 15 minutes and show the said illustration and on radio stations to interrupt their program for 15 minutes.

In addition, they invited all Serbian citizens to join them in front of the buildings of public media services in Belgrade and Novi Sad, thus giving their support to the 'brave voices of the trade unions and workers at RTV and RTS, who are seeking a change in editorial policy as well as the resignation of the management of these media companies'.

The ANEM said that during the general strike, they would only deal with urgent cases of attacks on journalists, male or female, if there were any. 'We hope that with the currently established practice of threatening and endangering the safety of our colleagues but also students, teachers, parents and all other citizens, who demand that institutions start doing their job, will finally be eliminated,' they said.

The many months of protests in Serbia have been marked by constant attacks on journalists, censorship and pressure on journalists. Novosti journalist Vojislava Crnjanski Spasojević said in an open letter to the media that she got fired the day after she posted photos from a protest in front of the Constitutional Court of Serbia on her Instagram page. She added that she was fired with the explanation that she had become 'a technological excess' at the editorial. From the Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia asked the media for an explanation regarding this case but got no response.

RTS journalist Milan Srdić from Novi Sad also addressed the media via an open letter on Facebook, saying that after just one live broadcast following the tragedy in the city, he was prevented from further reporting on the protests and after he was allowed to do so, his report in Dnevnik, was edited and cut short. He added that the RTS team from Novi Sad was always there to report but that most of the recorded footage was published only on the RTS website. From the Association of Journalists of Serbia pointed out that such treatment of journalists endangers their position and prevents them from informing the public about the problems in their community, which ultimately affects the entire society.

As the protests in Serbia since last November have been accompanied by numerous attacks on protesters that included the hitting of cars, physical assaults, attacks with sticks and knives, the Center for Investigative Reporting of Serbia - CINS - has published a map that records all of the attacks on protesters and blockades that have occurred in Serbia ever since November 22, 2023. The initial incident included on the CINS map is the attack on the students of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, which took place during their protest paying tribute to the victims of the canopy collapse at the Novi Sad railway station. 'The attacks were located on the basis of media reports and videos from social media, which clearly shows that the incident took place indeed. They are split by categories with the exact location and date of events,' stated the CINS.

They called on their readers to report on any attacks from the protests and to send videos to their editorial confirming this. The CINS team also added that the map will be updated with current data once a week.

And while media throughout Serbia were reporting live on the protests and the general strike across the country minute by minute, tabloids were deleting texts slandering students, while TV Pink, RTS and Narodna TV have been broadcasting their regular program content including reality and entertainment shows.

The general strike represents the culmination of months of protests, discontent and tragic events that took place in the country. One of the pivotal moments was the canopy collapse in Novi Sad when 15 people were killed, which triggered the rebellion of students and citizens across the country.