The police units from Pristina have been conducting an anti-smuggling operation throughout Kosovo, including the north, since this morning. During the operation in North Mitrovica, a conflict broke between demonstrators and the special police units, which provided assistance to the local police units. Journalists of the KoSSev portal, who were reporting from the field in North Mitrovica this morning, faced pressure from the demonstrators, which was why they were unable to follow all events as they happened from the field.
On several occasions, the KoSSev portal’s journalists were told to stop filming, and shortly after 9am, one of the demonstrators tried to seize the phone of the journalist and editor of our portal, Ivan Mitic and ordered him to stop filming.
An hour later, after the clash between the demonstrators and special units ended, and while the firefighters were extinguishing one of the car fires, one of the demonstrators approached Mitic, and told him to stop filming.
Soon after, several other demonstrators approached the KoSSev journalist. Mitic was asked „why is he filming“, he was told to stop doing it, while several of them told him to give them his phone or delete all the video and photo material of this morning’s events and to leave the scene.
Mitic, who often reports from the field, heard demonstrators saying that he is “the one that live-streams all the time,“ a bigger incident was avoided when a fellow citizens protected the KoSSev journalist.
At the time, Mitic was wearing a vest with large letters „PRESS“ printed on it, and his press card was visibly displayed.
A trainee journalist from our portal experienced similar problems in the field, and in the meantime, we learned that other journalists were also asked not to film at the scene. After the latest pressure on KoSSev journalists, the editor of the portal told journalists to withdraw from the scene.
Preuzimanje i objavljivanje tekstova sa portala KoSSev nije dozvoljeno bez navođenja izvora. Hvala na poštovanju etike novinarske profesije.
