Citizens, Employees Gather in Front of N1 TV Station After Program Director Is Dismissed

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Citizens and N1 TV station employees gathered in front of the station's headquarters in Novi Belgrade on April 7 to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the dismissal of the station's program director Igor Bozic and other controversial events surrounding the outlet.

Journalistic organizations called the protest after the station's employees held a protest on April 6, concerned that Bozic's dismissal could mean a shift in editorial policy, the station's website said.

Association of Independent Electronic Media managing board president and members of the permanent working group for the safety of journalists Veran Matic said ahead of the protest that N1 was a TV station that worked in the public interest.

"Serbian citizens should be worried and worried about themselves, they are going to be left without a media outlet that reliably informs them. When you are left without reliable media outlets you will be easily exposed to manipulation and that is a problem for the Serbian public, the number of such media outlets is declining and N1 was one of those that were professional," Matic told N1.

The new management informed Bozic on April 3 that he had been dismissed as director of the company, after which he was told later that he had not been reassigned and that he would not be leading the station's staff until a decision by the Adria News Network's board.