June 2025.
As part of the program Regional Initiative for combating disinformation “Western Balkans Combatting disinformation Center: Exposing malicious influences through fact-checking and Analytical Journalism“, we present you a new analysis of fake news and disinformation narratives.
Anti-hooligan operation in the city center: Watch the arrest of the blockade participants
https://informer.rs/politika/vesti/1029997/hapsenje-blokadera-beograd
On June 28, one of the most important dates in Serbia’s modern political history, a large-scale civic protest took place in Belgrade. The student movement called on citizens to join a mass protest on Vidovdan—a holiday of undeniable significance in national history and collective memory—demanding snap parliamentary elections, which Serbian authorities continue to reject.
According to various estimates, the Vidovdan protest gathered around 140,000 people, confirming that a high level of opposition mobilization remains present among citizens seeking political change in Serbia. Following the March 15 protest, this was one of the largest gatherings in Belgrade in recent history.
In the lead-up to the protest, pro-government media promoted claims about the violent nature of the event, aiming to intimidate both the organizers and the public, and to create uncertainty surrounding the Vidovdan demonstration.
However, no violent actions or initiatives—heavily speculated about by pro-government outlets in the days prior—occurred during the protest on June 28. Most participants dispersed peacefully after the event, while a significantly smaller group became involved in incidents with the police. Images and footage of police interventions and clashes between certain protesters and law enforcement at several locations circulated in both Serbian and international media. In the following days, hundreds of citizens and students were detained.
Pro-government media reported on police actions in a positive tone, emphasizing that it was allegedly an appropriate response to attacks by radicalized demonstrators and an effort to prevent “chaos.” A typical example is the article by Informer, the highest-circulating pro-government portal, titled “Anti-hooligan operation in the city center: Watch the arrest of the blockade participants”. The article claims that the “blockaders caused total chaos after the protest… attacked the police, but the police showed that no one is stronger than the state.”
Other articles from the same outlet emphasized that “the state will not allow the terror conducted by the blockaders to continue… police officers reacted quickly and prevented the terrorists from carrying out their malicious plan to harass citizens.”
Informer also reported affirmatively on the wave of arrests that followed the Vidovdan protest in Belgrade. “Chief Prosecutor Nenad Stefanović announced the prosecution of all protest participants who engaged in violence… a group of radicalized blockaders set the center of Belgrade on fire and attacked police officers,” the article stated, promoting pro-government interpretations of the events during and after the protest.
In its attempt to justify police use of force and the wave of arrests, Informer aggressively used narratives labeling the students and citizens who organized and participated in the protest as “blockaders and/or terrorists” allegedly aiming to provoke “chaos in Serbia.”
Although it remains unclear how the incidents across Belgrade were initiated after the large Vidovdan protest, numerous human rights organizations assessed that law enforcement used excessive force. Additionally, the conduct of the police and the mass arrests of students and citizens sparked a new wave of road blockades in Belgrade in the week following the Vidovdan protest, during which police once again employed excessive force.
Author: Igor Mirosavljević
