Actual attacks on journalists, Luka Pešić, Belgrade, 28.9.2025.

Translations: Beograd 

Student-reporter Luka Pešić, who was filming police officers during a protest, was taken into custody despite clearly showing his press ID. After being detained he was denied the opportunity to contact a lawyer, and his equipment was unlawfully seized with certain video recordings deleted.

According to his statement to IJAS, after the protest ended, near the Youth Center (Dom omladine) toward Makedonska Street, he and his colleagues were attacked by a group of men in civilian clothes, after which uniformed police officers also began to run. Pešić was knocked to the ground and an attempt was made to take his phone, which he managed to pass to colleagues. He was then detained even though he had displayed his press ID. The stated reason for the detention was that he started running. However, Pešić believes the real reason was most likely one of the recordings he made of police activity. At the station, his camera was seized, the memory card was removed and examined outside the room where the journalist was held, and one recording was deleted without his consent, after which the camera was returned. At the same time, police officers told him that during the first four hours after detention he did not have the right to call his defense counsel. He states that at no point was he told what offense he was suspected of or the grounds for the detention, and the police unsuccessfully sought a prosecutor’s order to seize his equipment. In the end, he was released because the prosecutor assessed that there were no elements of a criminal offense.