University Students Confirm RTS Blockade Will Last Until New REM Council Is Elected

RTS Blockade (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

On April 20, the Belgrade University students who have been on strike for five months confirmed that the ongoing blockade of the RTS public service facilities downtown and in Kosutnjak will continue “until a new competition for members of the Regulatory Authority for Digital Media [REM] is announced.”

The RTS has reported that its employees are unable to come to work due to the blockade which began on April 14.

Previously, the broadcaster also announced that it has had to alter its programming due to “difficult operating circumstances,” that a criminal complaint was filed with Belgrade’s First Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office against the unknown organizers of the blockade and that the public service has requested a reaction from international institutions.

Meanwhile, RTS employees held an assembly on April 20 and demanded a competition for REM council seats be opened immediately, stating this would also end the student blockade.

“The students have been standing at the entrance of the RTS for days, but who is truly blocking the public service? The REM was supposed to get a new council on Nov. 4, 2024. However, Serbia’s most important regulatory body for digital media is still not operating,” the RTS employees wrote in their press release.