Sixteen staff members of state-run Radio and Television of Serbia (RTS) were killed on April 23, 1999 in an airstrike by NATO on RTS’ Belgrade headquarters. The attack destroyed RTS’s main newsroom and studios, knocking it off the air for several hours. The attack drew wide international condemnation, despite NATO officials and western leaders’ arguments that RTS was broadcasting propaganda, making it part of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic’s war machine and therefore a legitimate military target. In 2002, Dragoljub Milanović, the general manager of RTS at the time of the airstrike, was given a 10-year prison sentence for not having ordered the employees to evacuate, despite knowing that the building could be targeted. As of 2016, the Serbian Commission for the Investigation of Murders of Journalists was conducting an investigation into the airstrike itself, but NATO refused to cooperate.
More Articles
Recent Posts
- Twelve years: No justice for Mexican journalist Regina Martínez April 25, 2024
- Spotlight: Press Freedom in Senegal in 2024 April 25, 2024
- Togo elections: Authorities must allow media to work freely April 25, 2024
- Bulgaria Minister urged to drop defamation lawsuit April 24, 2024
- 12 años sin justicia para Regina Martínez Pérez April 23, 2024
- Appello contro gli attacchi a Domani e per la libertà di stampa in Italia April 23, 2024
- Petition against attacks on Domani newspaper, and for media freedom in Italy April 23, 2024
- New Media Incubator: Growing a small media outlet when less is sometimes more April 23, 2024