Opposition parties protest against state broadcaster

Several opposition parties and movements on Sunday held a protest in front of the headquarters of the Radio-Television of Serbia (RTS).

They accused the public service of regularly breaking the law, and blocking the opposition.

None of the opposition leaders who showed up - including Dragan Djilas, Boris Tadic, Zoran Zivkovic, Vuk Jeremic, Sasa Jankovic, and Sanda Raskovic-Ivic - spoke at the gathering.

Instead, the protest was addressed by public figures and members of opposition parties and movements, among them former RTS journalist Rade Radovanovic, author Dusan Kovacevic, and professor Rade Veljanvski.

Protesters asked that RTS general director Dragan Bujosevic, news editor-in-chief Nenad Lj. Stefanovic, and chairman of the Executive Board Vladimir Vuletic all be sacked.

The protest was organized after a meeting between representatives of opposition parties and the RTS, including Vladimir Vuletic, dedicated to opposition demands related to respecting media laws and standards, failed to produce an agreement.

The ruling SNS party reacted to the protest to say that the opposition had "sent an ugly picture of Serbia to the world," and remarking that Belgrade Mayor Sinisa Mali "managed to gather more people at his panel in Vreoci" - a small settlement near Belgrade's southwestern municipality of Lazarevac.

All this comes ahead of the local election in Serbia's capital, scheduled for March 4.