Serbian Journalist’s Phone Confiscated for ‘Photographing President’s son’

A journalist from the Serbian investigative media portal KRIK, Bojana Pavlovic, said her phone was confiscated on Wednesday night by an unknown man in the presence of a police officer, after she took photos of President's Aleksandar Vucic's 21-year-old son, Danilo, KRIK has reported.

KRIK said it had called on the Interior Ministry to clarify who took the journalist's phone and why the police did not intervene immediately.

The phone was only returned after Danilo's companion, Aleksandar Vidojevic, who has been photographed several times with him, told the unknown man to do so.

The incident happened at around 10pm in the centre of Belgrade while Vucic was watching a football match in a café with Vidojevic, a member of the Janjicari, a notorious group of hardline fans of  Belgrade football club Partizan.

Vidojevic is currently on trial for demolishing a Belgrade nightclub, Komitet.

According to KRIK, he is listed in the Serbian police database as a member of the Montenegrin drug trafficking Kavac clan. Media reports say he was previously prosecuted for brawling in club stands, robbery and gun possession.

After taking photos from the street through the window of the café, Pavlovic said she was stopped by three men who presented themselves as officials.

Pavlovic said she showed her journalist ID, but they then told her that she would have to wait for a police patrol and be detained. She said they also told her to delete the photos because "they might have problems".

The police arrived, joined by two others who did not act as police officers, or present themselves as such, Pavlovic said.

When she said that she was on an assignment and asked to call her editor, she said one of the newcomers took her phone from her...