Protesters storm pro-Vucic TV newsroom after Serbia election upset

Roughly 30 people pushed into Informer TV's newsroom in Serbia on Monday evening, surrounding editor-in-chief and owner Dragan Vucicevic and interrupting the broadcaster's output. Live footage showed some shouting, “This is how it is in free Serbia!” and “Where is Vucic now?” Others called for Vucicevic's arrest. The storming came as tens of thousands filled the streets for a second night of post-election celebrations.

Aleksandar Vucic fired back on his personal Instagram account, calling the incident an attack on free speech and the freedom of journalism. In the post he wore a jumper with the word “sorry” crossed out. Vucicevic answered with a statement of his own, framing the push against Informer as an attempt to ban media on the Student List's very first day in power.

The unrest follows a historic Sunday vote in which Serbia's Student List — born out of a student-led anticorruption protest movement — defeated Vucic's alliance. That result closed his party's 14-year hold on power. Vucic became prime minister in 2014 and president in 2017, and earlier served as information minister under Slobodan Milosevic. Fireworks lit the sky almost immediately after he conceded.

For voters, the moment landed hard. “It means freedom from a dictatorship that has lasted for 12 years, that I cannot remember a time before,” Jana Vasic told Al Jazeera. The student movement has no clear leader, so Serbians are waiting to learn who it will name as prime minister and to other key posts.

The leading candidate on its election list, cardiologist Ilija Srdanovic, asked supporters to keep it peaceful in a video posted to his Instagram. He urged them to stay calm and dignified until the electoral process wraps up, just as they have so far, and to avoid any form of violence.

The media fallout is still spreading. The Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia said it would file a request Tuesday to revoke Informer TV's broadcasting licence, pointing to what it called systematic violations of law and programme obligations. A crowd also gathered outside the private pro-Vucic Pink TV station in Belgrade, which police cordoned off. Earlier, public broadcaster RTV in the Vojvodina region opened its evening news by apologising to viewers for failing to fulfil its role, citing uncritical, one-sided reporting. Serbia sits 104th out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders' 2026 World Press Freedom Index — its lowest ever and the worst in the EU-Balkan region. Election monitor Crta said last week that nationally available TV stations handed three-quarters of politicians' airtime to government representatives, and portrayed the Student List negatively more than 80 percent of the time it came up.