Support Rally for Vranjske Newspaper Editor Vukasin Obradovic

A support rally for journalist and editor in chief of the Vranjske newspaper Vukasin Obradovic, who has begun a hunger strike due to the pressures that led to the closure of the paper, was held in front of the Serbian government building late on Sept. 19 where journalists and public figures gathered.

The rally was attended by Commissioner for Information of Public Importance Rodoljub Sabic, Democratic Party leader Dragan Sutanovac, Serbian Left leader Borko Stefanovic, MP Djordje Vukadinovic, Press Council member Tamara Skrozza, attorney Bozo Prelevic, representatives of the Let Us Not Drown Belgrade movement and numerous members of the press. The protesters carried banners reading Wake Up Beloved Serbia, You Have Slept for a Long Time in an Age of Media Darkness, Serbia, People and Objective Media Are Hostages of Traitors, Serbia Is Ruled by Media Darkness, Against One-Mindedness.

Director and editor in chief of Vranjske Vukasin Obradovic locked himself in an office in downtown Vranje earlier on Sept. 19, after previously annoucing that he was commencing a hunger strike.

Obradovic began the hunger strike after Vranjske shuttered, according to an open letter, to direct the attention of "journalists and all citizens to the uselessness of fighting for the free press which I have been leading for the last thirty years or so."