A two-week blockade of Serbia’s public broadcaster by student protesters came to an end on April 29, after authorities met a key demand for reform of the country’s media regulatory body.

The students, who had occupied the entrance of Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) in Belgrade, announced via social media that the blockade would be suspended following the government’s decision to initiate a new competition for seats on the Council of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM).

“The battle has been won, but the war is still going on,” the protesters declared in a statement, celebrating the move as a partial victory in their broader push for press freedom and an end to corruption in state institutions.

The blockade, which lasted through the Orthodox Easter holidays, was a response to what students described as RTS’s persistent bias and failure to adequately cover mass anti-government demonstrations that have swept the country over the past five months. The protesters accused RTS and its sister broadcaster RTV of minimising the scale and significance of the movement, which has challenged the long-standing rule of President Aleksandar Vucic and his Serbian Progressive Party.

“We are watching you,” the students wrote in chalk outside the RTS headquarters as they disbanded, a final message aimed at holding the network accountable going forward.

The decision to initiate the selection process for new REM Council members was made after a three-hour parliamentary session on April 29. From the RTS balcony, students erupted into chants of “Victory!” and “The competition has been announced, RTS is free” upon hearing the news.

Throughout the protest, student organisers had demanded either a full reform of RTS through a reshuffling of the REM Council, or the complete shutdown of the network, which they accuse of acting as a propaganda arm for President Vucic.

A viral graphic circulating on social media, analysing 73,332 articles from the RTS portal published between 2008 and 2025, further fuelled criticism. The data suggests a steep rise in coverage centering on Vucic over time.

“It shows how RTS's political reporting has levelled off, how it has become servile, personalised, in the service of one political actor,” said Vujo Ilić, a researcher at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, on X. 

In recent days, the protest had forced RTS to alter its regular programming, with the broadcaster succumbing to the unrelenting noise, chanting and public scrutiny.

Banners outside RTS have now been removed, and the building stands quiet again — but protesters have signalled that their campaign for a free and fair media in Serbia is far from over.