Invitation to a Press Conference Regarding the Seventeenth KROKODIL Festival

03 Jul Invitation to a Press Conference Regarding the Seventeenth KROKODIL Festival

Belgrade, July 3, 2025 — The Association KROKODIL invites you to a press conference scheduled for tomorrow, Friday, July 4th, at 11:00 AM at the Media Center, Terazije 3. Speakers will include Milena Berić, Executive Director of the KROKODIL Association; Vladimir Arsenijević, President of the KROKODIL Association; and Miloš Janković, Attorney.

The conference will broadcast online via the following link:
 
Live FB: www.facebook.com/medija.centar/live
Live YT: www.youtube.com/user/MCBeograd
Medija centar: https://mc.rs/uzivo

At this occasion, we will provide firsthand information to the public regarding the details and circumstances surrounding the 17th KROKODIL Festival, including the smear campaign that involved over five hundred print and online media reports and more than five hours of programming. This campaign was coordinated by pro-regime media outlets. As is customary, the campaign has been accompanied by a barrage of insults and threats from certain public figures, alongside physical and online attacks on the KROKODIL Association, its members, and its headquarters, which we have been subjected to for over ten days.

We will also inform the public about the legal measures we intend to pursue in the near future to seek protection of our rights through judicial processes.

For the first time, the KROKODIL Association faced the inability to carry out its program due to institutional distancing by the Museum of Yugoslavia, near which the festival has been held for seventeen years, followed by direct obstructions from the Ministry of Culture, whose representatives ordered the removal of power cables and the hindrance of the KROKODIL Festival’s production.

In a time when the regime is resorting to new methods of repression against dissenting citizens, the KROKODIL Festival has become an instrument of state authority to suppress opponents, students, opposition members, and others.

We therefore once again invite you to join us tomorrow, Friday, July 4th, at the Media Center, to stand together in defense of our fundamental rights.

The 17th KROKODIL Festival, titled Under Pressure, was held in Belgrade on June 27 and 29, 2025, attracting over 150 participants from Serbia, the region, and Europe.

More information about the KROKODIL Festival and its program can be found HERE.

The KROKODIL Association is among the very few independent, non-partisan civil society organisations in Serbia that deal with culture and literature but also actively advocate for the principles of responsible behaviour by the state institutions, civil society organisations and media in Serbia. Committed to developing democratic culture, civic activism and educating citizens on their political rights, KROKODIL, as a think-and-do tank, is dedicated to establishing the rule of law and, bearing in mind both Serbia’s specific geopolitical position today and the importance of European security as a whole, thereby strengthening Serbia’s movement towards the EU. To this end, KROKODIL is focused on the development of various programs of social and political significance promoting basic human rights and freedoms while strongly focusing on civic engagement.

The KROKODIL Association is equally dedicated to the production of literary, cultural and socio-political programs and projects with the aim of developing audiences among those that are interested in culture and politics as such. It is particularly engaged in promoting a culture of dialogue and reconciliation and the reconstruction of broken links, particularly in the region of the Western Balkans/Southeast Europe, as well as in deepening mutual understanding and acceptance of differences within the wider European and global context.