Gavrilo Andrić is one of the most popular photographers and activists on the ground and on the networks, omnipresent at protests, especially student protests.
However, in recent weeks he fell into an unenviable situation, which he decided to talk about for the new issue of "Vremena", which is on newsstands from this Thursday (July 2).
Namely, the local elections in ten communities at the end of March were full of beatings and attacks on students, activists and journalists. Zorica Popović, Aleksandar Kulić, Lazar Dinić and Ivan Bijelić were beaten in Bor. what "Vreme" wrote about then. They also had equipment such as cameras stolen or destroyed.
Andrić immediately went into action to animate the community and some European funds so that his colleagues could be compensated for the damage and could continue to work.
"At the end of April, I received information that there was a problem with the list that Bijelić gave me. I approached it cautiously. Rumors are coming that he did not have that camera with him, so I tried to find proof," Andrić says.
Photo: TimeCover of the weekly "Vreme" number 1852
Various equipment lists
Andrić claims that Bijelić, with the tacit support of Dinić, added equipment worth eight thousand euros that he did not have to the list for exchange. By the way, Bijelić and Dinić are some kind of journalists-activists at the "Revolt" portal.
Both were previously detained and accused several times during student protests.
"I found out that there is also an online campaign that our diaspora did. They were recognized as a small team reporting from the field, the diaspora wanted to support them before. And the diaspora had a list of equipment different from the one they gave me. The lenses and bodies are also different, very expensive cameras and some microphones," says Andrić now.
What will happen to the money?
As reported by Andrić, Bijelić and Dinić did not specifically answer the questions, but in the end asked for the money to be "redirected". "They were caught in a lie and now they can no longer present themselves as heroes," Andrić assesses.
He also says that part of the money collected by the diaspora has now gone to the association "Krokodil" because it is the target of the regime's lawsuits, but that the other half may still go to the editorial office of "Revolta" despite these developments.
Andrić, interviewed by "Vremena" photojournalist Marija Janković, also talks about photographic work in the field, protests and pictures in the interview.
_Read more about it in the new "Vremen", which is on newsstands from Thursday (July 2) or immediately_subscribe to the digital edition here
