"Here's a special one... He says, can he do it on this occasion 'sound cannon' - 'Blow the wind a little over the liver'?" said the lawyer and deputy of the Serbian Progressive Party Vladimir Djukanovic in the evening of March 15, 2025, after, according to numerous assessments, the largest gathering in the history of Serbia ended unexpectedly.
In this way, precisely thanks to Đukanović, a large number of citizens heard the term "sound cannon" for the first time. Among them were those who felt something at the protest that they could not name, which, according to their testimonies, looked like a "shock wave", "a wall moving towards people", "an invisible wave", "a rush of air" and "pressure coming down the street".
From the celebration on TV Informer in which Đukanović, according to the claims of many, mentioned it publicly for the first time already on March 15, 2025, through the complete denial of its existence to accusations that students planned and organized a "simulation" of its use - this is how the "reporting" of the regime media about the "sound cannon" developed.
Phase of Denying the Existence of the "Sound Cannon"
In the days immediately after March 15, the regime media, which, quite expectedly, strictly adhered to the government's narrative, followed a phase of complete denial of both the existence and use of the sound cannon. A large number of texts have been published, so we will refer to only a few.
The very next day, March 16, 2025, "Informer" published the text "WHAT IS AND HOW DOES THE SOUND CANNON WORK: Watch a video explaining how and why another opposition subterfuge failed" in which it was stated:
"After the Tajik media spread the brutal lie that the police used a sound cannon after the failed protest on March 15 in Belgrade, and after that lie was strongly denied, the next question that arises is if and when those who created this dangerous fraud will be held accountable!".
Photo: PrintskrinSound cannon
On the same day, Radio-television of Serbia (RTS) hosted Brigadier General of the Serbian Army Slavko Rakić, and the news about this visit was published on the websites of RTS and Radio-television of Vojvodina (RTV) with the title "General Rakić: The Ministry of Defense and the Serbian Army did not use and do not use a sound cannon".
The following day, on March 17, 2025, the websites of RTS and RTV published news from the Tanjug agency entitled "Vučić: It is a fabrication that some sonic, supersonic cannons were used."
Photo: PrintskrinSound cannon
On March 19, 2025, those two sites published a text with the title "Dacic: American manufacturer gave key evidence that destroys all lies about the so-called 'sonic cannon'."
Phase: Serbia has a "sound cannon", but has not used it
However, that same March 19. In 2025, after the documents on the procurement of LRAD devices were published, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Ivica Dačić, changed the story and confirmed that the Ministry of Interior possesses such systems.
In the text published on the website "Blica" entitled "'THESE SYSTEMS ARE IN OUR WAREHOUSES' Dacic on the 'sonic cannon': They are owned by the MUP, but have not been put into use or mounted on any vehicle" can be read:
"Minister of the Interior Ivica Dacic confirmed that the police possess sonic weapons or colloquially called 'sound cannon', i.e. that the systems that were purchased in 2021 are owned by the MUP.
- Those systems are in our warehouses in boxes. They are owned by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but they have not been put into use, nor have they been mounted on any of our vehicles or systems - Dacic told Danas.
Asked why he then stated that the MUP does not possess a "sound cannon" or any other similar sound weapons, the minister says that it was a clumsy statement.
- That is a clumsy statement. This meant that the MUP did not include this tool in its arsenal of coercive tools - said Dacic.
Photo: PrintskrinSound cannon
When it was established that Serbia still possesses a "sound cannon", the government and the regime changed the narrative and launched a counter-attack on the opposition and professional media with claims that the opposition is using the "sound cannon affair" for political points and that the story serves to put international pressure on Serbia.
As the anniversary of the protest on March 15 approached, those attacks became more and more fierce, and on March 12, the "Horrible campaign of Šolak's blockaders: They pulled a proven lie about the sound cannon out of mothballs, and accused Vučić of "shooting the people in the back" on the "Informer" portal.
In that period, the headlines were dominated by phrases such as: "lie about the sound cannon"; "staged affair"; "hybrid attack on Serbia"; "a fictional story of the opposition", and such a frame became standard on Pink, Informer and Alo.
The phase about the "simulation" of the use of the "sound cannon" and the overthrow of the constitutional order
The last phase of the regime media spin began when Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade (VJT) announced that it demands to collect notifications with documentation of the plenum of several faculties, which allegedly state plans to simulate the use of a "sound cannon" at the protest held on March 15, 2025 in Belgrade.
VJT claims that during the pre-investigation procedure regarding the death of the student of the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, M. Ž. also found an act on the meeting of the organization Students in Blockade - Umbrella Working Group for Security held on January 22, 2025.
Until then, the dominant thesis that there was no "sound cannon" or that the device was not used was replaced by a narrative according to which students planned and organized a "simulation" of the use of a "sound cannon" in order to "create panic in the public and fear among citizens, and cause riots that would lead to a violent change in the constitutional order and endanger the security of the state".
Thus, on June 19, 2026, "Informer" published the news on the website "BREAKING! The Prosecution obtained evidence: The 'sound cannon' affair was planned in advance - the goal was to provoke a civil war!".
Photo: PrintskrinSound cannon
Photo: PrintskrinSound cannon
On the same evening, RTS aired the show "The 'Sound Cannon' Dossier - Frequency of Fear" in which the prosecutor of the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office (VJT) in Belgrade, Miodrag Marković, stated that the Service for Combating Terrorism had been sent a request to collect information so that after confirming their identity, four groups of people could be prosecuted: those who participated in the plenum where there was allegedly talk of a "simulation" of the use of a "sound cannon", those who coordinated the movement of the mass of citizens gathered, those who posted on social networks and the media claims of a "sound cannon" and those who responded to medical examinations after two or three days.
About that emcee tabloid "Hello!" published the text "'The goal was to use up all the results of Aleksandar Vučić': Professor about the sound cannon!".
This was followed by texts from other regime media whose focus was no longer so much on portraying the students as organizers of the "simulation" of using the "sound cannon" as on portraying the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, as the ultimate victim. Vučić selflessly helped them in this by claiming that they actually "killed him as a man" with the "sound cannon".
Photo: PrintskrinSound cannon
Finally, "Kurir" transferred the story of the alleged "simulation" of the use of the "sound cannon" to the always fertile ground for manipulation - relations between Serbs and Albanians, so the text "SOUND CANNON MODELED ON RAČAK! Analysts: A complex hybrid operation premeditated to be a trigger for chaos" was published.
sound-top-09Sound cannon
