Almost 20,000 people assembled this evening in front of the Belgrade City Hall and listened to live broadcasts of Studio B’s radio and TV news shows. Protesters carried party colors and flags of the "Otpor" ("Resistance") movement. They were shouting slogans such "Hey, ho, let’s go!" "Kill yourself, Slobodan, and save Serbia," and "Let’ go for a walk." Protesters cheered at the news about rallies throughout Serbia. About 8:00 p.m. Beta’s reporter saw two buses brimming with fully equipped policemen near the Beogradjanka Palace, the Studio B’s seat, as well as several police vans. Strong police forces were also posted in the Srpski Vladari Street, some 200 meters from the City Hall.

The Serbian Interior Ministry released that "a large group of hooligans, the ‘Red Star’ fans, attacked last night policemen and citizens with stones, bottles and bats." "Four policemen were hurt, two of them severely, while three shop windows were smashed. Thirty-seven most radical hooligans were taken in and will be brought before relevant courts," the release says.

Around 1:00 p.m. the police allowed the Blic staff to return to their offices in the Beogradjanka Palace, the paper’s director, Miodrag Djuricic, told the Beta news agency. According to him, "a civilized order came from the very top of the state, saying ‘Let them in and do their job.’" Djuricic told Beta that the police controlled the building’s entrance and "blockade" Studio B, but "interferes not on the floors housing Blic." He also said that the "Forum" printshop from Novi Sad had definitely refused to print his paper, though it might be printed in Borba’s printshop, which "may be ready to print it for financial reasons."

Daily Blic has not received a confirmation of previous indications from the state printing shop Borba, concerning continued printing of this daily. Deputy editor-in-chief of Blic Momcilo Petrovic stated for Beta agency that Blic was preparing a 12-page edition for tomorrow and that it would be printed in the Glas Javnosti printed shop.

Unknown perpetrators downed last night the Television Leskovac’s repeater at Mt. Babicka. After that there was no signal in the entire northwest part of the Jablanica District, the broadcast stations released. The Socialists and the Yugoslav Left rule in Leskovac.

Over a thousand citizens gathered at a rally in the central Novi Sad Square to protest the state takeover of TV Studio B.

President of the Belgrade City Assembly Vojislav Mihailovic cut the session of the parliament short immediately after it had started, noting the presence of "a large number of people unknown to him" both in the hall and in front of the parliament's building. The Belgrade City Assembly session was supposed to start at 5 p.m.. After an hour of delay, Mihalovic took the floor and said he decided to end the session since the conditions for its continuation were "irregular due to the presence of a lot of people he did not recognize both in the Assembly's conference hall and outside". Mihailovic told the press that the Assembly's security, and "even the police suggested the session should not be held for security reasons". The parliament was to discuss the conclusions condemning the "suppression and closing of free media" as well as the police intervention against the demonstrators in Belgrade

Deputies from the Socialist Party of Serbia and the Yugoslav Left in the Belgrade Assembly strongly criticized the city fathers for canceling the Assembly’s session, claiming there was no reason for such move. The session was scheduled for 5:00 p.m. After a one-hour delay Mayor Mihailovic took his place at the rostrum and said that the session would be cancelled due to "irregular conditions deriving from the presence of unknown people in the hall and in front of the building." The head of the Socialists’ parliamentary club, Zarko Seslija, told reporters he saw no irregularities and the City Hall officials should have set things right if there were any.

The financial police last night, accompanied by twenty odd uniformed police tried to enter the "ABC Produkt" Opovo printing shop and "check where and how the daily paper Glas Javnosti and, during the past few days also the paper Blic, was printed". Director and editor-in-chief of Glas Javnosti Slavoljub Kacarevic stated for Beta agency that the Ronako printing shop in Opovo "operates without problems".

Representatives from the opposition and the "Otpor" ("Resistance") movement "opted for a peaceful resistance to the regime, as the only way to oppose authorities." Leaders and high officials of major opposition parties held a meeting in the Belgrade City Hall.

The Serbian democratic opposition decided to send a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin and ask for a more active Russian support to democratic transformation of Serbia. The letter will be forwarded through the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Belgrade.

The adviser to the leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement, Ognjen Pribicevic, told the Beta news agency that Vuk Draskovic "will show up soon." "I can give you no details at this point. Vuk will show up soon," Pribicevic said. Vuk Draskovic’s last public appearance was at the Belgrade rally of May 15.

The Civic Alliance of Serbia appealed to members of the Yugoslav Army and the police not to allow to be used as "instruments to save a shaky regime." The party appealed to all people of Serbia – workers, farmers, intellectuals, pensioners, students and the Serbian Orthodox Church – "to massively and peacefully resist the regime and dictatorship anyplace and anytime."

The Serbian Orthodox Church’s Synod appealed to state bodies to "immediately withdraw bans on non-governmental media houses," and to political organizations and citizens to "sustain from any form of violence or incitement of civil war." The Synod also appealed to officials "to release all persons taken in during last night’s protests."

The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed its "grave concern" over "the takeover of the independent TV outlet Studio B." "We are convinced that problems of the kind can and should be solved without a confrontation, in the interest of stability, peace and harmony in the country," the Ministry’s release quotes.

In his report on developments in Belgrade, the OSCE representative for freedom of the media, Freimut Duve, said that the latest "repressive measure against independent media in Belgrade is an unprecedented action that was not taken even during communist reigns. Duve announced that he would discuss joint steps against media repression in Serbia with representatives from the European Union at the meeting scheduled for tomorrow.

The New York Times says that the takeover of the Studio B stands for an assault on the leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement, Vuk Draskovic." The paper adds that around 20,000 protesters hit the streets "though opposition media were not able to publish a single word about a rally."

Referring to "some media reports," The Washington Post says that "as a security measure, the Government posted armored personnel carriers and turmoil prevention troopers with automatic guns in front of some governmental buildings."