BIA Shake-Up Deepens After Radar Reports Alleged Surveillance of Its Newsroom

BIA Shake-Up Deepens After Radar Reports Alleged Surveillance of Its Newsroom
Tomislav Radovanović, deputy director of Serbia’s Security Information Agency (BIA), was dismissed on Tuesday evening, according to reports cited by both pro-government and opposition-aligned media. The pro-government account gave no reason for the decision, describing it as part of the agency’s personnel changes.

Radovanović joined the BIA from the Interior Ministry, where he had commanded the Intervention Unit and later headed the service responsible for special investigative methods. He also served as Serbia’s police attaché in France. In 2021, he attracted public attention after saying on television that a parallel structure in the Interior Ministry had spied on former President Aleksandar Vučić.

He became acting head of the BIA in December 2023, after Aleksandar Vulin left the post, and remained in that role until June 2024, when he handed it to Vladimir Orlić.

Radar described the dismissal as the latest in a series of “frenetic changes and upheavals” at the agency following its reports that the newsroom and other public figures had been surveilled. The outlet said Miloš Simić, previously head of the BIA’s First Directorate, had also been removed and dismissed from employment after allegedly refusing an unlawful order.

According to Radar, the dispute involved an alleged attempt to falsify documents explaining the beginning and termination of surveillance measures against its journalists, potentially to portray published records as forged. The outlet also reported the recent dismissal of the BIA director’s chief of staff, Olivera Munjić, and said the wider shake-up was connected to its revelations. The claims have not been independently verified, and no official explanation for Radovanović’s dismissal was cited in the reports.