The KoSSev news portal said on Wednesday that its reporters were threatened by protesters in Mitrovica north during clashes with the Kosovo police.

“KoSSev portal journalists faced pressure from protesters and were unable to follow all events on the ground while reporting from the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica,” the portal said. Clashes between the Kosovo police and protesters broke out on Wednesday morning in Mitrovica during an operation that the police said was aimed against smugglers.

It said that the reporters were ordered to stop recording on several occassions with one of the protesters even trying to grab portal editor Ivan Mitic’s phone, ordering him to stop recording. Mitic was recording firefighters putting out a burning car when a protesters came up to him and told him to stop recording. That man was followed by a group of protesters who demanded to know why he was recording the scene and ordering him to stop. Several of them wanted him to hand over the phone or delete the images he recorded. They also ordered him to leave. A local man stood up to the protesters, preventing a more serious incident.

A junior reporter and several other journalists were also approached and ordered to stop recording before the portal’s editor decided to call them all back to the office.