Media in Serbia in favor of the ruling party during the election campaign

Novi Sad School of Journalism presented the final results of the media monitoring conducted during the election campaign in Serbia (1-21 April 2016). The results showed distinct media bias towards the ruling party, Serbian Progressive Party, and its leader Aleksandar Vučić. Election coverage in media was characterized by a large proportion of pseudo events, lack of balance and instrumentalization of crisis situations.

A total of 107 media outlets were monitored: 40 TV stations, 8 radio stations, 30 print media outlets and 20 websites. On the basis of perceived violations, Novi Sad School of Journalism filed three complaints: two of them to the Regulatory authority of electronic media and one to the Press council. As a result of the complaint, one pirate radio station – Radio Grmeč, which openly supported one political option – ceased to exist.

Media monitoring presentation in Belgrade
Media monitoring presentation in Belgrade

Serbian Progressive Party (SPP) was the most frequent one in almost every analized media outlet. Total presence of SPP in public service broadcasting reached 25% (Radio Television of Serbia) and 31% (Radio Television of Vojvodina), which made their frequency up to three times higher than of any other party.

A similar ratio was presented in the commercial media outlets: SPP is the most frequent party in election coverages, from 32% (TV B92) to 65% (KCN). Two TV stations with national coverage devoted special programs to the PM Vučić, while his pre-election rallies were broadcasted live on several local TV stations. At the same time, opposition parties did not use their (already modest) presence in media for promoting their ideas or programs, but for a confrontation with SPP.

Dubravka Valić Nedeljković from the Novi Sad School of Journalism stated that this year’s campaign started before the official announcement. It was mostly based on pseudo events and coverages about confrontations between parties, with a lack of analytical approach, creativity, vulnerable groups visibility and tolerance. Monitoring of local media outlets showed the interconnection of media ownership and the manner of reporting on election campaign.

Extensive reports about election campaign will be published on the Novi Sad School of Journalism website soon.

Presentation of the monitoring results in Serbian is available here

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