Serbia: Public Service Broadcasters and Public Interest – Monitoring Results

Novi Sad Journalism School, a SEENPM member, implemented the monitoring of public service broadcasters (PSBs) in Serbia during 2016, focused on the fulfillment of public interest.

SEENPM.org presents key findings and conclusions with recommendations in English (download PDF). 

The project also yielded six thematic reports, published in Serbian, each dealing with specific topics within the research.

The aim of the six-months long monitoring of PSBs’ programs is to establish in what way and to what degree Radio-television of Vojvodina (RTV) and Radio-television of Serbia (RTS) fulfill public interest stipulated by law.

Another aim is to establish to what extent PSBs fulfill their legal obligation to take care of socially vulnerable groups while meeting the needs for information of all parts of the society without discrimination.

Also, the research aims to show to what extent PSBs fulfill legal principles of work, such as the independence of editorial policy and other principles of independence from economic and political power centers.

The analysis is focused on several aspects of the news and information programmes: their thematic structure, the structure of actors whose activities and opinions are covered, and the level of professional engagement of journalists as authors of news stories.

The analysis of news and information programmes of public service broadcasters RTV and RTV includes their central news bulletins on the radio and television, daily information collage shows, debate shows and their morning programmes.

The research encompassed 24 weeks of the news programming – from the second half of January to the end of June in 2016.

The project is funded by the Open Society Foundation.

Read the full monitoring report in Serbian.