The media in Serbia are facing a drop in advertising revenue since the beginning of the global economic crisis in 2008, and a new wave of the crisis might make the survival in the market even more difficult. This is the conclusion reached by the participants of a three-day seminar entitled "The Transition from Traditional to New Media Channels" held on the Kopaonik mountain last week. The Seminar was organized by the non-governmental organization Integration Now! and supported by the Embassy of the USA in Belgrade. Michelle Foster, a media consultant from Washington, pointed out that the Serbian market was specific because of the fact that almost one thousand media companies operate in a small-sized market. Apart from the drop in advertising revenue caused by the crisis, the traditional media platforms – the press, radio and television – are threatened by the Internet and mobile telephony, which constitute new forms of distribution of news and entertainment content and are gaining new audience and attracting increasing profits.
(Fonet, Danas, UNS, NUNS, 14.11.2011)

The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), the Journalists' Association of Serbia (UNS), the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS) and Local Press demand that the Government of Serbia reject the proposal of Radio-Television Serbia (RTS) and the Republic Agency for Telecommunication (RATEL), which suggested that the RTS' unpaid obligations related to usage of electronic frequencies should be written off. The media and journalistic associations point out that the Government of Serbia, if it accepts the proposal, would violate not only the Law on Broadcasting and the Law on Electronic Communication, which stipulate the obligation to pay these fees, but also its own commitments from the recently adopted Media Strategy. The RTS has not only used the state's broadcasting infrastructure for years without paying any fees and without a contract, but it has also leased it and kept the money earned in this way instead of paying it back to the state budget, despite the fact that the state is its owner.
(Joint statement by ANEM-a, UNS-a, NUNS-a, NDNV-a and Local Press 11.11.2011, Fonet, Beta, Politika, Kurir, Pravda, Danas ,12.11.2011)

Snjezana Milivojevic: "The main source of media financing is the state. Through various forms of advertising, the state gives around 15 million euros to the media each year, while between 21 and 25 million is channeled via public contests and various types of state assistance. The annual advertising budget of Telekom Srbija, which is a publicly-owned company, amounts to 30 million euros. If we take into account other public companies and the fact that the RTS is also financed by the state budget, it becomes obvious that the revenue which is related to the state in any way is almost equal to the amount of money that is earned from the advertising agencies".
(Danas - Vikend, UNS, 12.11.2011)

Broadcasting of the programme of Radio Fokus was interrupted on Friday, November 11, because the station had failed to pay its debt to the Public Company Emisiona Tehnika i Veze (ETV). The station's debt towards ETV since the beginning of the year exceeds 5.5 million dinars. The announcement of the company said that the director of the station had asked its technicans to completely uninstall and remove transmitters, "which indicates their unwillingness to repay the debt and that we will be forced to ask for a protection from court".
(Danas, Pravda, UNS, NUNS, 15.11.2011)

A local television station, TV Valjevo, has stopped broadcasting its programme in the SBB cable network after the sale of the largest part of its equipment for the sum of 250,000 dinars in order to pay salaries to some of its employees. At a public auction, held on Friday in accordance with court orders awarded to three former employees of TV Valjevo, most of the equipment was purchased by the owner of the regional station TV AS from Sabac while a part of it was sold to the owner of the newly lauched cable TV channel in Ub. "Out of 16 employees, only five of us have remained. We are waiting for bankruptcy proceedings", says TVA, which has not aired any news programme since January 20.
(Pregled, UNS, NUNS, 21.11.2011, Pravda, NUNS, 23.11.2011)

Most of the electronic and print media outlets have recently reported – citing information from the Privatization Agency – that the privatization of A.D. Svetlost from Kragujevac had been annulled and that the sale contract with a three-member consortium which purchased Svetlost at an auction held in the spring of 2007 was terminated. Despite this information, the weekly magazine Svetlost appeared again on newsstands in Kragujevac this week. The legal notice on the pages of the newspaper still says that it is published by A.D. Svetlost and lists the names of all members of the editorial office of the newspaper who have been striking since the beginning of the year and who have not entered the newspaper's offices for months.
(Danas, NUNS, UNS, 14.11.2011)

Biljana Jovanovic, the editor and presenter of the programme "The Notepad" and a student of the Machine Engineering High School, is the only member of the Roma population in RTV Raska. Her program aimed at the national minority has delayed the privatization of the TV station and allowed 35 employees to keep their jobs. The Roma population in the Raska District is not numerous. Trnavska Reka and Kucevski Lug have around 700 Roma citizens. Since 2008, when the privatization of the radio and TV station was postponed until further notice, a new programme schedule has been created with programmes in Roma language. Journalists had literally searched for and found Biljana Jovanovic in the high school and offered her cooperation. After being offered a job in TV Raska, her only condition was that her business obligations be reconciled with her schooling. 35 employees have retained their jobs. Biljana receives a salary in the amount of 5,000 dinars a month.
(rts.rs, UNS, 23.11.2011)