Professional standards

Coalition for Access to Justice condemned the article written by the editor of the daily newspaper Politika about the stealing of copper cables, calling it openly racist. The organization demands that the newspaper apologize to the Roma population and remove the article from its website. The Coalition says that the journalist, Ozren Milanovic, described the Roma population as engaged exclusively in stealing, and that it is scandalous that the newspaper Politika, which is in majority ownership of the state, published an article that incites hatred and discrimination against the Roma. The Coalition for Access to Justice is comprised of: the Center for Advancement of Legal Study, Civil Rights Defenders, CHRIS – the Network of Committees for Human Rights in Serbia, the Humanitarian Law Centre, the Youth Initiative for Human Rights, the Independent Journalists' Association of Vojvodina (NUNS), the Sandzak Committee for Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms, and Praxis.
(Beta, NUNS, NDNV, 19.03.2012)

Of all the print media outlets in Serbia, the daily newspaper Danas has published the largest number of reports on the forthcoming local, provincial and parliamentary elections during the first five days of the election campaign – this is the result of media monitoring conducted by the agency Kliping. The agency's analysis shows that the Democratic Party (DS) was most frequently mentioned in the press and on television among all political parties, while it was also the most frequent topic on Twitter as well. The second place is held by the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). With regard to individuals, Boris Tadic was most frequently mentioned in all three media forms. On Twiter, he is followed by Vojislav Seselj, while the second most frequently mentioned individual in the traditional media is Ivica Dacic. "Parliamentary parties are mostly equally represented in the media, with the exception of DS, which had up to 30 percent more media space than the political parties SNS, SPS, LDP, URS, SRS and DSS", explains a political analyst with the agency Kliping, Ilija Vucicevic.
(Danas – special supplement, UNS, NUNS, 21.03.2012)

The Republic Broadcasting Agency ordered TV B92 to stop broadcasting the popular TV series "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" at 20.00 and broadcast it much later, at 23.45, because of "graphic scenes of violence and sex".
(Press, 25.03.2012)

In comparison with the year of 2010, the reporting of domestic media outlets about Serbian integration with the EU in 2011 was more balances and offered more EU-related topics, but they were mostly result of protocolary motives instead of interest of citizens, shows the research conducted by BBC Media Action. In this period, the number of media reports about the EU increased by 44 percent, but they mostly featured government officials, while only eight percent of media reports offered popular opinion.
(Danas - Vikend, 17.03.2012)

Ivan Medenica writes: "Before Spaic's reform, the magazine NIN had a section dedicated to critique in various artistic fields – novels, poetry, essays, classical music, film, rock music, theater, ballet/dancing, visual arts, architecture, comics – unlike all other domestic print or electronic media outlets. What is the situation today? Articles are still being published about most of these fields, but texts are placed below huge photographs from concerts or performances and colored boxes with numerical ratings. The tendency to shorten art critiques and consequently change its essence is not only evident in NIN and the Serbian media in general, but has unfortunately become a global media phenomenon in today's anti-intellectual world."
(Politika, 17.03.2012)

Documentary film created by the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, "Women Who Killed Their Tormentors", will have its premiere today at a screening for journalist in the Media Center Belgrade.
(Danas, 21.03.2012)

Estimates, awards, training courses and competitions

The Center for Training of Ground Forces in Pozarevac was visited by a group of 15 journalists. The visit was organized by the Belgrade Center for Security Policy, as a part of the two-day training entitled "Responsible Reporting for More Equal Security".
(Danas - Branicevo, 16.03.2012)

Hungarian journalistic award "Mihalj Tancic" was given by a Hungarian minister, Miklos Rethelji, to the retired bishop of Zrenjanin, Laslo Huzvar, the founder and editor of the religious magazine "Hitelet". Similarly, during the ceremony marking the Day of Hungarian Press, the vice president of the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians, Zoltan Devavari, gave the annual journalistic award – established by the Devavary family – to Jene Fiser, publicist and journalist with the newspaper Magyar Szo.
(Magyar szo, NDNV, 16.03.2012)

As part of the BETA Photograph of the Year competition, SEEMO, calls for the submission of entries for its 2012 SEEMO Human Rights Photo Award. All professional photojournalists working and taking photographs in South East and Central Europe are eligible to participate. The closing date for submissions is 22 April 2012. All awards will be presented during the inaugural exhibition of selected works, which will take place in the New Moment Gallery in Belgrade, Serbia, on 17 May 2012, at 6 p.m. The terms of the competition are posted at www.betafotokonkurs.com.
(SEEMO, 19.03.2012)

Retired journalist with the newspaper Nedeljne Novine from Backa Palanka and long-time contributor working for the news agency Tanjug, Pera Dosen, received yesterday the lifetime achievement award "Svetozar Miletic" from the president of the Journalists' Association of Serbia (UNS) – the Association of Journalists of Vojvodina, Petar Curcija. The "Jasa Tomic" award was given to the long-time journalists from Odzak, Slobodan Miric, who now works as a correspondent for newspaper Vecernje Novosti from the same municipality, while the award "Dimitrije Frusic" was delivered to journalist from Radio Novi Sad, Ljubenko Zvizdic. The award named after one of the founders of Novine Serbske was given to the founder of "Ars Akademija", Zeljko Savic. The jury selected the editor of the social-economic section of the biweekly magazine Poljoprivrednik from Novi Sad, Kosta Rajevic, as the recipient of the award "Dr Peter Drezgic".
(Dnevnik, 24.03.2012)

The Journalists' Association of Serbia (UNS) has invited interested journalists from the local media, as well as freelance journalists, to attend the school of video journalism. Applications should be sent to email address videonovinar@uns.org.rs, not later than Thursday, 29 March.
(UNS, 26.03.2012)

A Reuters agency photojournalist, Goran Tomasevic, is this year's winner of the UNS award for journalism without borders. The award is given to mark March 27, the Day of Serbian Journalists, and was established to celebrate the publication of first Serbian language newspaper in Vienna on 27 March 1791. Goran Tomasevic was the photojournalist of the year of the Reuters agency in 2003, 2005 and 2011. In 2008, he won the agency's award for the best photograph. He also received the Chinese award for international journalistic photography in 2004, as well as the award of the American National Association of Photojournalists for best photojournalism in the category of portraits and personalities. He is a three-time winner of the YU Press Photo award. In 2009, the Society of Publishers in Asia, located in Hong Kong, gave him the award for excellence in photojournalism.
(UNS, 26.03.2012, Beta, Politika, 24 sata, 27.03.2012)

Canal France International, in cooperation with with the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS) and the Embassy of France in Serbia, will organize an international seminar in Belgrade on 3-4 March 2012. The seminar is dedicated to the role of the new media in the Southeast Europe. The seminar will focus on the perspective of future integration of the region in the EU. The program of the Belgrade conference includes six round tables about information on the Internet, models of economic independence of the media, investigative journalism, web documentaries, legislation and the ethics of the new media, as well as citizens as source of information.
(e – Novine, NUNS, 22.03.2012)

The first recipient of the recently-established award, to be given each Apri 16 to celebrate the Day of the Municipality of Osecina, is Dragan Savic, a former contributor to Vecernje Novosti and correspondent of the Valjevo newspaper Napred and Radio Valjevo.
(Vecernje Novosti, 22.03.2012)

Media visits

The Minister of Environment, Mining and Spatial Planning, Oliver Dulic, visited the headquarters of the Media Association as a guest of editors-in-chief and directors of media companies that are members of the Association.
(ASMEDI NEWSLETTER, Mart 2012)

The media audience

60 percent of citizens are aware of the existence of the Law on Consumer Protection – this is the result of the research entitled "Consumer Awareness", presented on the Consumers' Day. No less than 75 percent of interviewed consumers cited Internet as their main source of information. When searching for information, they mostly use the Internet and visit web pages of organizations for protection of consumers.
(Danas, NUNS, 16.03.2012)

Info Local Media Group has applied eight of its publications to be audited: Zrenjaninac, NS Reporter, Suboticke Novine, Backopalanački Nedeljnik, Kikindske Novine, Vrsacka Kula, Nova Slobodna Rec (Vranjske novine) and Somborske Novine. All the publications will be audited as of September 2011.
(ABC Serbia Newsletter, 20.03.2012)

The management of the daily newspaper Politika announced on March 17 that it would withdraw two of its newspapers, Politika and Sportski Zurnal, from ABC auditing. Politika delivered its last report on the number of sold copies in the end of January 2012 – for December 2011.
(ABC Serbia Newsletter, 20.03.2012)

New rules for the election campaign of political parties have left the internet completely unregulated, which means that pre-election silence does not apply to it. The executive director of the Bureau of Social Research (BIRODI), Pavle Dimitrijevic, said that despite the fact that there are no rules that control the content published on web portals, BIRODI intends to analyze five web portals during the election campaign: B92, Press, Kurir, Mondo and S Media. BIRODI will monitor violations of the code of journalism, media laws, electoral laws, and the pre-election silence. The second issue relates to official websites of political parties which will, like billboards, remain open to political propaganda during the election. According to the research conducted by the web portal E-Izbori, the website of the Democratic Party (DS) has the largest number of visitors, but holds only the 586th position. DS is followed by the Liberal-Democratic Party (LDP) (810), the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) (1282) and the United Regions of Serbia (URS) (2229), while other parties have a much smaller number of visitors. Social networks offer much more possibilities to communicate with voters, resulting in much wider influence. However, it is important to note that media laws do not apply to social networks, which means that activism is allowed without any limitations. The URS has the largest number of "friends" on Facebook – almost 11,000. The URS is closely followed by DS, while other parties are far below these numbers. On the other side, DS, LDP and SNS are most active on Twitter.
(Tanjug, Dnevnik, 21.03.2012)

According to research conducted by the agency Kliping, the print media and television stations report on Dragan Djilas slightly more than about his main rival, Aleksandar Vucic. In the online media, on all monitored websites, Aleksandar Vucic has had almost 20 percent more posts than Dragan Djilas, while the difference was even bigger on Twitter: there have been 77 percent more posts about Vucic than about the current mayor. Regarding the electronic media, state-owned TV stations – RTS1 and Studio B – were the ones that dedicated most content to Dragan Djilas, while Aleksandar Vucic had most media content about him on private TV stations like B92 and RTV Pink, says the agency Kliping.
(Pravda, 23.03.2012)

During the first five days of the election campaign, the most often-mentioned terms on the Twitter network were the President of Serbia, Boris Tadic, the leader of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS), Vojislav Seselj, and the movement "Dveri, says the agency Kliping. Political parties PUPS, SPO, JS, SPS and NS had the smallest number of tweets mentioning them.
(Vecernje Novosti, 23.03.2012)

Anniversaries

Theodore Kyriakou, the owner of the Greek company "Antenna Group" and Serbian TV Prva, welcomed the attendees of the celebration organized in the Hyatt Regency Hotel to mark the two-year anniversary of successful operations in Serbia. The celebration was attended by the Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic, the Minister of Internal Affairs Ivica Dacic, the Minister of External Affairs Vuk Jeremic, and the Minister of Culture and Information Predrag Markovic. President Boris Tadic praised the success of "Antenna Group" in the Serbian market in his message: "You can count on my support and support of the government in your future investment".
(Kurir, NUNS, Politika, UNS, 15.03.2012)

The weekly magazine Kikindske celebrates today the publication of its 700th issue by organizing workshops about investigative and web journalism intended for young people from Kikinda, Novi Sad and Belgrade. During the rule of Slobodan Milosevic and while the oppressive Law on Information was in force, the newspaper was the most often punished local media outlet in Serbia, while its editor-in-chief, Zeljko Bodrozic, was the most drastically punished journalist and editor in Serbia.
(NDNV, 16.03.2012)

In Memoriam

NUNS says that Verica Barac, the president of the Anti-Corruption Council and honorary member of the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS), who has passed away, was one of the symbols of the fight against corruption in Serbia. "Verica Barac made an enormous contribution to democratization of the society, fighting relentlessly for the freedom of expression and information. At all times, the media and journalists had a reliable and courageous partner in Verica Barac", says the NUNS statement.
(NUNS, MC,19.03.2012)

The president of the Anti-Corruption Council of the Government of Serbia, Verica Barac, passed away after a long and serious illness. Verica Barac initiated numerous examinations of cases of corruption and was recognized by the public as one of the greatest fighters against corruption in Serbia.
(B92, Beta, Tanjug, NDNV, Politika online, UNS, 19.03.2012)

Report on Pressure and Control Over the Media in Serbia, made for the Government of Serbia, was the last report made by Verica Barac. Major media outlets in Serbia mostly ignored the Report, although it had exposed the hidden flow of dirty money between the government, tycoons and the media in Serbia. The Report, available on the website of the Journalists' Association of Serbia (UNS), reads like a crime novel, says Ljiljana Smajlovic, the president of the UNS.
(Nezavisne novine, UNS, 23.03.2012)