Professional standards

Aiming to offer as adequate information about political parties' campaigns, programs and candidates, as well as electoral procedures and everything related to the elections, the Media Center Belgrade, with support from the Fund for an Open Society, has launched the Resource Center web platform, which allows journalists and citizens access to relevant and high-quality information about election campaign, the elections, the results of elections, and post-election activities. The project "Resource Center for Journalists – Reporting on Elections 2012" by Media Center is being realized with support from the Fund for an Open Society and the Open Society Institute.
(MC, 20.04.2012)

Journalist Tatjana Aleksic says in an article published by the MC Resource Center: "There are several important locations for journalists during the election night. The Republic Electoral Commission (RIK), the Center for Free Elections and Democracy (CeSID) and headquarters of political parties. Each party will organize monitoring of election results. Political parties will have their representatives at the polls, which will allow them access to the same information as the official institutions. When it comes to results announced by political parties during first few hours, caution is warranted. CeSID has created a representative sample that reflects the Serbian electorate, on the basis of which it is possible to establish the voting results. During the last several elections, CeSID was the first to announce the winners. In Serbia, they have not been incorrect.
(MC, 23.04.2012)

During the election campaign, public service broadcasters are not allowed to earn money by airing time slots paid by political parties, while commercial broadcasters are free to decide whether political candidates and their electoral lists are worthy of their space. "Regardless of whether we are talking about commercial or public service broadcasters, they are obliged to ensure equal representation of electoral lists of all political parties", reports daily newspaper Politika.
(Politika, NUNS, 11.04.2012)

Analysis of the airtime dedicated to political parties and their presidential candidates in main news programmes of RTS1 and TV Pink on Wednesday, 11 April shows that the first position was held by the electoral list "For Better Life – Boris Tadic", followed by the electoral list of the coalition led by the Serbian Progressive Party, while the third position was held by "Cedomir Jovanovic – The Reversal".
(Danas – special supplement, 13.04.2012)

In the last week, most of the airtime on RTS1, TV B92 and TV Pink was dedicated to representatives of the coalition lead by the Democratic Party (DS), which had 35 percent more airspace than the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) and the third-positioned coalition led by the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). Ilija Vucevic from the agency Kliping points out that during the last week, RTS and Pink dedicated almost 70 minutes to elections during their main news programmes, while B92 dedicated only 30.5 minutes. Most of the news aired by RTS and TV Pink reported on the campaign of the electoral list "For Better Life – Boris Tadic", while B92 gave most of its airspace to DSS. The only list among those confirmed by the Republic Electoral Commission that has not been given any airtime was SVM.
(Danas – special supplement, 16.04.2012)

Folk music has found its place on TV B92: programme entitled "Night TV Project" has been included in the station's programme.
(24 sata, 17.04.2012, NUNS, 18.04.2012)

Media reports during the election campaign has predominantly positive, and in many cases even promotional character, shows the media research conducted by the Bureau for Social Research (BIRODI) during the period April 1 – April 14. During this time, the media mostly refrained from exercising their watchdog role i.e. any critical or analytical reporting, and acted only as conveyors of information about activities of political parties and their candidates. The exceptions were public service broadcasters RTS and TV Vojvodina, as well as commercial broadcaster TV B92 and the daily newspaper Danas.
(Beta, Autonomija, NDNV, NUNS, 19.04.2012, Danas – special supplement, Pravda, UNS, 20.04.2012, Danas, 21.04.2012)

During the current election campaign, the media has not performed their fundamental social role of acting as a watchdog – this is the conclusion reached by the participants of the round table on monitoring of the electoral process in Serbia. Participants of the discussion held in the Media Center Belgrade and organized by USAID, IREX and OSCE agreed that the main change from the previous campaign was the fact that the media, faced with the economic crisis, was forced to be servile in order to ensure its financial survival.
(Pravda, 21.04.2012,Danas, UNS, 23.04.2012)

The Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) has submitted a complaint to the Council of the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA) against TV Pink, "which has openly sided with the Democratic Party (DS) and grossly violated the Law on Broadcasting and the Mandatory Directive of the RRA". "TV Pink aired a report on the award presented to the vice president of DS, Dragan Djilas, by himself, without any mention of the response from the opposition. This is not the first time that the DS candidate was favored in such a way", says SNS.
(Danas – special supplement, 11.04.2012)

The Council of the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA), rejected as unfounded the complaint filed by the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and related to the reporting of TV Pink during the election campaign.
(Beta, NDNV, 12.04.2012, Danas – special supplement, 13.04.2012)

The Council of the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA) reviewed the report, made by the monitoring team, tagging as inappropriate the video authored by the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina (LSV) and aired on TV Pink yesterday. The video mentions Slobodan Milosevic and Vojislav Kostunica, while the leader of the party, Nenad Canak, talks about the privatization of NIS. The RRA has ordered all broadcasters not to air the video. LSV says that it is "shocked" by the RRA's decision, and especially because the Agency had found the critique of harmful privatization to be inappropriate.
(RRA, E-novine, 17.04.2012, NUNS, Dnevnik, autonomija.info,18.04.2012, Danas – special supplement, 21.04.2012)

The vice president of the Council of the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA), Goran Karadzic, announced that the Council would consider today the proposal that the latest video made by the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina (LSV) be banned from airing. Karadzic told the news agency Beta that the latest video was the cause for complaint, just like the two previous LSV videos. He said that a citizens from Novi Sad had submitted a complaint because he believed that the video, depicting the leader of LSV Nenad Canak playing the song from the Second World War "The Young Woman from Vojvodina", constitutes "incitement to terrorism and war". RRA banned the first video made by LSV from being broadcast further – the one that describes "the sale of NIS for pittance and demands compensation for the citizens of Vojvodina".
(Danas, Vecernje Novosti, 25.04.2012)

The Movement "Dveri" sent a letter to the leader of the coalition "Let's Move Serbia Forward", Tomislav Nikolic, because they had – in their words – become the subject of reports aired by the media that is "undoubtedly under the control of the coalition led by Nikolic". The Movement "Dveri" asked Nikolic tho explain who stands behind the "media lynching campaign" targeting the movement. The letter specifies the daily newspaper Pravda, television station Svet Plus Infor and Radio Fokus.
(Tanjug, Politika, 21.04.2012)

As of Wednesday, April 25, Radio-Television Serbia (RTS) will violate the General Mandatory Directive issued by the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA). On that day, RTS will begin broadcasting a re-run of the series "Grlom u Jagode" whose main character is played by actor Branko Cvejic, who is also a candidate of the Democratic Party for a deputy of the National Parliament of Serbia.
(Pravda, 21.04.2012)

Opening the conference on the media of the diaspora in the premises of the Ministry in Belgrade, the Minister of Religion and Diaspora, Srdjan Sreckovic, said that a joint action of Serbia, the diaspora and Serbs in the region could change the negative perception of Serbia that is now dominant. He called on the media from Serbia to give the diaspora media – for free or for a nominal fee – all the necessary information and content whenever such a move would not jeopardize their commercial interest. Representatives of UNS and NUNS pointed out that they were willing to assist media outlets from the diaspora.
(Beta, NUNS, 12.04.2012)

TV B92, which used to rely on its news programme, looks more like TV Pink and TV Prva today – says an article published by daily newspaper Blic. It seems that the situation culminated when the programme "The Daily Magazine" featured folk singers – which was their first appearance on TV B92. The programme also offered several inappropriate jokes about the Roma, as well as few lascivious remarks about sportsmen. The editor of the programme, Marina Seizovic, explained that TV B92 "produces programme for its viewers and brings people that the viewers want to see on TV". She agrees that the programme of TV B92 has changed in the recent period.
(Blic, UNS, 18.04.2012)

TV B92, which used to be an urban TV station, has produced and aired new programmes featuring the worst turbo-folk screaming from the nineties of the last century, which is only a logical outcome of the years-long erosion of the station's values and its commercialization – says E-Novine. The station's PR head, Saska Beric, said that it was the policy of B92 not to comment on its programmes.
(e-Novine, 18.04.2012)

Web portal E-Novine says: "Reporting on the offer of Bulgaria to give citizenship to Goranis from Kosovo and Albania citizenship and financial benefits, the website of B92 posted a properly signed photograph of Budapest. The editor warned of the monstrous intention of the Bulgarian administration ('Bulgaria abuses its status of EU member to advance the longtime policy of assimilation of other nationalities') and illustrated its article with a photograph of a grotesquely huge building of the Romanian Parliament and a caption reading: 'Bucharest offers Goranis citizenship'."
(e-Novine, 19.04.2012)

Branka Otasevic, a journalist with the daily newspaper Politika, says in an article: "Pragmatic changes in the programmes of certain TV stations are still being perceived as a surprise. Recently, such reactions have come as a result of new programmes aired by TV B92: 'The Evening Show' and 'The Daily Magazine'. It is interesting to note that the main trigger for this reaction and cries about 'jeopardized image' of TV B92 were not the shallow show-business nature of these programmes, but the appearance of folk singers on the programme of this 'urban' TV station".
(Politika, 22.04.2012)

Journalist Ljubomir Vujisic says in an article published by the daily newspaper Politika: "I rarely watch television because TV hosts poke their finger at my eye – and they keep doing it in these pre-election programmes! This should be the basic rule of good manners. I remember an appearance of Mr. Djilas in a TV programme, when he told the TV host: 'Please stop waving your hands at me, I don't want to talk like that!' TV hosts often use wrong accents and wrong forms of certain countable nouns, like 'kilometer'. They should first read the primary school Grammar of Serbian Language and the Orthography of Serbian Language so that they could pronounce words correctly in the programme aired by public service broadcasters."
(Politika, 21.04.2012)

Press statement issued by TV B92 says: "Since the series did not begin airing at the announced time due to misunderstanding between the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA) and B92 with regard to the mandatory directive, the journalistic team of 'The Insider' did not want to begin airing the series now, during the last stage of the election campaign. For all these reasons, 'The Insider' will be on-air on Tuesday, May 22."
(B92 online, UNS, NUNS, 20.04.2012)

After numerous warnings to TV Zupa and TV Aleksandrovac, the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA) and the Republic Agency for Electronic Communication (RATEL) ordered the stations to be cut off from the cable distribution network "Kopernikus". Some of the citizens and opposition political parties in the city of Zupa are satisfied with the decision. They had complained because of the "inappropriate one and a half month-long reality show authored by Jugoslav Stajkovac". They had also complained because "the president of the municipality vulgarly attacked on TV Zupa and TV Aleksandrovac his political opponents, the Government of Serbia and ministers".
(Blic, 23.04.2012)

Assessments, awards, training courses and competitions

The ongoing election campaign obliges media professionals and political parties to ensure objective and professional informing of voters. A training course for journalists, most of all those who are reporting on elections for the first time, was held in the premises of the Media Center Belgrade as a part of the project "Resource Center for Journalists – Reporting on Elections 2012".
(MC, 18.04.2012)

The Central European Initiative (CEI), in cooperation with SEEMO has launched a Call for Proposals for the 2012 Award for Outstanding Merits in Investigative Journalism. The Call for Proposals and Application Form is available at: www.ceinet.org / www.seemo.org . Previous award recipients were: Drago Hedl, Croatia (2008); Besar Likmeta, Albania (2009); Adrian Mogos, Romania (2010); and Wlodzmierz Kalicki, Poland (2011).
(SEEMO, 12.04.2012)

The Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS), in cooperation with the American Embassy in Belgrade, organizes a three-day seminar entitled "New Media, New Challenges". The seminar will take place in Belgrade, in the premises of NUNS (28/II Resavska Street) in the period May 14-May 16, 2012. American media expert, Professor William Silcock, who teaches journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, will lecture at the seminar.
(NUNS, NDNV, 18.04.2012)

A major regional conference organized by ABC Croatia will present leading advertisers, publishers and agencies from Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina via eight expert lectures and two panels. The conference will take place on June 4, 2012 at the Hotel Regent Esplanade in Zagreb.
(ABC Newsletter, 17.04.2012)

The general director of the media company "Ringier Axel Springer Serbia", Jelena Drakulic, is the recipient of the Award "Kapetan Misa Anastasijevic" in the category "Social Responsibility and the Quality of Management in the Media".
(Blic online, UNS, Alo!, 20.04.2012)

The Journalists' Association of Serbia (UNS) and Media Art have announced a series of one-day workshops intended for those who are preparing for or making first steps in the media. Workshops will be held in Belgrade and Novi Sad, and some of them will be available online (with the possibility of active participation via Skype). Additional information is available from phone numbers 021 427 462, 064 18 10 376, or email tanja.prodanov@mediart.org.
(UNS, 20.04.2012)

Due to the large number of nominated works, the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS) has decided to respond positively to the request of the jury and extend the deadline for publication of the list of the works nominated for the award for investigative journalism. This year, the number of submitted works is almost double the number of such works in the previous year, which had already been a record-breaking year.
(NUNS, 20.04.2012)

In the first round of voting, the jury for the annual Award for Investigative Journalism of the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS) has selected three nominated works in each of the three categories: the electronic media; the print media; and the online media. The winning works will be announced at the award ceremony to be held on the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade on May 3 at 19.00.
(CINS, NUNS, 23.04.2012)

The editor-in-chief and the editor of educational and science programme of TV Metropolis, Ljubica Urosevic, participated in the International Conference on Popularization of Science in the Media that was held in Florence recently. Representatives of Greece, Turkey, Croatia, Macedonia and Montenegro participated in the conference. It has turned out that Serbia has the most visible results and the longest tradition (the Science Programme Section of RTS has been in existence for 45 years).
(Vecernje Novosti, Politika, UNS, NUNS, 24.04.12)

UniCredit Bank Serbia announced today that the public contest for the journalistic award "Writing for Central and Eastern Europe (CIE) 2012" will be open until July 31. Application documents are available at the website: www.apa.at/cee-award.
(Beta, 23.04.2012)

This year, the traditional regional October Media Summit, organized by ABC for the last three years, will be dedicated to regional cooperation. Aside from leaders of press publishers, who are the traditional participants in the Summit, this year the state representatives in the field of information of the countries in the region will be invited to participate in the event.
(ABC Newsletter, 17.04.2012)

Media visits

Members of the Club of Veteran Journalists of the Journalists' Association of Serbia visited yesterday the National Bank of Serbia. They will soon visit the Headquarters of the Army of Serbia as well.
(UNS, 12.04.2012)

The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Protection of Personal Data Rodoljub Sabic and the Protector of Citizens Aleksandar Jankovic visited the Media Association. Their hosts were the editors-in-chief and directors of media companies that are members of the Media Association.
(ASMEDI, april, 2012)

The media audience

In the last four years, around 3000 news and multimedia items have been published on the website of the Journalists' Association of Serbia (UNS) in the last four years. The communication department of UNS made around 2000 news, announcements and audio and video items, while other information about journalists and the media have been posted on the website via other media outlets.
(UNS, 08.04.2012)

Small local media outlets belong to the growing group of market research users. In cooperation with IREX and USAID, ABC Serbia has begun introducing local print media outlets in the audit. The aim of the project is to allow local print media outlets to become visible in the system the brings together all relevant representatives of the media sector, which would make them relevant for advertisers and advertising agencies. Data about the sales of 17 local publications will be available on the website of ABC immediately after the initial revision in the beginning of May and will cover the period 1 September 2011 – end of March 2012.
(ABC Newsletter, 17.04.2012)

Only a year after its launch, the Belgrade magazine "Vodic za Zivot" has already become one of the most-read Serbian magazines, according to the research and rating list made by "Ipsos Strategic Marketing", it was published on the magazine's website.
(Tanjug, UNS, 20.04.2012)

Anniversaries

Veteran journalists of the Journalists' Association of Serbia celebrate the 125th anniversary of the birth of Milica Jakovljevic, Serbian writer and journalist. She began her journalistic career in the daily newspaper Vecernje Novosti, after which she worked for Nedeljne Ilustracije.
(UNS, 12.04.2012)

In Memoriam

Search for truth was the defining characteristic of the life of Verica Barac, the president of the Anti-Corruption Council of the Government of Serbia, said today the president of the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS), Vukasin Obradovic. At a commemorative event dedicated to Verica Barac, held in Belgrade, Obradovic said that the media were often her only ally, the one that made her job easier by giving their pages and airspace to her numerous battles.
(Danas, NUNS, NDNV, 12.04.2012, Kurir, Dnevnik, 13.04.2012)