The elections

Media Center Belgrade offers reports and graphical representations of the results of the research conducted during the pre-election period, as a part of its Resource Center for Journalists – Elections 2012. The Research List shows authors and time periods.
(MC, 26.04.2012)

For the first time in the South East Europe, at the moment when Serbia is deciding its future, in cooperation with its partners, the Media Center will collect and analyse data and report on the public opinion on the Internet regarding the elections in Serbia, it was pointed out at the presentation of the project "The Election Night", dedicated to monitoring of results of the May 6 elections. The vice president of the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS), Dragan Janjic, said that information from polls will be delivered to the Media Center in real time and commented by experts. The web editor of the Media Center, Vesna Opavsky, announced that the website mc.rs would offer updated reports about the public opinion during the election night and the complete election process, as well as their comparison with CeSID's preliminary reports taken from the Internet.
(Pravda, 04.05.2012)

During the election campaign, most of the influential media in Serbia turned into a propaganda tool of political parties and failed to serve and inform the citizens. Aside from this, the media mostly reported in favor of the ruling coalition – this is the result of the analysis performed by the Bureau of Social Research. According to the research, in almost all of the media the electoral list of Boris Tadic was the most dominant. At the same time, the coalition led by the Democratic Party (DS) was more frequently depicted in favourable light in the media. The research also showed that the appearance of Boris Tadic on the programme "News with Ivan Ivanovic" aired on TV Prva on April 27 constituted a drastic violation of the General Mandatory Instruction issued by the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA), which stipulated that candidates cannot appear in entertainment programmes during the campaign.
(Pravda, 03.05.2012)

The "Strong Serbia Movement – Bogoljub Karic" (PSS) demanded that the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA) forbid the campaign videos made by the Democratic Party (DS) in which the president of PSS, Bogoljub Karic was depicted as a criminal, which constituted a gross violation of the presumption of innocence.
(Pravda,UNS, 27.04.2012)

The Council of the Republic Broadcasting Agency warned all broadcasters to observe the pre-election silence on the day of elections.
(RRA, Beta, 27.04.2012, Pravda, 28.04.2012)

The Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) protested yesterday the decision of the management of TV B92 and TV Prva to stop airing the media reports of SNS "without any reason, justification or legal basis, on orders from the Democratic Party (DS)". The vice president of the Main Board of SNS, Nebojsa Stefanovic, said that it was frightening that RRA became a tool of the DS. "It was expected that the RRA would side with the regime. Everyone who thought that the RRA was an institution independent from the Serbian government has been proven wrong", said Stefanovic.
(Vecernje Novosti, Politika, 29.04.2012, Pravda, 02.05.2012)

The Council of the Republic Broadcasting Agency ordered the broadcasters to immediately stop airing all election content containing accusations against someone if such claims had not been previously verified. The Council began proceedings against TV B92, TV Pink and TV Prva because they had broadcast such content.
(Kurir, 29.04.2012)

The election campaign video produced by the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), which shows the presidential candidate of the electoral list "The Choice for Better Life" and the leader of the Democratic Party (DS), Boris Tadic, and a part of his interview given to the Croatian Television, was the subject of a debate yesterday. The SNS claimed that the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA) had banned the video, while the RRA said that it had not banned airing of any of the political parties' promotional videos, but that it had only "reminded the broadcasters of their obligations in accordance with the Law on Advertising".
(Blic, 02.05.2012)

During the election campaign, most of the media outlets gave up on their role of watchdogs, i.e. providers of analytical and critical reporting. However, the daily newspaper Danas is an exception to this, because it offered unbiased reporting to citizens, says the third report by the Bureau of Social Research (BIRODI), which conducts monitoring of media reports about the the current campaign in cooperation with the Slovak organization MEMO 98. This conclusion pertains to the period April 15-27.
(Danas, 03.05.2012)

In a poll about the election campaign, most of the analysts said that the media had allowed politicians to present their viewpoints. Marketing issues and political pressure have led the media to adopt the policy of non-confrontation.
(Pravda, 03.05.2012)

Around 19.15, the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA) temporarily suspended the programme of Studio B and four other cable television channels – HRT, OBN and BN – because of violation of the rules related to pre-election silence. At 20.00, when the pre-election silence ended, the stations were allowed to continue broadcasting their programme.
(Pravda, Dnevnik, Alo!, Blic, Vecernje Novosti, NUNS, UNS, 07.05.2012)

The deputy president of the Council of the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA), Goran Karadzic, said that the Agency intended to examine the cases of violation of pre-election silence on some of the domestic television channels. "Harmful consequences of violations of the pre-election silence were eliminated as soon as they appeared and there is no need for any urgent procedure with regard to sanctions against broadcasters."
(RTV, NUNS, 07.05.2012, Pravda, 08.05.2012)

At a session held today, the Council of the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA) reviewed the election campaign in the electronic media between the announcement of elections and the beginning of the pre-election silence. The Council decided to make available an interpretation of the Article 16 that is obligatory for broadcasters. The interpretation has been published on the web site of the RRA.
(RRA, 07.05.2012)

A clarification of the General Mandatory Directive on Conduct of Broadcasters During Election Campaign offered by the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA) was adopted at yesterday's session of the Council of RRA. It says that advertising videos made by political parties are not allowed "to manipulate public statements and announcements with the aim to change their basic meaning, since that would constitute a violation of the principles of truthfulness and completeness of the advertising message."
(Danas, NUNS, 08.05.2012)

The dean of the Faculty of Culture and the Media, Dr Milivoje Pavlovic, says: "It has turned out that instead of investigative journalism we have sycophantic journalism. There is also a new phenomenon – sycophantic analysts."
(Alo!, 07.05.2012)

Appraisals, awards, training courses and competitions

Photographs of this year's international competition, Beta Photograph of the Year, are available on Facebook, where visitors can vote for the best photograph. Facebook voting page is here.
(Beta, NUNS, 27.04.2012)

The editor of photography of the weekly magazine Press, Igor Pavicevic, won the second prize at the Eulex international contest for the best photograph from Kosovo and Metohija.
(Press, UNS, 03.05.2012, Press, 04.05.2012)

The recipients of this year's awards for investigative journalism are:

• In the category of electronic media – Milos Teodorovic for his radio report on houses of the movement "1389" in the north of Kosovo
• In the category of the print media – Nikola Lazic for his series of articles about money laundering by Darko Saric in Vranje
• In the category of the internet media – Bojana Jovanovic, Stevan Dojcinovic and Mahir Sahinovic for their series of articles on laundering of money of Darko Saric in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The awards were presented by the US Ambassador Mary Warlick, the president of the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS), Vukasin Obradovic, and the dean of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Zoran Popovic. After the award ceremony, Vukasin Obradovic said that "institutions are hiring a large number of people in an attempt to present their own version of the truth to the public", and added that such circumstances made the work of investigative journalists more difficult, but that this field of journalism was necessary despite that. US Ambassador Mary Warlick pointed out that the USA would continue to assist the independent media with the aim to ensure unbiased informing of citizens. "In 15 years, the USA has invested 40 million dollars in media projects in Serbia", she said.
(NUNS, 03.05.2012, B92 online, UNS, 04.05.2012)

Correspondent for the news agency SRNA, Slobodan Kovacevic, is the winner of the journalistic award "Petar Davidovic". The award is given by the Novi Sad Fair for continued reporting on and promotion of events taking place at the Novi Sad Fair.
(Press, 04.05.2012)

Journalist Jelena Spasic from Nis is the recipient of the "Zora" award for media freedom given by the Journalists' Association of Serbia (UNS) to celebrate the World Press Freedom Day. In the last year, as a correspondent for newspaper "Gradjanski Nacionalni" from Novi Sad, Jelena Spasic wrote an exclusive report from the National Parliament of Serbia entitled "State Institutions Are Fully Unprepared for War", after whose publication she and her editor, Milorad Bojovic, became the victims of state repression.
(Blic, Pravda, 04.05.2012)

An informal group of citizens, "Smile to Subotica", with its project proposal entitled "Save Subotica", is the recipient of the first prize of the public contest "Improvement of Communication Between Citizens and Government Institutions via Internet".
(savesubotica.org, NUNS, 26.04.2012)

On Thursday, 3 May, the conference entitled "Invest in Serbia", organized by the economic daily newspaper "Privredni Pregled", will be held in the Media Center Belgrade. (Pregled, 30.04.2012)
An one-day training course for journalists, dedicated to reporting on economy, will take place on Tuesday, 22 May 2012 between 10.00 and 15.00 at the Media Center Belgrade. The course will allow participants to improve their skills or gain new ones. The contact person is Snezana Petrovic, spetrovic@mc.rs 011/ 3349 541, 063/ 406 931
(MC, 09.05.2012)

Media visits

Veteran journalists from the Journalists' Association of Serbia (UNS) visited yesterday the old building of the Headquarters of the Army of Serbia. Today the building is used by the Army Security Agency. The UNS veterans also visited the small museum of the Army Security Agency.
(UNS, 26.04.2012)

The media audience

TV Pink was the best-rated commercial television in April, according to the most recent data from the ratings research agency AGB Nielsen. Radio-Television Serbia (RTS) has held the first position among all media companies for seven years, while TV Pink is the leader on the list of best-rated commercial televisions. TV Prva has not been able to remove Pink from this position despite the fierce media war that began when TV Prva was bought by a Greek media magnate two years ago. TV Prva holds the third position, which previously used to be held by TV B92.
(Blic, 04.05.2012)

On Sunday, 6 May 2012, Radio-Television Serbia (RTS), TV Prva, TV Pink and TV B92 were the best-rated televisions. According to estimates of the television ratings research agency AGB Nielsen, using all parameters, RTS was rated best. Considering the average number of viewers in the period between 20.00 and a few minutes after midnight, RTS 1 had 749,563 viewers, followed by TV Pink (339,576), TV Prva (327,198) and TV B92 (261,156). Considering the total number of individuals that watched at least one minute of the pre-election programme. Using this parameter, RTS had the largest number of viewers (more than 3.1 million), followed by TV B92 with slightly more than 2 million, as well as TV Prva and TV Pink (with slightly more and slightly less than 1.9 million viewers, respectively). The viewers exhibited less interest in the results of the elections in comparison with the previous elections held on 11 May 2008, as evidenced by the fact that the number of viewers during the election night in 2008 was smaller than the number of viewers of special programmes aired on Sunday, 6 May, according to data from the research agency AGB Nielsen.
(Vecernje Novosti, 09.05.2012)

Anniversaries

"Alo!" celebrates the publication of its 1500th issue today!
(Alo!, NUNS, UNS, 26.04.2012)

On the World Press Freedom Day, 3 May 1999, NATO bombed and practically destroyed the building of Radio-Television Serbia – Television Novi Sad. Today it is a part of the Public Service Broadcaster of Vojvodina, which is still leasing its business premises. The International Press Institute (IPI) said today, on the occasion of the World Press Freedom Day, that the year of 2012 could be the most deadly year for journalists in the last decade and a half. IPI, with headquarters in Vienna, began registering deaths of journalists and as of 30 April of this year has registered 43 deaths of journalists worldwide who died while doing their job.
(RTV online, UNS, 03.05.2012)

Other news

On Monday, 30 April, TV stations in the region will broadcast the last of the five programmes from the series "The Environment" ("Okruzenje"), the first regional talk-show realized by the European Balkans Fund and the Center for Democracy and Reconciliation in the South East Europe. The subject of the fifth programme is the life of young people in the Balkans. The previous programmes covered the following topics: prejudices; how to survive; the media; and the influence of the major powers on the countries in the region.
(Danas, 30.04.2012)

In Memoriam

A long-time correspondent of daily newspaper Politika from Kragujevac, Dragic Lazic, was buried today at the Varosko Cemetary in Kragujevac. Lazic graduated journalism from the Faculty of Journalism and began his career in the newspaper Svetlost from Kragujevac. He later began working for Radio Kragujevac. During most of his 30 year-long career he worked for Politika.
(UNS, 03.05.2012, Politika, 04.05.2012)

Milica Krstanovic passed away on 7 May in Belgrade after a serious illness. She worked in the humanitarian organization Norwegian People's Aid in Belgrade. The organization has supported dozens of media projects and numerous editorial teams – from the local to the national level.
(NUNS, 09.05.2012)