Professional standards

What was the history of newspapers like Nacional, Kurir, Balkan, Internacional, Srpski Nacional, Alo!, Centar, Pres, Gazeta, Sutra, Ekskluziv, Skandal, and why Politika and Danas are the only serious newspapers that have remained in the market? These are only some of the questions answered in the last, eighth episode of the documentary series "The Media in Serbia: The Chronicles of Ruination", authored by Slavisa Lekic.
(Politika, 20.07.2012)

In the eighth episode of the series aired on RTV Vojvodina on 20 July 2012, the president of the Journalists' Association of Serbia (UNS) was accused on the basis of false claims of "editing Politika in a manner unprecedented since the time of the notorious Hadzi Dragan Antic". RTV has apologized to Ljiljana Smajlovic for untruths published in the series authored by Slavisa Lekic.
(RTV, UNS, 30.07.2012)

The Complaints Committee of the Press Council held a session on 26 July 2012 at which it unanimously decided that by publishing the article entitled "Psychiatric Patient Commits Suicide" on 23 June 2012, the daily newspaper Blic violated the Serbian Code of Journalism, specifically the article VI, points 1 and 2, which stipulate that journalists have to "respect privacy, dignity and integrity of people they report on" and that "journalists and editors have to avoid speculations and reporting of opinions while reporting on accidents and tragedies with fatalities or serious damage to property and other interests of citizens". The daily newspaper Blic is obliged to publish the decision of the Committee.
(Blic, NUNS, 01.08.2012)

Awards, training courses and competitions

The World Press Photo exhibition, featuring the works made by the winners of the annual competition in journalistic photography, was opened yesterday in the Youth Cultural Center. The unique traveling exhibition is being organized by the World Press Photo Foundation, an independent and non-profit organization headquartered in Amsterdam, where it was founded in 1955.
(Danas, 21.07.2012)

The media audience

Print editions of newspapers in Serbia have suffered from diminishing circulation because of the development of the Internet and mobile phones. In the last few years, the number of sold copies of print media outlets has been on the decrease while, on the other hand, the number of visitors of web sites has dramatically increased. According to information from the Statistics Agency, in the last year no less than 64 percent of internet users in Serbia read online newspapers and magazines.
(Danas, 19.07.2012)

According to the auditing of sold copies of magazines in Serbia in May 2012, Color Press Group holds no less than 13 positions on the list of most-sold magazines. The first position is still held by the magazine Posalji Recept ("Send a Recipe") which sold 267,000 copies in May 2012. The magazine has the highest circulation in Serbia and the region (including the competition from daily newspapers as well). The second place is held by the magazine Torte i Kolaci ("Cakes and Biscuits"), which has become a monthly magazine (with circulation of about 190,000), while the Skandal is positioned at the fourth place with 79,000 sold copies. The fifth place is held by the magazine Dobra Hrana ("Good Food") with 71,000 copies. Positions 7-15 were held in May by the following magazines: Svet, Lepota i zdravlje, Bravo, TV Novele, Hello!, Top Zdravlje, Zena i Zdravlje, Cveće u Domu and JOY.
(ASMEDI, juli 2012)

In the recent years, the number of sold copies of daily and weekly newspapers has been on the decrease, many of them have been closed down, while the audience is turning to the Internet in increasing numbers. In Serbia, a system of small payments that would allow access to media content does not exist. Some of the media outlets offer an increasing amount of free content, while more extensive coverage is offered in print. The president of the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS), Vukasin Obradovic, says that he supports "a degree of protection of content on the internet". The media can protect themselves from the Internet by not trying to compete in immediacy of offered information, since that race cannot be won. In his words, the media need a different, analytical and investigative approach to journalism and should strive to analyze the information that has already been placed on the Internet. The deputy editor-in-chief of the weekly magazine NIN, Mirko Mlakar, said to the daily newspaper Danas that every media content should be paid for because it has its own value. He added that the Internet was only a platform for distribution of media content.
(Danas, 27.07.2012)

Media transfers

Journalistic stars from Radio-Television Serbia (RTS), Olivera Jovicevic and Olivera Kovacevic, renowned for their political TV shows "Upitnik" ("The Question Mark") and "Da, Mozda, Ne" ("Yes, Maybe, No"), will appear in a new programme format. Between August 13 and September 1 they will alternately host the Morning Programme of the national public service broadcaster.
(Press, UNS, 20.07.2012)

Anniversaries

The only free daily newspaper in Serbia, 24 Sata, celebrated the publication of their 1500th issue. The first issue was published on 9 September 2007. Today, the newspaper has the largest number of readers among daily newspapers in Belgrade and Novi Sad. According to the latest results, during the week of 9-15 July, the newspaper had an average number of 381,000 readers a day.
(ASMEDI, juli 2012)

The 16,000th issue of Privredni Pregled was published today, which is a unique example among the editorial offices in Serbia and the Balkans. Thanks to professional reporting and diverse content, the newspaper has gained credibility and a large number of readers with a wide ranging education, age and social status. During the last 89 years, generations of journalists have written the economic history of Serbia, former Yugoslavia and the Balkans in more than 400,000 pages. The first issue of Privredni Pregled was published on March 4, 1923.
(Pregled, UNS, 26.07.2012)

In Memoriam

Veroslava Jancic, the oldest Serbian journalist and a member of the Journalists' Association of Serbia, passed away in Belgrade at the age of 98. She began working for Nova Makedonija in Skoplje in 1957, while in the period 1963-1976 she was a journalist with and editor of Borba. She wrote articles and edited series of articles. She also worked as a translator and spke French, Italian, German, English and Russian languages. After her retirement, she wrote articles for Politika and NIN. She wrote her last article at the age of 93.
(UNS, 24.07.2012, Beta, Blic, Danas, 25.07.2012)

Dragan Colovic, a former editor of the foreign policy section of Radio Belgrade and years-long member of the Journalists' Association of Serbia (UNS), Dragan Colovic, passed away tonigh at the age of 75. He spent his entire career working for Radio Belgrade.
(UNS, RTS, Kurir, Glassrbije, naslovi, hercegovinainfo, e-novine, vesti, 20.07.2012.)