The Strategy and the media in Southern Serbia

The media situation in Pcinjski District – the seven southernmost municipalities of Serbia – is much worse than in the rest of the country, especially considering the Media Strategy. Everything that the Media Strategy stands for is less represented in the South, and the problems in the media are much more serious.

The first and most significant characteristic of the local media scene reflects the general situation in Serbia, with more than 1.000 active media outlets. Most of them are electronic media outlets. The Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA) is the main culprit for this situation since it has issued too many broadcasting licenses. The District – which has 230,000 inhabitants and is among the poorest districts in Serbia, together with Toplicki and Jablanicki District – has 27 media outlets: 22 registered and five unregistered electronic media outlets. The fragile economy of the South cannot support this number. For example, the city of Vranje, which is the center of the district, has less than 20,000 employed inhabitants and 11 media outlets (two newspapers, a news agency, five radio stations and two TV stations), while Bujanovac, with only 5,000 employed persons, has seven media outlets (three newspapers, two radio stations and two TV stations). The media market is extremely small and shared among too many media outlets, which has resulted in the quality of media production being almost unacceptably low.

The second characteristic of the local media environment is the local self-government's attitude towards privatization. According to the Media Strategy, privatization is the first step that is necessary to solve numerous problems. Out of 27 media outlets, 16 are privately-owned, but since the beginning of privatization the ownership structure has been changed only in Radio Gold from Surdulica. All other local self-governments have voiced their support to privatization, but in practice have firmly insisted that each municipality should have their own media outlets. In Pcinjski District, taxpayers finance no less than 11 media outlets. The weekly magazine Perspektiva from Bujanovac depends only on local self-government and the Ministry of Culture, while Nacional is a media outlet of the National Council of Albanians. There is close connection between local self-governments and five radio stations (Vranje, Bujanovac, Presevo, Vladicin Han and Bosilegrad) and three TV stations (Vranje, Bujanovac, Presevo). At the same time, the founder of the Radio Iskon from Vranje is the Eparchy of Vranje, which is – in a way – financed by citizens. Local self-governments have identified their own political interest with the public interest – contrary to the principles of the Strategy – and they do not intend to privatize the existing electronic media any time soon. This can be said of the regional Radio Vranje and regional TV Vranje; local radio stations Bujanovac, Presevo, Vladicin Han and Bosilegrad; and TV stations Bujanovac and Preševo.

These circumstances have led to the third characteristic of the media scene in Southern Serbia: unequal economic position of media outlets in the market. Due to this, there is only 30 employees in private media outlets out of 120 media workers, and their economic position is unequal. While local self-governments in almost 90 percent of Serbian municipalities more or less support all of their media outlets, private media outlets in this region have been neglected by local self-governments. Media outlets that are controlled by local self-governments receive all the money from the budget that is allocated to the media in Vranje, Vladicin Han and Bosilegrad. In Bujanovac and Presevo, the situation is slightly different. Due to these circumstances, salaries of media employees in the regime's media outlets range from 250 to 500 euros, while the salaries of private sector employees range from 100 to 250 euros. In this context, achievement of high quality of media content is absolutely impossible. The programme of the media consists of announcements, press conferences, authorized interviews... The editors of news, shows and programmes are often presidents of municipalities, and sometimes local political leaders. In this way, they finance their private and political interests from the pockets of citizens. The media are almost completely separated from the public interest.

The situation in this district shows us why the Media Strategy insists on the principle that all media outlets must participate in the market under equal conditions, and that the existing financing of the media has to be replaced by project-based financing, especially if we take into account the fact that local self-governments are legally obliged to inform the taxpayers about their activities.

Radoman Iric

About the authors

MC Newsletter, July 1, 2011