In the period from December 1, 2020, to January 31, 2021, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic was positively portrayed in the news program of television stations with the national frequency as much as 82.6 percent of the time, while not mentioning him in a negative context at all, the Bureau for social research (BIRODI) stated, Nova.rs reports.

According to the latest BIRODI research, in the period from December 1, 2020. To January 31, 2021, the central informative shows of the RTS, Pink, TV Prva, B92, Happy and N1 presented Vucic positively in as much as 82.6 percent of the time, in 12.3 percent of the air time he was presented neutrally and only in 5.1 percent of the time negatively. The President of Serbia was most represented in a positive tone on Pink TV with as much as 97.7 percent, followed by RTS with 91.1 percent, TV Prva and B92 with 91, Happy with 90 percent, while on N1 TV this percentage amounted only to 7.8 percent.

When it comes to negative portrayal, it is zero percent on all five television stations with a national frequency, while on N1 this percentage was 37.8.

During this period, the President of Serbia spoke mostly about topics related to the coronavirus (23.7 percent), foreign policy (11.8 percent), army and police (10.3 percent), infrastructure (8.6 percent) and the economy and foreign investments (8.2 percent).

It is interesting the president of the EU accession country spoke about the European integration process only 1.4 percent, almost as much as about sports (1.1 percent). Vucic spoke least about education and state administration and the public sector with zero percent, and culture with 0.4 percent.

The BIRODI CEO, Zoran Gavrilovic, said for Nova.rs portal that it is obvious that we have entered an informal presidential campaign.

„These results show that five televisions with a national frequency have become just a propaganda tool of the President of Serbia. This is the space and obligation of the REM to react, because such reporting violates the right of citizens guaranteed by Article 51 of the Serbian Constitution to objective, timely and accurate information. It violates the Law on Public Information, Article 15,“ Gavrilovic said.

According to BIRODI, he adds, former presidents of Serbia Boris Tadic and Tomislav Nikolic have never been presented in such a positive way.

„BIRODI conducted monitoring in 2012 as well, and the percentage of positive representation of Tadic in the election campaign was 72 percent, and Nikolic 66 percent. But we were in the official election campaign then. Vucic has taken over complete media domination since 2014, when he became prime minister. He is the central actor of the media. You don’t see anything else but him,“ Gavrilovic concluded.