Serbian media watchdog says more air time given to opposition

N1/ilustracija

A report on political pluralism by the Serbian Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM) said that all TV stations gave more air time to non-parliamentary parties in the second half of January before the election campaign began.

The January 16-31 report was presented at a meeting of the temporary election campaign media monitoring body. It said that there some differences were noted compared to earlier periods. REM official Srdjan Miljkovic told the meeting that the report noted a greater media presence for non-parliamentary parties. A large part of the opposition do not have seats in parliament because they boycotted the previous parliamentary elections. Miljkovic said that the state TV (RTS) gave those parties 17 percent more air time, reporting in a neutral manner.

The pro-regime TV Pink gave non-parliamentary parties 8.35 percent more air time but its reports were mainly negative, he said. According to the report, the pro-regime Prva TV gave those parties 22.35 percent more air time with mainly neutral reports.

It said that the reporting on N1 and Nova S was mainly critical of the authorities with N1 giving 19 percent of air time to those parties.