After Serbia’s Electronic Media Regulatory Agency (REM) allocated four national TV frequencies to pro-government channels, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) slammed them for non-compliance with the law and asked they respect the right to pluralistic news when allocating a new, fifth frequency.
Serbia currently ranks Serbia is ranked 79th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2022 World Press Freedom Index, and it continues to grapple with government interference and control and a lack of support for independent media.
“Serbian media landscape is polluted by propaganda, influence peddling and fake news, a scourge that plagues the entire Balkans as Serbia’s TV channels are also broadcast in neighbouring countries,” said Pavol Szalai, the head of RSF’s European Union and Balkans desk.
“It is vital for the right to information and media pluralism in Serbia and beyond that the REM applies the law that is in effect and assigns the fifth national frequency to a media that can guarantee editorial independence and journalistic ethics more credibly than the four current licence holders.”
A press release from RF noted the “crassness of these influential TV channels and the regulator’s readiness to ignore their excesses” including the conduct of Pink TV owner Zeljko Mitrovic and a YouTube blogger Bogdan Ilic who criticised the former. Mitrovic and then produced a documentary to smear his critic, accusing him of “criminal acts”, “homosexual practices”, paedophillia and spreading STDs.
Aside from defaming Ilic, Pink TV also broke the law by misusing a national frequency to satisfy the personal interests of its owner, the think-tank BIRODI pointed out, RSF reported. The organisation highlighted this was just the latest example of impunity for the channel which does not recieve any sanctions from authorities and Pink TVs license continues to be reviewed.
“The only hope of seeing an independent TV channel on the national airwaves now lies in the promised new fifth frequency – a long-standing project in Serbia – the tender for which will open on 11 October,” RSF note.
