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23 December 2000
Media Monitoring of the Parliamentary Election in the Republic of Serbia
Preliminary Report
The European Institute for the Media (EIM), in cooperation with the Strategic
Marketing & Media Research Institute and Media Center, has concluded the
media monitoring mission of the 2000 general election in the Republic of Serbia.
The project is part of a larger programme on media and democratic institutions
in central and eastern Europe, which is supported by the European Commission.
Until now the EIM has conducted more than 45 monitoring missions in CEE,
including previous missions in FR Yugoslavia, and CIS, .
The media monitoring comprised qualitative and quantitative strands of analysis
and focused on the Serbian media's compliance with the national regulations as
well as internationally accepted standards of the campaign coverage. The mission
sought to establish whether the political parties and candidates standing
election enjoyed unhindered access to the mass media in the campaign period and
received fair coverage. The mission also investigated whether the public could
make an informed choice through the media coverage of the election.
The quantitative monitoring was conducted between 13 and 20 December 2000
according to EIM's own methodology, and it focused on seven television
stations, two radio stations, five dailies and four weeklies in Belgrade as well
as several print media, radio and television stations in Leskovac, Kragujevac,
Kraljevo, Nis and Novi Sad. Professor Dr Jo Groebel (DE) acted as Head of the
mission, EIM project coordinator was Dr Elena Chernyavska (UA). Ms Ivana
Baranovic (HR) was EIM's media analyst. The qualitative analysis was conducted
by Mr Steve Crawshaw (UK) of the Independent, who acted as the EIM international
expert. Special thanks should go to Professor Srdjan Bogosavljevic for his
invaluable help to the mission. The EIM also expresses its gratitude to the IREX
- ProMedia Serbia for the assistance and sharing of the resources.
The conclusions and findings of the mission remain the sole responsibility of
the EIM and can in no way be taken to reflect the views or policies of the
European Commission.
General overview of the campaign and media-related regulation
The collapse of the previous regime on 5 October 2000, after mass protests
against the perceived theft of the Yugoslav federal and presidential elections,
and the resignation of Slobodan Milosevic, the Yugoslav president, meant that
the campaign for the 23d of December parliamentary election in the Republic of
Serbia has been different from any other election which the EIM monitored in the
country in recent years. No political parties have been excluded from the media
in the run-up to the poll, nor has there been any deliberate distotrion of
reality in the campaign coverage.
The campaign was in general cleanly fought. It was in many respects low-key,
probably because of a general exhaustion with politics after the dramas of thee
previous months. There was huge coverage on television, with several hours of
direct access programming daily. The coverage in the print media has also been
lively, ranging between 11 to 30 articles on the topic in every issue of the
monitored press. The parties themselves avoided too many setpiece events,
apparently not wishing to alienate voters who might already have had a surfeit
of mass meetings.
In the situation when some of the media organisations were previously strongly
loyal to the regime of Slobodan Milosevic, and whose journalists may be
over-eager to prove their new devotion to democracy, it was hopefully an
exception that a senior member of DOS publicly complained about the respected
cartoonist Corax in connection with one of his drawings in the daily Danas,
which was implicitly critical of President Kostunica. It is understandable that
the president and his advisers may disagree with the implied message. None the
less, it must be accepted as fair comment.
The Socialist party and JUL, their partner in the formerly ruling coalition,
have complained about their lack of access to the media. If this were the case,
it would certainly be worrying, especially after a number of fiercely
pro-Milosevic papers performed an overnight change of loyalty on October 5.
The team's impression, however, was that the SPS and JUL are, above all, in
shock that they no longer enjoy outright control. Independent journalists and
editors generally welcomed the fact that the SPS is now more ready to co-operate
than it was in the past. While most of the monitored media might have been
implicitly supportive of the new government coalition, it is good that the
pro-SPS newspaper 24 Hours has begun publishing.
The campaign coverage in the state media, i.e. on Radio-Television Serbia (RTS)
was regulated by the Law on Election (9 October 00) and the ensuing Rules of the
Election Coverage (13 November 00). According to the Law on Elections, all
parties running in the election had the right of coverage in the media (Art.
48), while the state-owned broadcaster was obliged to provide fair and objective
coverage to all parties. This framework painstakingly protected the parties'
interests and stipulated that the parties and the incumbent government as well
as representatives of the RTS should establish the rules of election coverage.
It also specified in great detail the types of election programming (Art. 2, 6),
leaving almost no leeway to the broadcaster. The rules expressely banned
libellous material and the material inciting racial, ethnic and religious hatred
(Art. 4). They also sought ot preclude undue advantage which may be given to
politicians and parties' functionaries in their public functions (Art. 5). The
Rules however did not allow any journalistic commentary or opinions on the
parties' campaign activities, i.e. criticism or commending of the parties'
candidates (Art. 5). A special Supervisory Board was established by the
Parliament according to the Law on Elections (Art. 99 - 100). Its task was
overseeing the media's compliance with the campaign regulations. While the Board
has done a remarkable job in following the media coverage and informing the
public of controversial cases, its mandate did not include any mechanism of
practical sanctions in cases of serious violations. It would also be advisable
to give such a function to a non-partisan body, equipped with full-time staff.
Campaign in the broadcast media
In the monitored period, all broadcast media in their general reporting focused
predominantly on the situation in southern Serbia and the administrative border
with Kosovo. The media extensively covered the foreign policies of the new
government. Of the campaign-related matters and internal politics, the broadcast
media focused on the DOS members who have public functions. Their coverage on
the monitored TV stations in Belgrade and Novi Sad amounted to 8,926 sec in a
positive context and 7,967 sec in a neutral context. In comparison, SPS
functionaries in public functions received 150 sec in a neutral context and 5
sec in a negative context; thus the SPS was almost absent from any coverage. The
cumulative time of appearance of the SPO affiliated public officials in a
neutral context was 5 sec. Considerable time was allocated to the coverage of
the activities of G17+ (2,438 sec in a positive context).
However, the team did not note any serious attempts to provide undue campaign
coverage to the incumbent government. Similarly, journalists abstained from
overtly positive or negative commentaries (cumulatively, five cases of an
overtly positive coverage of the DOS functionaries).
Radio and Television Serbia (RTS) has an overwhelming importance for the viewers
in the country. Its viewing figures have jumped from 55% before 5 October to
more than 75% now, partly due to its 'blanket' coverage, partly due to its
perceived authority.
While deliberate distortion in the RTS political coverage is now a thing of the
past, a number of important problems remain. Throughout the election broadcasts
on RTS, the main problem was not unfairness to any one political party, but
possibly 'exaggerated coverage'; through excessive direct-access electoral
programming. This appears not to have been the fault of the television editors,
but of the political parties themselves, who shaped the coverage. Nenad Ristic,
acting director of RTS, stated that he was dissatisfied with the Agreement. Four
to five hours of daily party messages failed to serve the main purpose: to
inform the voters of the existing political options, while they seemed likely to
alienate audiences from politics by the viewer-unfriendly format. This has
important implications. Voter alienation has been shown often to be linked with
low voter mobilisation for the parties in general and the growth of extremist
parties.
While Mr Ristic proposed in future that round-table discussions should be
shortened, the EIM team believes that the format for election debates should be
looked at very carefully. A strong case can be made for suggesting that an
independent body should be entrusted with the task of devising rules for
electoral programming, rather than allowing the parties to reach decisions.
Apart from direct access programmes, RTS, unlike other television stations, did
not cover the campaign in the news programmes. The news on RTS were dominated by
the situation in the south of Serbia and foreign activities of the new
government. It was also noted that RTS sometimes shied away from discussing
subjects potentially embarassing for the new government, i.e. power cuts, which
were covered by TV Politika and Studio B.
State functionaries affiliated to DOS received by far more attention than any
other party related functionaries (2,562 sec in a positive context and 2,237 sec
in aneutral context). Simialrly, the only two categories who received
substantial amount of soundbites on RTS were the DOS functionaries and G17. (The
DOS civil servants received 859 sec of soundbites in a positive context and 503
sec in a neutral context). Comparatively, the total time allocated to
SPO-affiliated officials was 5 sec and to the SPS-affiliated officials was 75
sec. The SPS and JUL were the only parties mentioned in a negative context.
Non-political advertising. Some of the advertising in the broadcast media, such
as spots for the new currency, had an obviously political message, implying that
economic stability has already been reached after only two months of the new
government. Advertisements by other ostensibly non-political organisations were
equally political in their subtext. Thus, the economic group G17 and Cesid, the
Centre for Free Elections and Democracy, were both closely involved in the
campaign to unseat the previous regime. In that sense, apart from any other
consideration, they can be clearly identified with the interests of DOS.
According to the Supervisory Board, RTS broke the electoral silence several
times, e.g. broadcast an item on one of the DOS leaders in Dnevnik 3 on 21
December, as well as broadcast a session of the Parliament.
BK Telecom in its political coverage leaned towards the DOS-affiliated officials
(865 sec in a neutral context compared 22 sec allocated to the SPS-affiliated
functionaries). Sometimes the broadcast items which presented the functionaries
in a positive news context abstained from providing essential details and asking
difficult questions (e.g. when reporting on M. Labus and potential access of FR
Yugoslavia to the EU, no realistic timeframe was mentioned, which can be
misleading for the electorate). BK Telecom was in breach of the electoral
silence and according to the Supervisory Board, rebroadcast a programme on the
election after midnight, 20 December.
Radio Belgrade, following the Rules of the Election Coverage, did not explicitly
mention the parties in the news coverage, however, there were cases of reports
on party leaders (e.g. Z. Djindjic, C. Jovanovic) in their public capacity,
which formally breached the Rules. Similarly to the other monitored broadcast
media, Radio Belgrade implicitly favoured the public officials affiliated to DOS
(2,781 sec).
Campaign in the printed media
In general terms, the monitored printed press favoured DOS and its functionaries
(through reports on the activities of V. Kostunica, G. Svilanovic, N. Covic), as
well as G17 (through the activities of M. Dinkic and M. Labus). On the other
hand, the activities of the SPO-related functionaries (S. Krunic) or SSDP (Y.
Lilic) were little or hardly at all mentioned. It should be noted, however, that
the print media were not directly regulated and thus managed to provide a
broader spectrum of coverage of the campaign, and to present the party
activities' as well as those of the public officials affiliated with the parties.
The Supervisory Board announced that the electoral silence was massively
breached, and that they would sue the daily Glas Javnosti and weeklies Nin and
Vreme for publishing the results' projections.
In the monitored period, Blic mostly positively covered the activities of DOS
and President Kostunica as well as activities of public officials affiliated
with DOS. These were predominantly covered in a positive context. Additionally,
Blic published the full programme of DOS in five instalments as editorial
material, rather than political advertising (as was the case with the JUL
election programme in Politika). Additionally, on the last day of campaign, the
daily published a 24-page supplement which focused on the financial
mismanagement of the previous government in an negative context. The
professional record of the former oppostion was not questioned.
In general terms among other parties, mostly the SPS and JUL received sustained
coverage, albeit in a negative context and with the negative presentation.
Vecernje Novosti experienced an astonishing transformation after the 5th of
October, although while several of the top management were removed, the
editorial staff remained the same. In a remarkable way, the former parties in
power and the former opposition are now covered in a totally changed modality,
with the former 'fifth column' receiving an ethusiastic support. DOS was covered
both as a coalition and in their public capacity, through the activities of V.
Kostunica, G. Svilanovic, N. Covic. G 17 was mostly mentioned in relation to the
activities of M. Dinkic and M Labus. The coverage mostly had a positive news
context, concerning the foreign aid, convertibility of the dinar, etc. It should
be noted however that on 20 December the paper presented all eight parties
running in the election on the cover page. The parties' programme summaries and
other relevant references were presented in a neutral context.
The debate among the media
The media in Serbia face a major transition. RTS moves from a state broadcast to
a public service broadcast. The EIM team also noted the ongoing debate among the
media which concerns the commercial stations versus the public-service stations.
The Association of Independent Electronic Media (Anem), in which B92 plays a
central role, expressed concern that its members may be excluded from
distribution of licences and frequencies, while radio and television stations
which occupy a privileged position in the status quo created during the
Milosevic era may be privileged. The EIM team believes that Anem's concerns
should be taken seriously. It would be worrying if quality broadcasting such as
B92 provides were to be squeezed out. Equally, however, the free market is
certain to provide jolts which will be unpleasant for some players. The
government must be aware of the need to make the playing field as level as
possible.
The team feels necessary to refer, albeit in passing, to a debate between Nenad
Cekic, founding editor of Radio Index, on the one hand, and Veran Matic and
others at Anem, on the other. Given that both B92 and Index have played an
honourable role in Serbia in recent years, it is a source of regret that these
accusations are now traded with such bitterness. Both sides acknowledge that
personality differences have played an important part.
Separately the team suggests that libel laws in FR Yugoslavia should be more
tightly framed. Given that rumours are frequently repeated as fact, the team
suggests that this is not appropriate way of doing journalistic business.
The question of foreign donations will also need to be further addressed.
Independent Serb media have in past years regularly received funds from abroad,
because of a widespread perception - which has underpinned the Institute's work
here -- that media can play a key role in building democracy in FR Yugoslavia.
Times are changing, and the subsidies cannot last indefinitely. Many argue,
however, that they still need funds at least in the short to medium term, while
the situation remains fragile.
Conclusions and recommendations
The EIM team remained optimistic that the vibrant media landscape which has
survived the difficult circumstances of the last years, will continue to develop.
It is important to note that despite certain drawbacks in the campaign coverage,
which are understandable in the circumstances of an abrupt societal change, no
deliberate distortion of the campaign was observed in the media, and all parties
had access to the media.
It should be however noted that the election coverage on the state media,
specifically on television, was inadequate to the task. The EIM believes that
there is room for improvement in the campaign related regulations, and that more
editorial freedom could be exercised in deciding on the format of coverage. That
would be conducive to the development of a more responsible and interesting
coverage, where the politicians are constantly asked difficult questions by
impartial journalists.
The EIM team believes that a public debate on regulation of the media and
subsequent establishment of a non-partisan and independent regulatory body would
address many current problems of the broadcastinbg sector, including frequency
distribution, quality programming and creation of a level playing field for all
outlets.
For more information, please contact:
in Belgrade, Elena Chernyavska
in Dusseldorf, Ljudmila von Berg
on tel.: +063 283 452
on tel.:+49 211 90 10 4-0
email: spaic@mediacenter.org.yu
email:madp@eim.org
The EIM is a policy-oriented non-profit non-governmental organisation based in
Dusseldorf/Germany & Paris/France. Its main areas of activities are
media-related research and advice to the international governmental and
non-governmental institutions.
Annex I List of graphs
·
The quantitative analysis presented below comprised monitoring news programmes
of RTS, BK Telecom, Radio Belgrade and Radio-Television Novi Sad.
·
The monitoring period on RTS included Dnevnik I (Radio Televizija Novi Sad) at
17:00 hrs, Dnevnik 2 at 19:30 hrs and Dnevnik 3 at 22:30 hrs.
·
The monitored programmes on BK Telecom included the daily Telefact programme at
18:55 hrs.
·
The monitored programmes on Radio Belgrade included the daily programme Vesti at
6:00 hrs and Novosti dana at 15:00 hrs.
Graph 1. RTS. All programmes: total time - context.
Graph 2. RTS. All programmes - soundbites.
Graph 3. Radio Belgrade. All programmes: total time - context.
Graph 4. BK. All programmes: total time - context.
Graph 5. Novi Sad TV. All programmes: total time - context
Graph 6. Blic. Total item size - context.
Graph 7. Vecernje Novosti. Total item size - context.
Annex 2. List of political parties and parties' functionaries
1.
SPS Socialist Party of Serbia
2.
SRS Serb Radical Party
3.
JUL Jugoslav Left
4.
SPO Serb Renewal Movement
5.
DOS Democratic Opposition of Serbia
6.
SSDP Serb Social-Democratic Party
7.
DSP Democratic Socialist Party
8.
SSJ Party of the Serb Unity
9.
G17+ an NGO, a broad group of experts which partly participates in the present
goverment
·
Public DOS members of DOS which appear in the media in the public function
·
Public SPS members of the SPS which appear in the media in their public function
·
Public SPO members of the SPO which appear in the media in their public function
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