{"id":23784,"date":"2019-08-29T23:41:53","date_gmt":"2019-08-29T21:41:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/?p=23784"},"modified":"2024-05-21T16:55:42","modified_gmt":"2024-05-21T14:55:42","slug":"rems-secret-report-televisions-before-elections-served-to-vucic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/rems-secret-report-televisions-before-elections-served-to-vucic\/","title":{"rendered":"REM\u2019s Secret Report: Televisions before Elections Served to Vu\u010di\u0107"},"content":{"rendered":"

The villagers of \u010cipulji\u0107, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, observed with curiosity the entourage that visited their village in April 2016. Well into the campaign for the upcoming election, then prime minister and now Serbian president, Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107, <\/strong>dropped by the area his family hails from, all the while followed by cameras of free-to-air TV Prva<\/em>. Talking to his relatives, neighbors and childhood friends, Prva TV <\/em>presented the event to viewers in Serbia as a romanticized, almost half-hour show about Vu\u010di\u0107\u2019s life from an early age and about his family.<\/p>

Parliamentary, provincial and local elections were held late that month, with Vu\u010di\u0107\u2019s party scoring a landslide victory. Vu\u010di\u0107\u2019s dominant presence in Serbian media between March 4 and April 21 certainly played a part in that success. However, those who oversaw the work of the media during those days refused to reveal what they had learned.<\/p>

Nearly all free-to-air televisions broadcast shows, both regular and special ones, which largely promoted Vu\u010di\u0107. So B92 <\/em>broadcast a show called Intervju<\/em> (Interview), where the guests were Vu\u010di\u0107, Humanitarian Law Center <\/em>Director Nata\u0161a Kandi\u0107 <\/strong>and journalist Dejan Anastasijevi\u0107<\/strong>. No opposition representative was given an opportunity to appear on B92 <\/em>in this way.<\/p>

The show \u0106irilica <\/em>(Cyrillic), hosted on another free-to-air Happy TV, <\/em>dedicated just under five and a half hours to Vu\u010di\u0107 and the election ticket he spearheaded, out of the total 11 hours of the show.<\/p>

It should be noted that Happy TV<\/em>, as the Cenzolovka<\/em> website reported, that year broadcast Serbian Progressive Party<\/em> advertisements for close to a month. However, eventually the party claimed that it had not commissioned those ads. That left Happy TV<\/em> without roughly 500,000 euros, while the police could not determine who had ordered the ads for the SNS.<\/span><\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Representatives of the other five tickets had almost the same amount of time combined. On Pink TV <\/em>shows Vu\u010di\u0107\u2019s ticket had even more of an advantage. It was given more than half of all airtime, i.e. more than five hours. On the other hand, 20 minutes was devoted to the strongest opponent – Democratic Party<\/em> (DS).<\/p>

Media associations, non-governmental organizations and the opposition throughout the campaign pointed out Vu\u010di\u0107\u2019s media omnipresence and eagerly awaited the report by the state-owned Regulatory Authority of Electronic Media<\/em> (REM), which was to confirm that. Over the last several years, REM has regularly monitored the conduct of broadcasters during campaigns and in subsequent reports pointed to the favoring of mainly the ruling parties. Monitoring is also important to REM so that it can launch proceedings against the televisions that have violated the law, without limiting itself to reports by others.<\/p>

However, after polling states closed and after the winner was announced, REM decided to end its multiannual practice of presenting reports on the oversight of media service providers during an election campaign, which instantly caused public suspicion that the Serbian Progressive Party<\/em> (SNS) and Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107 had been favored to such an extent that someone had to stop the report from being published.<\/p>

Despite the fact that CINS publicized a portion of the report pertaining to advertising<\/a>, according to the Independent Journalists\u2019 Association of Serbia<\/em> REM officially denied the very existence of the report. Nevertheless, Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia <\/em>(CINS) journalists managed to obtain the report in possession of this institution.<\/p>

It shows how the most popular national broadcasters, free-to-air televisions, promoted the ruling party and its leader, in some cases giving them as much as fourfold more time than to the opposition.<\/p>

News about Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107<\/strong><\/h2>

REM\u2019s services found that in the period between March 4 and April 21 the election ticket headed by Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107 got six hours and 25 minutes \u2013 i.e. nearly a third of the total time given to the candidates \u2013 in central news programs, whereas the opposition Democratic Party (DS) got two hours and 46 minutes.<\/p>