{"id":35584,"date":"2023-06-19T12:57:08","date_gmt":"2023-06-19T10:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/?p=35584"},"modified":"2023-08-29T21:35:07","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T19:35:07","slug":"how-vucic-got-out-of-a-refrigerator-and-saved-sns-millions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cins.rs\/en\/how-vucic-got-out-of-a-refrigerator-and-saved-sns-millions\/","title":{"rendered":"How Vu\u010di\u0107 Got out of a Refrigerator and Saved SNS Millions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three hours before the start of the pre-election silence in 2022, the program “Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107 \u2013 actions speak” began on Pink TV<\/em>. Serbia\u2019s President and leader of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107 entered Pink’s<\/em> studio straight from a refrigerator, holding a jar of pickles. For almost two full hours, during prime time, Vu\u010di\u0107 and his associates presented the “closing arguments” of their campaign.<\/p>

During this time, the words “paid promotion” appeared in the upper left corner of the screen on several occasions.<\/p>

In the previous two election cycles, the Serbian Progressive Party<\/em> had paid to appear on Pink<\/em> in slots that far exceeded the time permitted by the Law on Advertising. In fact, according to this law, any advertising on commercial television longer than 12 minutes during a period one hour is prohibited.<\/p>

Because of this, the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media<\/em> (REM) filed misdemeanor charges<\/a> against Pink, but it remains unknown why SNS continues doing the same.<\/p>

CINS\u2019s investigation reveals that, by buying time slots instead of regular promotional videos, the ruling party found a much cheaper way to advertise ahead of elections. SNS\u2019s savings thanks to this move amount to more than 2.8 million EUR (over 330 million RSD), according to the contracts, invoices and price lists obtained by CINS.<\/p>

The Anti-Corruption<\/em> Agency<\/em>, whose task is to monitor party financing, did not look into the prices at which advertising space was purchased during campaigns. On the other hand, experts on the financing of political parties have told CINS that the Agency<\/em> should have investigated this.<\/p>

Tamara Skrozza<\/strong>, member of the Complaints Commission of the Press Council<\/em>, points out that the purchasing of advertising space at preferential prices renders the democratic process meaningless.<\/p>

“Preferential advertising space during prime time is an indication that we have an unfair competition heading up to the election.”<\/p>

Skrozza also explains that due to the preferential price, people tend to passively start seeing those who spend more time on TV as the only possible option.<\/p>

Advertising space at a 75% discount<\/strong><\/h2>

In election times, parties mainly advertise on TV through promotional videos. They introduce themselves, their candidates and call on people to vote for them, and the duration of these videos is usually about one minute or less.<\/p>

Any advertising that lasts longer than 12 minutes during one hour is prohibited. This also includes so-called paid promotional slots \u2013 the time provided for the broadcast of party meetings, special shows and the like \u2013 which can last longer than an hour.<\/p>

However, SNS used them to a large extent during their self-promotion. During the 2020 and 2022 campaigns, they had a total of five and a half hours of paid promotional slots on TV Pink<\/em>, most of which were during prime time.<\/p>

Documents obtained by CINS reveal that the average price per second of these illegal promotional slots was 75% lower than the average price of regular advertisements. In this way, SNS managed to “save” over 2.8 million EUR on TV Pink<\/em> alone.<\/p>

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