21. 12. 2011

Research on the Media Situation in Serbia

The Research on the national media situation for the purposes of the Project "Serbia 2011 - Report on the Media Situation based on CoE Indicators for Media in a Democracy", has been jointly implemented in the last few months by ANEM, NUNS, NDNV and Local Press. The starting point of the research methodology and the analysis of the collected material is the list of 27 Indicators of Council of Europe, representing fundamental European standards in the field of freedom of expression. These Indicators comprise an array of media and journalist freedoms guaranteed by or promoted in other CoE documents.

In the scope of this comprehensive research of the situation of the media in Serbia, ANEM and its partners in implementation of this project, NUNS, NDNV and Local Press, have collected data pertaining to media pluralism, privatization, circulation and audience, journalists and their social and economic situation, access to information of public importance, the functioning of public broadcasting services, the functioning of regulatory bodies for broadcast media and of the self-regulatory body for print media, violations of media freedom, legal proceedings against media and journalists, as well as against attackers on journalists, transparency of media ownership, ranking Serbia with regard to freedom of press, allocation of budget funds for the media, the revenues of media, etc. In addition, while conducting surveys with representatives of various groups, each association has collected a significant number of responses to the questionnaires from media owners and editors, representatives of minority media and minority communities, as well as representatives of political parties on the national, provincial and local level. Almost 40 in-depth interviews were conducted with relevant interlocutors from the media sector and competent bodies. The research also included the analysis of the current media-related legal framework and the application thereof in practice, along with the analysis of its compatibility with CoE standards stemming from Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. That part of the research was produced by ANEM's legal expert team (law office "Zivkovic&Samardzic" from Belgrade) and the Local Press team (Dragan Lazarevic Law Office, Kragujevac).

Expert consolidation and analysis of collected data and information is currently underway, which will demonstrate to what extent and in what manner each of the 27 indicators is being adhered to in the national media legislation and practice, namely to what extent is Serbia close to or far from European standards in the field of freedom of expression. The expert report on that topic will soon be presented and made available to the public.