19. 12. 2011

REGIME INTENSIFIES CONTROL

Belgrade, December 19, 2011 (Danas) - As the next elections are approaching, the situation on the Serbian political scene is becoming more intense by the day, especially after the indirect negative response to Serbia's EU candidacy and the events in Kosovo.

President of the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia Vukasin Obradovic told this daily that it was quite likely that with the approach of elections would increases the pressure on the media, "because our political elite continues to believe that the votes are obtained by a virtual reality offered through the TV screen and newspaper pages, and not by the reality in which we live".

President of Journalists' Association of Serbia (UNS) Ljiljana Smajlovic shares this opinion, saying that it was expected that the regime tightened its control over media in the election campaign. According to Smajlovic, "Verica Barac is right when she says that at this moment, when freedom of the media is concerned, we do not have the real conditions established for free elections".

Sasa Mirkovic, ANEM President, believes that Serbia is facing an unusual election campaign. He says that it has somehow already begun and that it will last for a long time. According to him, the media will be under enormous pressure and only rare will be able to resist pressures coming from all sides. Mirkovic added that there were already indications of grouping of media that would support certain political options, "as well as the grouping of financiers who will support the survival of the current or arrival of a new political option to power".

"I am sure there will be many twists and surprises, changes in the editorial direction and media camps", Mirkovic concluded.

Media hopes for a "financial injection"

Comparing the elections in 2008 and the ones that are coming, Sasa Mirkovic said that in the last election campaign was being run in the financial prosperity, while in the meantime, the economic crisis had deepened considerably, which was why "the media started to struggle, desperately seeking other sources of income". This is why the media is looking forward to the forthcoming elections, hoping to get a "financial boost" that will bring them back to life.