Strategy for the Development of the Media System of Serbia (2020-2025) and Its Implementation

The research "Strategy for the Development of the Media System of Serbia (2020-2025) and Its Implementation: Insights, Attitudes, and Proposals from Media Workers" was conducted as part of the project "Strengthening Media Capacity for Media Sector Reform in Serbia," supported by the European Commission and carried out by media and journalism associations.

The aim was to collect data through questionnaires, focus groups, and in-depth interviews, and to explore them quantitatively and qualitatively in order to gain a better understanding of the attitudes of media workers in Serbia towards the content of the current Media Strategy and the process of its implementation. We designed the research to encourage professionals to provide concrete proposals that could enhance media reforms and to participate more actively in them.

The results of the research are extensive, complex, and layered, yet the main trends can be relatively easily identified.

Media workers in Serbia generally have very low trust in institutions and believe that strategic documents and changes to laws and subordinate legislation cannot significantly alter the media system and practice in the country. On the other hand, they support and generally highly value the solutions contained in the Media Strategy, though they are skeptical about whether these can be realized in practice as intended and achieve the expected effects. They believe that politics entirely dictates the media landscape, and that this influence will not be relinquished anytime soon. Therefore, they particularly emphasize the importance of those measures from the strategic document that pertain to the field of self-regulation, understood in the broadest sense, meaning activities that can improve the quality of media offerings without or with minimal involvement of state authorities. This includes various forms of education.

Not only the distrust in institutions but also – related to that – the prolonged and arduous processes of developing the Media Strategy and its delayed and controversial application have led professionals to rate their knowledge of the document, its alignment process, and its implementation relatively low. It is clearly observed that those with more relevant knowledge are more dissatisfied with the application of the strategic document, which is not surprising given the delays and the current expectation (the beginning of public discussion on the drafts of the Law on Public Information and Media and the Law on Electronic Media) that some of the key strategic measures will, unfortunately, not be included in the new media legislation.

It is also clear from the research that journalistic and media associations found themselves in a difficult position throughout the process. On one hand, their task is to participate in the development of important media documents, while on the other hand, their active role in these processes has caused some apprehension among those members who, as mentioned, have low trust in both institutions and institutional processes.

Indeed, if the assumption is realized that media laws and their solutions will render the Media Strategy meaningless, the question of the purpose of the immense, multi-year energy expended by associations during the document alignment process and their subsequent involvement in drafting the Law on Public Information and Media arises. Nevertheless, it can be said that the attitudes of media workers regarding the solutions within it indicate that a relatively good official government act has been produced, which, at the very least, the media community can refer to, and which may fully come to life in the future.

Despite the distrust in institutions and institutional processes, media workers and experts, by actively participating in the research, proposed numerous solutions and presented ideas that can benefit both associations and decision-makers in the upcoming period. Out of a total of 255 media workers, 181 completed the complex and extensive questionnaire, and these respondents left as many as 1,490 comments, in which they clarified their attitudes or presented ideas. We paid significant attention to their comments. We would like to thank everyone for their participation and contribution to the research.

The complete analysis is available at this link.

This publication was published with the financial support of the European Union. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the authors, the Local Press Association, and partners and does not necessarily reflect the official views of the European Union.