February 3. 2025
The ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) has issued a statement in which it dubbed as scandalous the coverage of the student and citizen protests in Novi Sad by public service broadcaster Radio-Television of Serbia (RTS).
RTS aired a five-minute report on the Novi Sad protest in its news bulletin. Drone footage of the protest was also presented for the first time in RTS’s reporting, enabling viewers to see just how many citizens were gathered.
The RTS report included no commentary, with only two journalists reporting from the scene and the statements of several students included, after which it broadcast the statements of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and outgoing Prime Minister Miloš Vučević, which lasted several minutes.
“Those who are supposed to represent a public service for the citizens of Serbia are the roughest, siding with politicians who want to destroy the constitutional order of Serbia, violate all codes of journalistic ethics and grossly abuse the profession of journalism,” added the SNS statement.
The Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (NUNS/IJAS) gave its full support to “liberating the informative programming of the public service broadcaster from the illegal influence of the current government, which is disastrous in terms of freedom of expression”.
