Politička nezavisnost medija i novi medijski zakoni: implikacije na demokratiju u Srbiji
Political Independence of Media and New Media Laws: Implications for Democracy in Serbia

Summary/Abstract: Relevant analytical reports in recent years estimate very high risks for the political independence of the media in Serbia and for their editorial autonomy, which are consistently among the highest in Europe (Bleyer-Simon, 2023; Milutinović, 2024). Intensive political influence in the media sector is mainly exercised through economic conditioning, through the mechanisms of state advertising and project co-financing of the media. In addition, after 20 years, the state legalized its return to media ownership with the latest regulatory changes, at the same time missing the opportunity to prescribe adequate and comprehensive guarantees of media editorial independence. Therefore, in this paper, we analyse the certain changes to the media legislation in 2023, from the point of view of their compliance with the goals defined in the Media Strategy (2020), which dealt with the improvement of the professional and democratic functions of the media. We conclude that, in the current political environment of competitive authoritarianism, the legal return of the state to media ownership can be interpreted as a new threat to media pluralism and to the democratic public.

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