MEDIJI U SRBIJI SLOBODNI I OSLOBOĐENI
MEDIA IN SERBIA FREE AND LIBERATED

Author(s): Mirjana Todorović, Stjepan Gredelj
Subject(s): Civil Society, Communication studies, Government/Political systems, Electoral systems
Published by: CeSID
Keywords: Serbia; Elections
Summary/Abstract: For the last thirteen years, media freedom has been one of the key demands that the opposition at the time (and the current government) constantly put before Slobodan Milosevic. Implied in these demands was the freedom of the so-called state media, which were under the direct patronage of the (party) state. Alongside them, another group of media, 'independent' of that patronage, persisted and tried to provide citizens with objective information. However, these media were exposed to multiple obstacles, starting with financial inequality (state monopoly on the availability and prices of roto-paper, different for the 'advantaged' and 'disadvantaged', limiting access to distribution networks, limiting circulation, fiscal burdens with strict price regulation and tax on remittances for 'independents' and fiscal relief for the 'eligible'), through the voluntarist extralegal monopoly over natural resources (radio and TV frequency distribution), all the way to open paralegal repression, through the infamous Law on Public Information, as a transparent form of stifling 'unsolicited' media.

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