13. 06. 2013

FALSE IMAGE OF SERBIA

Belgrade, June 13, 2013 (Pregled) - Superficial and imprecise reports of media in Serbia on events in the region and the world are mainly justified with the lack of public interest for these topics. However, the researches show that the public is dissatisfied with the scope, selection and content of news coming from abroad, it was said yesterday at the conference "Real picture of the world".

The majority of participants agreed that this assessment is a result of political and financial influences on media, due to which they were turning more and more to the sensationalism.

Al Jazeera News Director Goran Milic said he believed that today's media were not for a bit worse than the ones before the wars in 1990s.

Director of the regional office of Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Belgrade Michael Erke said that for media in capitalism, which were struggling to survive, the most important goal was to get the attention of viewers and readers no matter how. Such trend has come down to, as Elke said, the affirmation of already existing prejudices of the public, without real investigative journalism taking place.

According to the associate of the Institute for Social Sciences Jovanka Matic, young and educated public thinks that the selection of news is just giving Serbia the exaggerated importance in the world and that there is no real picture of changes occurring at the international level.

British Ambassador in Belgrade Michael Davenport noted that the image of Serbia in the West was not as positive as it was 50 or 100 years ago, but it had managed to improve since 1990s. He also said that perception of the public could be altered and that it was up to Serbia to develop its brand based on reality, which was a great responsibility. In addition, the government must protect freedom of media and expression, Davenport concluded.