Media Scene

Home / Media Scene / In Focus

28. 02. 2014

CHASING MANDATES AND COUNTING SECONDS

28.2.2014 (Večernje novosti, By I.M.) - During the election race political parties are fighting for every second on television and they complain with the same ardour against unequal representation in certain broadcast media.

The largest number of complaints to the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RBA) came from Dveri. RBA confirmed that Dveri is the least represented political actor in news programs and specialized election programs.

Dveri announced a protest in front of the Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) for tomorrow at 5 pm "due to discrimination in public appearance". On behalf of this lists, Vladan Glisic sent letters to all national televisions asking them to correct the injustice.

RBA labeled TV Palma Plus as a broadcaster which wronged all political actors in the election campaing, except the list SPS-JS-PUPS. According to Goran Karadzic, deputy president of the RBA's Council, the list SPS-JS-PUPS got almost 80% of time of all the time allotted to political parties on this television so far in the election campaign.

- Representatives of TV Palma Plus gave their statements to RBA and promised to correct the irregularity, said Karadzic.

- We can talk about fines only when the campaign is over.

On the other hand, the founder of TV Palma Plus and leader of JS Dragan Markovic Palma said that he is in favor of respecting the law and that his television is trying hard to give equal representation to political parties:

- I am constantly criticized for various issues. If we are such a problem, let them turn us off.

In order to document whether a television favored certain parties, RBA diligently analyzes all pre-election broadcast programs.

Progressives Lead

The analysis of the first month of the campaign showed that the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) is the most represented in the news programs of national televisions, except on Radio Television of Serbia 1 (RTS 1) where another political actor leads in the sum of time devoted to parties in news programs - the list of Boris Tadić. However, in the central news the list of Aleksandar Vucic leads by several minutes.