10. 10. 2005

SERBIAN PRESS FALLING INTO DECADENCE

BELGRADE, October 10, 2005 – The Belgrade Media Center’s Press Council presented a Declaration of a New System of Ethical Journalism in Serbia that called upon the professional associations of journalists in Serbia, the Serbian Culture Ministry, the editors-in-chief of all daily newspapers and weekly magazines, individual journalists and other media professionals to come together and reassert their commitment to democratic values and respect for standards and norms of ethics in the journalist profession. After having monitored the Serbian mass circulation daily newspapers and weekly newsmagazines for eight months, this independent research and analysis group severely condemned the racist, xenophobic, extremely nationalistic, slanderous, unethical, and unprofessional nature of the Serbian press. The results of the research clearly demonstrated that Serbian press was rapidly degenerating towards the level where it was in the late 1980s and early 1990s. “The cancer of sensationalistic tabloid journalism has taken on new dimensions in Serbia, with rumor-mongering, lies, slander, defamation and other aberrant behavior spreading from one publication to the next, drowning out every semblance of civility, professionalism, ethics and common decency in Serbian journalism”, said in the Declaration. Declaration also called for the drafting and adoption of a Unified Code of Ethical Conduct, which shall be enforced by a Statutory Press Council and Media Ethics Ombudsman. Presenting the eighth monthly report on the state of ethics in print media, Dusan Radulovic said that in September Kurir led by the number of texts which did not respect the norms of profession, followed by Vecernje Novosti and Glas Javnosti, whereas Politika, Danas and Blic respected the rules in most of the cases.