CRTA: No pluralism in Serbia's media, Vucic gets half of the air time

The data represents another indicator of the lack of political pluralism in the media which is very concerning, having in mind it deprives citizens of objective information, CRTA said.

Political actors were given 170 hours of air time, of which 92 % were granted to members of ruling parties who were either portrayed in a neutral (61%) or in a positive (38%) manner.

Only eight per cent of air time was dedicated to opposition members, during which they were predominantly portrayed negatively (63%).

CRTA said that Serbian President, Aleksandar Vucic, was one in two guests appearing on TV news over the past seven months and that he was given nearly half of the air time dedicated to political actors.

Only six per cent of the air time was given to Prime Minister Ana Brnabic, followed by Minister Zlatibor Loncar with four and Aleksandar Vulin and Sinisa Mali with three per cent each.

„Apart from how much he was represented in main news programs, Aleksandar Vucic has over the past five months on average been addressing citizens in live programs every second day," the organisation said, noting that was a guest in live programs or has spoken during broadcasted gatherings 67 times.

The research encompassed central news from RTS, Pink, Prva, Hepi and B92, from the announcement of official results of parliamentary elections in July 2020 until the beginning of the inter-party dialogue on March 1, 2021.