REM: Serbia's Govt consumes 34 pct of air time on state TV, opposition 18 pct

Serbia's Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM) said on Thursday that on the state RTS TV the Government was the most represented, with about 34 percent of the total air time, the ruling parties consumed 17 percent, and non-parliamentary parties and movements 18 percent, according to the repost titled 'Political Pluralism' that covered the period from January 16 to 31 this year.

President Vucic had 11.06 percent of the air time in the monitored period.

The pro-regime Pink TV spent 35 hours and nine minutes to political pluralism, with 56.55 percent for the government representatives and 10.84 percent for the ruling parties' members.

The REM report said that the non-parliamentary parties: the Serbian Radical Party, the Serb List (the parliamentary party in Kosovo supported by Belgrade), the Social Democratic Party, the Freedom and Justice Party and the Dveri movement had 8.28 percent of the time, i.e., two hours and 55 minutes.

The Body added that the report's main aim was to "make transparent the work of electronic media with the greatest impact on the public."

"Therefore, the goal of the report is not to condemn certain media, but to point out the need to shape the media space responsibly and in the public interest when it comes to political pluralism," the statement said.

It added that the report covered 15 days of programme monitoring. It was not a representative period for conclusions about any media service provider but to show the trends in representing political positions.