Serbian media watchdog says ruling coalition got most air time

The Council of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM) said in its latest report that the stat TV (RTS) gave just under 15 hours of air time to the election campaign, most of it to President Aleksandar Vucic’s coalition (3 hours of positive or neutral reporting and 19 minutes negative).

The We Must coalition got and hour and 26 minutes including 25 minutes of negative reporting and the coalition around Parliament Speaker Ivica Dacic got an hour and 20 minutes of air time.

The REM report said that Serbian Radical Party (SRS) leader had and hour and 10 minutes of neutral reporting, while the opposition Sovereignists had an hour and 6 minutes, United For Serbia’s Victory had 59 minutes of negative reporting. The opposition Dveri Movement, former President Boris Tadic, NADA coalition and the Oathkeepers had less than an hour of air time each.

Of the presidential candidates, incumbent President Aleksandar Vucic got the most air time (10 minutes, Milos Jovanovic got 8 minutes and Milica Djurdjevic Stamekovski got six minutes. The RTS gave Zdravko Ponos 4 minutes, Bosko Obradovic got 3.26 minutes and Biljana Stojkovic got less then 3 minutes.

The report said that the pro-regime TV Pink gave Vucic and his coalition almost 5 hours of air time while the opposition got an average of 30 minutes each.

The part of the report on cable stations said that N1 gave the opposition coalition led by Marinika Tepic 5 hours 34 minutes, the We Must coalition 5 hours and 28 minutes, NADA 4 hours and 6 minutes and Vucic’s coalition an hour and 47 minutes with the least time given to the Oathkeepers and national minority coalitions.