Press Council: 5,715 Articles Violate Serbian Code of Journalists in Six Months Alone

Press (BETAPHOTO/MILAN OBRADOVIC/)

From July to the end of December last year, ten dailies published a total of 5,715 news reports that violated at least one article of the Serbian Code of Journalists, the Press Council reported after its latest monitoring project.

In those six months the Press Council monitored the daily newspapers Alo, Blic, Danas, Vecernje Novosti, Informer, Kurir, Politika and Srpski Telegraf, whose work it had followed over the last six years as well, with two new additions, Objektiv and Nova. After the number of breaches dropped in 2020, it jumped again last year. Again, most of the violations were covered by two chapters, Responsibility of Journalists, proscribing a presumption of innocence and a duty to respect the culture and ethics of public speech, and Respect for Privacy, the Press Council explained.

Compared to the previous monitoring, the number of violations covered by the chapter Truthfulness of Reporting went up as well, most often in political reports, including a host of untrue information, theories and assumptions presented as facts. In addition, multiple sources of information were rather rare.

A member of the Press Council, Tamara Skroza, said that only undeniable breaches were included in the final report, adding that Alo, Srpski Telegraf and Informer were the top breachers, with 1,278, 968 and 949 reported violations respectively, while Politika, which breached the Code 61 times, and Danas, with 45 breaches, violated it the least.