Electronic Media Authority Not to Continuously Monitor Informer During Election Campaign

Council of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media - REM (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

The Council of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) decided on Sept. 28 not to expand the list of broadcasters subject to continuous monitoring during the election campaign, meaning that the pro-government TV station Informer will not be added to the list.

At a news conference, the chairman of the REM Council, Stevica Smederevac said the decision had been made because professional services did not have the capacity to expand the existing list of the media outlets being monitored at this point.

“We were willing to find a solution. There were talks, but no agreement,” Smederevac said, adding that the fact that a broadcaster had not been placed under continuous monitoring did not mean it would not be monitored.

A member of the Council, Dubravka Valic-Nedeljkovic, said the decision was wrong and that four of the eight members of the REM Council had voted to include Informer among the media outlets subject to monitoring. She also named four media outlets in which Informer owner Dragan J. Vucicevic and REM Council member Milos Garic had previously worked together. Garic confirmed this, adding that they worked together 15 years ago.

On Sept. 10, REM began round-the-clock monitoring of election campaign coverage on 11 television channels: Channels 1 and 2 of Serbia’s and Vojvodina’s public broadcasters, RTS and RTV respectively,  the nationally broadcast Pink, Prva, B92 and Happy television stations, and cable channels N1, Nova S and K1.

The monitoring is being conducted under a methodology adopted by the REM Council in 2023, which is why Informer is not among the media outlets on the monitoring list.