Party On

by Teofil Pancic

The authorities are very sensitive to the criticism that Serbia, at least in terms of the electronic media, does not have enough media freedom and diversity; whenever it can, the ruling party and its trusted people set up a radio or TV station. The strategy is simple and efficient: the conventional state media (RTS and affiliated stations) serve to raise ideological awareness among the masses while commercial and private media serve to entertain and make sure everything is fun.

Every small town in Serbia has a radio or TV station to entertain the population, who are definitely tired of any politics. They are consistent in providing something for everyone's taste from turbo folk and astrology to evergreens and teenage favorites.

The capital was the vanguard in promoting a program of merciless 24 hour entertainment. After the MV channel failed, founder Miodrag Vujovic (an SPS official who set up the station with Jezdimir Vasiljevic, whose bank still owes money to a large part of the population) set up TV Palma, a station based on cheap folk videos, cheaper porn movies and the cheapest serials and movies on the planet. Then came TV Pink which won huge ratings by imitating Italian commercial TV: empty and bare but effective and attractive.

For some reason, the employees of those stations, including editors and managers, are loathe to speak to the press about who owns their stations.

A young woman at Radio Roda told VREME that "as far as I know, and if nothing has changed in the meantime" the station belongs to the Cukarica municipality.

At Golf Radio staff didn't want to discuss a topic as sensitive as ownership with the boss present and asked me to call back. Later when I asked who owned the station, a surprised voice wanted to know why that was important and later added that the station has several owners, all businessmen with various investments.

At Radio Kosava, a secretary responded directly to the question: "I could tell you but it depends on why you want to know." Since I couldn't convince her that I had no hostile intentions she said: "The best thing would be to call our marketing director, he comes in around 11." He wasn't there at 11 or noon or at 1:00.

At Radio S, the secretary seemed to have been briefed by the woman at Kosava: leave a number and the editor will contact you. We know that Radio S is owned by a company called Genes S (director Zoran Andjelkovic), which is known to be SPS owned.

Although peace has no alternative, cuddly penguins are turning into bloodthirsty tigers in Serbia and no one is getting excited. The public seems to have finally adopted the slogan advocated by the reserve party media: Party On!