Unequal Time

A poll conducted for BETA news agency by the Belgrade Social Sciences Institute showed that in the last week of the campaign for the coming elections (October 16-22), Serbia’s state RTS TV aired 71 reports on the SPS-JUL-ND coalition and six reports on the Zajedno opposition coalition. TV is obliged under election rules to show equal treatment in reporting on all political parties but gave the leftist coalition 99.18 of air time and the opposition 3.4 minutes. RTS aired a speech by an opposition leader only once that week and that was nine seconds of Vuk Draskovic’s speech in a 43 second report about an opposition rally.

The evening news (the only news show seen across Serbia and the one with the highest ratings) reported on the ruling coalition in a positive light and on the opposition in a negative context. Of the 14 reports the RTS aired which included the Zajedno coalition, 11 were negative (9.29 minutes) and three were neutral (2.29 minutes). The leftist coalition was mentioned in 42 reports and always in a positive context (59.54 minutes). The most aggressive reporting against Zajedno was in the coverage of Seselj’s Serbian Radical Party (SRS) rallies. All five of those reports (2.17 minutes) covered only SRS attacks against the rest of the opposition.

The ruling coalition was shown as a well synchronized, successful and very popular organization. The RTS used every tool it had to demonstrate that the SPS-JUL-ND coalition had wide-spread support and a selection of topics in five reports showed that it was convinced it would win, with the success of its rule to date shown in another 23 reports and its program and promises for the future in 46 reports. TV audiences in 28 electoral districts know the names of the leftist coalition’s candidates there. The names of other candidates were never mentioned.

The media presentation of the opposition focused on the lack of support for its ideas and lack of interest among the population.

The media scene has changed greatly since the last federal elections. The number of TV stations with significant political air time has grown. In the 1992 campaign two stations were important - RTS and NTV Studio B. A year later, when TV Politika appeared, there were three. This time BK TV has joined them. But, the diversity of political messages aired on TV has dropped drastically compared to 1992 and 1993. If that trend continues we’ll return to the way things were in the 1980s. The role of the media in democratic political communication won’t be the subject of anyone’s interest because there will be none.

In this campaign, TV has demonstrated that the battle for professional autonomy has to start from the beginning. Four year ago, in the final two weeks of the campaign for republican and federal elections when the RTS suspended all "opposition affiliated journalists", RTS aired 27 reports on the SPS (41.43 minutes) and 23 on its main rival DEPOS (23.7 minutes). That was seen as a violation of the election rules and an intolerable favoritism.

That RTS strategy hasn’t changed at all; the station still favors official definitions of reality and defends the existing balance of powers. The reality produced by the RTS daily is made up of one image: the success of the ruling party’s policies. There’s no mention of any criticism of the ruling party. At the start of this campaign (September 8-14), RTS aired 30 positive reports on current policies and 46 neutral reports. In 23 of those 30 reports officials praised themselves. At the end of the campaign, state officials are shown in a positive light in 44 of 88 reports. The rest show them in a neutral context. Since there is no outside control (an overseeing commission to monitor the media) that support has become absurd and could produce counter-effects like the ones we saw in the 1993 Russian elections.

A novelty in this year’s pre-election media scene in Serbia are not the unprofessional journalistic standards in the RTS but the existence of three commercial stations which are implementing the same editorial policies. The nine main news shows on those four stations show more or less the same image of reality, pieced together in fragments: Bosnia, the economy and politics at home, cultural events and sports.

All three TV stations favored the ruling coalition. Studio B aired 11 reports (9.43 minutes) on the leftist coalition and another 11 (6.34 minutes) on Zajedno. The ruling block’s marketing was positive while the opposition block was portrayed through Avramovic’s withdrawal and a critical attitude by all those parties on the elections.

TV Politika did not report on the campaign itself, only on procedural issues. Of the eight reports (4.49 minutes) on that subject (figures on the electorate, the printing of ballot papers), half covered Avramovic and reported Zajedno problems on the coalition name in detail (3.5 minutes).

The similarity between the state TV and the three commercial stations is much more significant in terms of the professional standards they use to report on everyday life and that is characterized by openness towards official and a restrictive stand on alternative views. TV messages on who will win the elections were sent out using a consistent selection and presentation of reports which make the ruling establishment seem successful.

Political and economic links with the rest of the world dominated reporting on all stations in this campaign. In the week that was analyzed, TV Politika reports on that topic accounted for 20.7% of all its reports, 19.7% on the RTS, 14.3% on Studio B, 11.7% on BK TV. The next most frequent topic was the economy at home and development (TV Politika 12.6%, Studio B 7.8%, RTS 5.5% and BK 4.7%) followed by cultural events with the biggest being promoted by officials (TV Politika 10.8%, Studio B 11%, RTS 5.9% and BK 7.8%).

State officials were the main actors in those reports. TV Politika covered them in 27.4% of its reports (42.8% of its total news air time). In 20 of 83 reports state bodies got positive reporting and negative in only one (Zarko Lausevic’s court appeal). Studio B devoted 29.% of its reports to officials (32.2% of news air time) including 37 reports on federal and 21 reports on city officials. In 19 of 72 reports the portrayal was positive and negative in only two (in both cases the federal election commission was criticized by Zajedno) BK TV covered state officials in 17.8% of its reports (16.7% of news air time). In six of 44 reports the reporting was positive, negative in one (city officials who didn’t provide help to a Belgrade suburb) and neutral in the rest.

The positive publicity method for official definitions of reality as the main mechanism to format reality is aimed at creating reference points among the population to show the senselessness of alternative political projects.