Political and business elites in the countries that are the subject of this report have acquired control over a large number of public and private media, mostly through non-transparent privatizat
Report on Pressures and Control over Media in Serbia, 2011
The Report is the result of the research conducted by the Anti-Corruption Council (led at the time by Verica Barac), which tried to explore why the media played a negligible role in fighting corruption. The Council pointed out 3 main problems in the Serbian media system: non-transparency of media ownership, economic influence of state institutions on media by the use of various channels of budget funds distribution and acting of the public service broadcaster RTS as the service of ruling political parties. The report concludes that non-transparent ownership hides connections between business tycoons and centres of political power and that state institutions allow such situation as they are not interested to prevent monopolies. The Council for the first time made public data on the scope of state advertising and showed how, in the absence of any regulation, public spending on advertising and promotional activities is used by state institutions and public enterprises as a powerful tool of influence on media editorial policies.