The 2022 election campaign is characterised by the complete domination of the current head of state Aleksandar Vucic and his ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), says Zoran Gavrilovic from the Bureau for Social Research (BIRODI), which monitors the media that use national broadcasting frequency.
The report covering the period from February 15 to March 14, shows that an official election campaign is underway and that almost all current government ministers are being reported about in a positive tone.
„Of the total air time that the President, ministers and the Prime Minister had in the main news programmes, Aleksandar Vučić occupied 82 percent of it. It terms of the topics that the President talks about, quite a few of them have nothing to do with his presidential duties. Thanks to the media that constantly broadcast this and the Constitutional Court and the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM) not doing anything to rectify it, we have free and tightly controlled presidential marketing,“ Gavrilovic said.
He presented a part of the latest BIRODI report at the ‘Elections Under the Magnifying Glass’ conference in Belgrade.
Gavrilovic added that the Ministry of European Integration was represented in national media news programmes for only 54 seconds during the month, despite Serbia being an EU candidate.
As far as reporting about presidential candidates goes, Vucic was reported in a positive tone in 88.7 percent of air time, while Zdravko Ponos, the leading opposition candidate, was reported negatively in 55.4 percent.
“When it comes to other candidates, 100 percent of them were reported about in a positive manner, mainly due to statements sent by their election headquarters or what is called party cameras,” Gavrilovic said.
(Nova, 21.03.2022)
https://nova.rs/vesti/politika/gavrilovic-birodi-potpuna-dominacija-vucica-u-predizbornoj-kampanji/
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