Radio Television of Serbia (RTS), the national public service broadcaster funded by all Serbian citizens, has undergone major changes in less than 48 hours following political shifts in the country.
Following the resignation of Manja Grčić as Director-General of RTS and the removal of Chief News Editor Bojana Mlađenović, all those responsible for editing the broadcaster’s most prominent news programmes were dismissed a day later.
Borivoje Uskoković, the acting Chief News Editor, removed the heads of several departments from their posts: Vesna Šiljegović (Regional Correspondents), Nikolina Rakić (Balkan/Regional Affairs), Gorislav Papić (the current affairs show Oko), Zoran Stanojević (the website), and Suzana Gvozdenović (Diaspora Coverage). The editors of the flagship evening news bulletin, Dnevnik at 19:30 – Milica Nedić, Dušan Ubović, and Ruža Jeremić Turudić – have also been replaced, according to a statement published on the RTS website.
Following Manja Grčić’s resignation, it was announced that her former deputy, Dejan Jovanović, will serve as acting Director-General.
Borivoje Uskoković, a veteran Dnevnik editor, has been appointed acting Chief News Editor in place of Bojana Mlađenović.
The overhaul at RTS is a direct outcome of the Student List’s victory in the parliamentary election and the end of the long-standing rule of Aleksandar Vučić and the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).
On 28 October, a representative of the Student List appeared as a guest on RTS’s main evening news programme for the first time, calling on the public broadcaster to truly serve the public interest going forward. During anti-government protests triggered by the collapse of the railway station canopy in Novi Sad on 1 November 2024, which killed 16 people and left one woman critically injured, demonstrators organised several rallies outside RTS headquarters in central Belgrade, blocking the public broadcaster’s buildings for two weeks in April 2025.
“I am aware that a section of the public temporarily views my remaining in office as an obstacle to change,” Manja Grčić wrote in a letter read out during the RTS news bulletin.
“I do not want my intention to ensure an orderly handover to become a cause for further distrust, tension, or division. I have therefore decided to tender my resignation without further delay, leaving it to the competent authorities to ensure the continuity of the public service’s management in accordance with the law.”
She added that she believes RTS “must remain a stable, professional institution, regardless of who leads it or who is in power.”
Grčić tendered her resignation a day after the Student List demanded the “unblocking, depoliticisation, and liberation of RTS from political influence.”
According to media reports, Grčić had previously told representatives of two major employee trade unions that she would not step down.
What did the news bulletin look like?
News of the Director-General’s resignation was reported five minutes into the bulletin. For the subsequent ten minutes, viewers heard from Nemanja Karović, a Student List parliamentary candidate and lecturer at the Faculty of Education.
Karović criticized RTS’s coverage of and attitude towards the student movement over the past two years. He highlighted derogatory terms used by RTS journalists to describe students during that period. Citing several examples of “flagrant falsehoods” broadcast on public media, he added that RTS had simultaneously shown “a servile attitude towards the SNS regime-one that was not merely collaborative, but complicit.”
The consequence, Karović said, was “a distortion of reality and the continuous, systematic deception of viewers, contrary to the role and legal obligations of RTS.” He noted that the previous day’s main news bulletin had “dedicated 12 minutes to the student movement – more time than it had received over the preceding 45 days combined.” “The student movement does not seek to impose its own management, control, or dominance over RTS, but rather to return it to the framework of the law, to ensure it follows proper procedures, and to serve the public interest, regardless of who holds power. We are counting on the professional and honest staff within RTS to help bring it back within legal boundaries,” Karovićconcluded.
He further claimed there were serious indications that the outgoing government had attempted to withdraw around one billion dinars from Poštanska Štedionica bank, but that this had been thwarted.
“This could have jeopardised the financial system and the bank’s liquidity, leading to disruptions in the regular payment of salaries and pensions,” he said. Karović also mentioned media outlets owned by Telekom Serbia, claiming the company was attempting to shut them down due to their “investigative reporting”, and stated that the Student List is demanding the resignation of the chief executive.
The BBC was unable to independently verify either of these claims.
Apology from Radio Television of Vojvodina staff
Manja Grčić’s resignation followed that of the director of the regional public broadcaster, Radio Television of Vojvodina (RTV), who stepped down on the very first day after the parliamentary election. RTV’s 17:00 news bulletin opened with an apology to viewers for its “one-sided reporting.”
That same evening, a group of protesters entered the premises of the pro-government private broadcaster Informer before gathering outside the offices of the private television network Pink.
In April 2025, students blockaded the Serbian public broadcaster’s facilities on Takovska Street and in Košutnjak for two weeks.
The action was prompted by dissatisfaction with RTS’s coverage of the months-long student demonstrations at the time. The blockade ended after the Parliamentary Committee on Culture and Information launched a public call to elect new members to the Council of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM).
Serbia has plummeted 44 places on the global press freedom index since 2013 and is now categorised among countries where the situation is “difficult,” according to Reporters Without Borders.
According to the Press Freedom Index, Serbia ranked 104th out of 180 countries in 2026, placing it among the lowest-ranked nations in Europe, according to the organisation’s data.
Who is Manja Grčić?
Before taking the helm at RTS in February of this year – succeeding long-serving director Dragan Bujošević – Manja Grčić worked as a journalist and media executive for more than 20 years.
In interviews, she noted that she had worked at B92, serving as its Director-General from 2011 to 2013. She subsequently worked as a public relations advisor for the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and as Media System Director at Pink Television.
She also served as Director of the Slovenian television channel TV3 and held the post of Director of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs at Antena Group for Serbia and Montenegro.
She stepped down as Director of Prva TV in 2019 and founded K1 the following year.
She is co-owner of the media company Minacord Media alongside composer and singer Željko Joksimović, under which the K1 station operates, and she previously served as Director of the Tanjug news agency.
In late April 2021, the Serbian Government appointed her to the Board of Directors of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, a position she held until January of this year.
She became Director-General of RTS in February 2026.
The Journalists’ Association of Serbia reported that the degree certificate submitted by Manja Grčić for the RTS Director-General position corresponded to 180 ECTS credits earned through academic study in the United Kingdom.
Under the Public Media Services Act, candidates for the position of Director-General must hold a degree equivalent to 240 ECTS credits.
Grčić subsequently submitted documentation certifying that her degree from the University of Leeds met the requisite credit requirement.
(BBC Serbia, 29.10.2026)