The power of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić is based mainly on media influence. In this regard, the state-owned cable and broadband provider Telekom Srbija is used as a political weapon, Serbian journalist Darko Čačić wrote in a commentary in EURACTIV Bulgaria.
As some international organizations have pointed out, Serbia’s media freedom is seriously threatened, and only a few independent media remain. In the 2021 Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index, Serbia ranks 93rd out of 180 countries. The European Union warned that threats, intimidation and violence against journalists remain a serious concern.
The Serbian media space is dominated by overwhelming government reports, especially reports on President Vucic. On the contrary, the opposition is largely marginalized or negatively presented. The Serbian government equated critical journalism with anti-state activities and condemned independent media for spreading misinformation without providing evidence.
Most daily newspapers openly support Wuqiqi, and only two daily newspapers criticize the government.One of them is the new newspaper of United Group New star, Is printing in Croatia, because no printing plant in Serbia dared to do so, obviously afraid of the government’s response. Of course, the influence of television stations is much greater than that of print media.
According to a recent media regulator’s report, Vucic spent nearly 50 hours of broadcast time on major news programs on five TV channels, covering the whole country. N1 Television, from December last year to April 2021.
At the same time, the space for the nine largest opposition parties has been reduced almost eightfold. Vucic was active in 85% of his appearances.Consider only major news programs of public broadcasters Instant messaging system, Vucic spent more than five hours alone, and in five months, nine opposition parties had a total of nine minutes.
Observers say that Telekom Srbija, a state-owned cable and broadband provider, played an important role in Vučić’s efforts to prevent the spread of criticism, as it was used to expand the monopoly of progressives in the media and to stifle those whose editorial policies are not in power. Taste makes them bankrupt.
Telekom Srbija’s main competitor is the Serbian Broadband Company (SBB), a unit of United Group, which broadcasts TV channels such as N1, Nova S and Newsmax Adria. This is one of the few channels in Serbia that provides information that cannot be heard in the state. . Controlled media and regularly report government corruption scandals.
According to data from the electronic communications and postal services regulator, SBB accounted for 45.6% of the media content distribution market in the first quarter of 2021, while Telekom Srbija and its supplier Supernova, which were acquired at the same time, accounted for 45.4%. Keep in mind that other smaller cable operators do not provide United Group channels. N1 with information More than 50% of cable TV users in Serbia refuse to watch.
Telekom Srbija’s current position in the media content market is not because of its capabilities and business performance, but because of the protection of the Serbian ruling party. Business reports show that after multiple acquisitions, Srbija Telecom’s debt increased from 289 million euros in 2017 to 1.44 billion euros.These acquisitions are widely seen as an attempt to stifle the country’s independent media, mainly opposition-owned channels N1 with New star.
In the past three years, Telekom has not spared money to gain a dominant position. Two very opaque acquisitions are often cited as examples.
The first is that Telekom bought cable operator Kopernikus from a businessman close to the Progressive Party of Serbia for about 200 million euros in 2018, who subsequently bought TV channels. First with B92 (Then O2), turning them into pro-government channels.
Telekom spent at least 100 million euros on several small cable TV and Internet providers in 2019. Experts say that the price of these acquisitions is much higher than the market value.
The most obvious example of disrupting market competition was revealed this week. Telekom Srbija spent 600 million euros to purchase the rights to broadcast the Premier League for six seasons.
It is widely believed that this is a politically motivated move aimed at harming the United Group, whose operator SBB has been broadcasting the Premier League for many years. The price is more than eight times higher than the price paid by SBB, indicating that Telekom Srbija’s decision has political interest.
Telekom provides extremely popular content, such as the best football match in the world, and hopes to take over the customers of SBB’s cable provider. The huge amount shows that Vucic’s goal is to disappear from the Serbian market.
The evidence of Telekom Srbija’s political motives is the document, which was issued in January N1, Indicating that the state-owned company intends to join forces with its competitor Telenor, which is owned by the private international PPF group.
The goal of the cooperation with Telenor is to destroy SBB, which is to reduce its market share in media content distribution to less than 30%.This will jeopardize the financing of TV channels N1 with informationThe agreement with Telenor is another attempt by Vučić to prevent Serbian citizens from obtaining information from different sources.
Two months ago, the Euronews Serbian TV channel under Telekom Srbija started broadcasting programs. Euronews, a pan-European broadcasting company, came to Serbia as a partner of Telekom Srbija, and the new TV channel is their joint venture.
Euronews Serbia will compete with similar media, such as H1, Rising Star S with Newsmax Adria, And a neutral editorial policy should help create the illusion of pluralism and media freedom in the country. This is another example of the government’s desire to minimize the influence of the United Group TV channel.
For now, there is no sign that Vucic is ready to abandon the long-term practice of shutting up the media. The fact that he is not ready to loosen control of the state proves that the Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (REM) has taken almost no measures to ensure balanced and fair reporting, and was recently elected to the board of public media services.
This decision is controversial because it is a unilateral move in the European Parliament to mediate the negotiation of election conditions between the government and the opposition, and media freedom is the main issue.
