(2018) PRESS COUNCIL ANNUAL REPORT
The work of the Complaints Commission
From January to December 2018, the Press Council received 117 complaints, which is more than the year before, when 95 complaints were sent to the Council. The largest number of complaints were filed by citizens, individuals (70), then state bodies and institutions (20), and non-governmental organizations (16). Seven complaints were filed by media against each other, while two complaints each were submitted by Commission members and companies.
Mediation resulted in an agreement in 10 cases, while as many as 40 appeals were rejected for formal reasons, most often because the published content did not relate to the complainant. The other complaints were decided by the Complaints Commission. The violation of the Code of Journalists of Serbia was decided on in 42 cases, of which 27 decisions referred to media that did not accept the full authority of the Press Council, and they were issued with public warnings. The Commission decided there was no violation of the Code in 21 cases. Commission members in four cases failed to agree on a decision, which is less than in 2017, when it happened nine times.
Commission decisions in 2018 were not published by: Alo (four times), Blic (twice), Courier and Telegraf.rs one time.
Complaints from January to December 2018:
1. Association of media and media workers – Ozonpress – Code violation – portal announced decision
2. Nemanja Kaplarević – Ozonpress – the applicant has given up on his appeal
3. The Association of Sava River Lovers “Green Paradise” – Espresso – no Code violation
4. Slaven Bačić – Večernje novosti – complaint mediated – comment removed
5. Željko Veselinović – Alo – Code violation – newspaper did not announce the decision
6. Vladan Vlajković – Palež – Code violation – public warning
7. Srđan Nonić – Niške vesti – no Code violation
8. Belgrade Center for Human Rights – B 92 net – complaint mediated – comments removed
9. Jasmina Prodanovic- Palež – Code violation – public warning
10. Jovana Cvetković – Kurir – complaint rejected – the applicant was not personally damaged
11. Association of lovers of the Sava River “Green Paradise” – Espresso (II) – The Commission did not agree on the decision
12. Mirko Medenica – Večernje novosti – complaint rejected – the applicant was not personally damaged
13. Grad Zaječar – Glas Zaječara – complaint rejected – the applicant did not deliver the agreed on denial
14. Grad Zaječar – Glas Zaječara (II) – complaint rejected – not within the competence of the Council – applicant advised to contact courts of honor at journalists associations
15. Milica Marinković – Blic – complaint rejected – the applicant was not personally damaged
16. Olivera Zekić – Danas – no Code violation
17. Olivera Zekic – Danas (II) – no Code violation
18. The Belgrade Center for Human Rights – Blic – Code violation – the newspaper did not publish the decision
19. Gay lesbian info center – Kurir – no Code violation
20. Maja Sikimić – Standard – Code violation – public warning
21. Gay Lesbian Information Center – Kurir (II) – complaint rejected – no consent of the injured party secured
22. Branko Lazarević – Blic – Code violation – the newspaper did not publish the decision
23. Peter Palatinus – Kikindske – no Code violation
24. Petar Jeremić – Alo – Code violation – the newspaper did not publish the decision
25. Saša Paunović – Paraćin online – Code violation – public warning
26. Aleksandar Milojković – Paracin online – Code violation – public warning
27. Opština Paracin – Pink.rs – Code violation – public warning
28. Municipality of Paracin – Pink.rs (II) – Code violation – public warning
29.Tomislav Šaletić – Paraćin online – Code violation – public warning
30. Opština Paracin – Srbijadanas.com – The Commission did not agree on the decision
31. Opština Paracin – Srbijadanas.com (II) – appeal rejected – no consent of the injured party secured
32. Nemanja Rujević – Beogradski glas – The Commission did not agree on the decision
33. Scout troup “Sandzak” – Alo – Code violation – the newspaper did not publish the decision
34. Tomislav Šaletić – Srbijadanas.com – no Code violation
35. Hajrudin Šerifović – Palež – Code violation – public warning
36.Nikola Minovic – Glas zapadne Srbije – the applicant gave up his appeal
37. Nikola Minovic – Sportske.net – the applicant gave up his appeal
38. Ministry of Culture and Information – Srpski telegraf – Code violation – public warning
39. GM info – Takovske novine – Code violation – public warning
40. Alexandra Popovic – Telegraf.rs – Code violation – portal published the decision
41. Kaja Damjanović – Alo – appeal rejected – the applicant was not personally damaged
42. Svetislav Kostic – Alo – appeal rejected – the applicant was not personally damaged
43. Katarina Atanasković – Alo – appeal rejected – the applicant was not personally damaged
44. Milina Petovic Milosevic – Alo – appeal rejected – the subcontractor was not personally damaged
45. Tamara Skozza – Alo – Code violation – the newspaper did not publish the decission
46. Goran Vasiljević – Republika.rs – appeal rejected – the applicant was not personally damaged
47. Citizens Association Roma – Vecernje Novosti – Code violation – the newspaper published the decission
48. Maja Rakic – Srbijadanas.com – Code violation – the portal published the decission
49. Mirjana Stankovic – Alo – complaint settled by mediation – text removed
50.Ministry of Culture and Information – Srpski telegraf (II) – Code violation – public warning
51.Direction for the construction of the Municipality of Paracin – Srbijadanas.com – complaint settled by mediation – published denial
52. Autonomous Women’s Center – Kurir – complaint rejected – the applicant was not personally damaged
53. The Autonomous Women’s Center – Alo – complaint rejected – the applicant was not personally damaged
54. Marko Stojanović – Informer – complaint rejected – the applicant was not personally damaged
55. “Milan Blagojević – Lučani” – Ozonpress – The Commission did not agree on the decision
56. Department for information of the Municipality of Paracin – Dnevnik – complaint rejected – does not contain the text they complain about
57. Information department of the Municipality of Paracin – Pink.rs – complaint rejected – does not contain the text they complain about
58. Information Department of the Municipality of Paracin – RTS. rs – complaint rejected – does not contain the text they complain about
59. Information Department of the Municipality of Paracin – Pink.rs (II) – complaint rejected – does not contain the text they complain about
60. Information Department of the Municipality of Paracin – Pink.rs (III) – complaint rejected – does not contain the text they complain about
61. Information Department of the Municipality of Paracin – Srbijadanas. com – complaint rejected – does not contain the text they complain about
62. Information Department of the Municipality of Paracin – Pink.rs (IV) – complaint rejected – does not contain the text they complain about
63. Information Department of the Municipality of Paracin – Pink.rs (V) – complaint rejected – does not contain the text they complain about
64. Information department of the Municipality of Paracin – Srbijadanas. com (II) – complaint rejected – does not contain the text they complain about
65. Information department of the Municipality of Paracin – Srbijadanas. com (III) – complaint rejected – does not contain the text they complain about
66. Goran Bogojević – Blic – complaint resolved by mediation – photo removed
67. Commission for the Protection of Competition – Srbijadanas. com – appeal mediated – denial published
68. Luka Lazukić – Blic – no Code violation
69. Luka Lazukić – Blic (II) – no Code violation
70.Luka Lazukić – Kurir – no Code violation
71. Željko Veselinović – Informer – no Code violation
72. Željko Veselinović – Pink.rs – Code violaton – public warning
73. Željko Veselinović – Pink.rs (II) – Code violaton – public warning
74. Željko Veselinović – Srbijadanas.com – complaint mediated – denial published
75. Željko Veselinović – Informer (II) – Code violaton – public warning
76. Željko Veselinović – Alo – Code violaton – the newspaper did not publish the decission
77. Bojan Jovanović – Informer – Code violaton – public warning
78. Glas yapadne Srbije – Ozonpress – no Code violation
79. Ivan Zidarević – Večernje novosti – complaint rejected – text changed before complaint filed
80. Željko Veselinović – Republika.rs – no Code violation
81.Rodoljub Sabic – Informer – Code violation – public warning
82. Jasmin Dustinac – Telegraf.rs – Code violation, portal did not announce the decision
83. Đuro Đurović – Kurir – no Code violation
84. Gay and Lesbian Info Center – Srspski telegraf – Code violation – public warning
85. Gay and Lesbian Info Center – Afera – Code violation – public warning
86. Gay lesbian info center – Beta – no Code violation
87. Gay and Lesbian Info Center – Tanjug – no Code violation
88. Gay and Lesbian Info Center – Danas – no Code violation
89. Đuro Đurović – Alo – no Code violation
90. Sofija Milosevic – Srspski telegraf – Code violation – public warning
91. Sofija Milošević – Press online – Code violation – public warning
92. Beogradski centar za ljudska prava – Kurir – compplaint rejected bue to previously removed comment
93. Stojan Ilić – Infovranjske.rs. – complaint rejected – the texts to which the compalint relates were not delivered
94. Dmitar Jovanović – Kurir – complaint rejected – the texts to which the compalint relates were not delivered
95. Aleksa Pavlović – Užice oglasna tabla – complaint mediated – editorial office apologized
96. Slobodan Sapundžić – Večernje novosti – complaint rejected – 90 day deadline from publishing of article ran out
97.Dragon Žebeljan – Infoarandjelovac – complaint mediated – text removed
98. Dragana Đilas – Informer – Code violation – public warning
99. Mario Spasić – Danas – no Code violation
100. Mario Spasić – Danas (II) – no Code violation
101. Slaven Bacic – Subotica.com – complaint mediated – comments removed
102. Usame Zukorlić – Sandžačke novine – Code violation – public warning
103. Usame Zukorlić – Sandžak haber – Code violation – public warning
104. Vladimir Gajic – Alo – Code violaton – the newspaper did not publish the decission
105. Vladimir Gajić – Republika.rs – Code violation – public warning
106. Tanja Jovanovic – Vecernje novosti – complaint rejected – the applicant was not personally damaged
107. Salahudin Fetic – RTV Novi Pazar – complaint rejected – the media is not under the authority of the Council
108. Korni DOO / Milan Korica – Centar za istraživanje korupcije – Code violation – public warning
109. Ana Sevic – Kurir – Code violaton – the newspaper did not publish the decission
110. Asim Bihorac – Sandzacke novine – Code violation – public warning
111. TV Lav – Glas zapadne Srbije – the applicant gave up his appeal
112. TV Lav – Glas zapadne Srbije – Code violation – public warning
113. Jovan Ulićević – Večernje novosti – complaint rejected – the applicant was not personally damaged
Monitoring of daily newspapers
The Press Council, with the support of the Deutsche Welle Academie, monitored the compliance with the Serbian Journalists Code of Ethics for eight daily newspapers with national coverage. The Council did this for the previous three years, and in 2108, in the period August-December 2018, Tamara Skrozza and Petar Jeremic recorded 3615 texts in which the Code was violated, indicating a steady increase in violations of ethical rules of the profession. The biggest and most visible problem in the said period is the rapid increase in the total number of violations: the previous “records” observed during the monitoring of 2015, 2016 and 2017 were exceeded: while during all these monitoring, the number of articles per month in which the Code of Journalists of Serbia was violated only approached 700 , this time every month this number was exceeded. For the first time, violations of the Code in articles referring to children, that is, young people, were recorded, and 386 such violations were noted in 222 texts in six daily newspapers, as there were no such violations in the newspapers “Danas” and “Politika”. The first results were presented at the Deutche Welle Academie conference at the end of October, and final results at a press conference in January 2019.
Seminars and training
During 2018, a total of 563 people participated in Press Council training sessions and lectures, organized in five cities in Serbia. 243 journalists and representatives of the judiciary were trained, and 320 young people (students of journalism, high school students and activists) participated in workshops and lectures.
Within the JUFREX project, in cooperation with the Council of Europe, six events were organized in Belgrade, Nis, Novi Sad and Kragujevac for 135 journalists and representatives of the judiciary, who were trained at the seminars “Freedom of expression, the right to privacy and media ethics” and “Media reporting on court procedures”. 118 journalism students attended a lecture within the subject Media Ethics at the Faculty of Political Science. Within the projects funded by the Deutsche Welle Academy, five trainers were trained to hold ten workshops in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Loznica, Niš and Kragujevac. Workshops “How to file a complaint to the Press Council” was completed by 203 high school and university students and activists of youth NGOs.
Within the framework of projects funded by the OSCE, three two-day in-house training sessions for local media were organized for “Kikindske”, “Vesti” (Uzice) and “Ibarske novosti” (Kraljevo) for a total of 18 editors and journalists. During February, a member of the Press Complaints Commission Petar Jeremic and the Secretary General trained 17 journalists and editor of the daily Kurir.
During 2018, the Secretary-General trained a total of 89 journalists. In May and December, a training was organized for 15 journalists from the UNS Journalistic School, followed by 20 journalists, at a seminar participants in the organization of the Center for Professionalization of Media and Media Literacy, and in September 19 journalists at a seminar organized by Media News & Consulting and the Media Association. In July, a workshop was held for 15 representatives of the portal “Youth vibes” from Nis, and in June, training for three journalists from the “Srbija danas” portal.
Other
In May 2018, Zorica Višnjić, President of Lokal Pres Executive Council, was elected new president of the Managing Board of the Press Council. At the same session, Stevan Ristic, director of the weekly Vreme, who represented the Media Association was elected vice president of the Managing Board. At the end of the year, Dragan Djordjevic was elected new president of the Managing Board, after Zorica Visnjic`s mandate had expired.
During 2018, the Press Council responded to 78 inquiries by local governments and state authorities for a total of 1,317 media that participated in competitions for the co-financing of media content to meet public interest. In several cases, money was allocated to the media for which the Complaints Commission several times during a year decided they have violated the Journalist’s Code of Ethics.
During 2018 cooperation continued with media in the languages of national minorities – a panel discussion “Ethical Standards, Professionalism and Citizens’ Trust in Minority Media” was organized in Pančevo during May for 14 participants from six media outlets at the premises of the Romanian language newspaper “Liberatea”. After the panel “Liberatea” accepted the full authority of the Press Council. In February a panel was held with representatives of eight minority media from southern Serbia in Nis.
After the android Press Council application, through which citizens can file complaints, in 2018, an application for IOS – the second major mobile platform was created. The two applications were used during 2018 for training by young people and students of journalism at universities in Belgrade, Nis and Novi Sad.
In June, a meeting was held with 11 editors on cooperation with the Press Council, hate speech and mechanisms against fake news. Representatives of the Belgrade Center for Human Rights, Fake News Seekers and portal Raskrikavanje participated.
International activities
The Secretary General participated at the annual assembly of the Alliance of Independent Press Councils in Europe that was held at the beginning of October in Helsinki, the regional conference EU-Western Balkans Media Days held in Skopje in September and at the OSCE South East European Media Conference in May at Ohrid.
In Belgrade, representatives of the Council (Tamara Skrozza, Petar Jeremić and Gordana Novaković) met in November with representatives of the EU expert mission with whom they discussed media freedom in Serbia and the work of the Press Council. The Secretary-General also participated in a meeting with the OSCE representative for media freedom Arlem Dezir. In January, representatives of the Press Council (Novakovic, Smajlovic, Skrozza, Cobovic) met with the President of the European Federation of Journalists Mogens Bjeregord. During March, six representatives of the Press Council took part in a two-day regional conference in the UNESCO project “Building Confidence in the Media in the Western Balkans and Turkey” in Belgrade.