Newspapers violate the Code as many as 50 times a day

Regular monitoring of the Press Council shows a drastic increase in the number of cases in which dailies violate the provisions of the Code of Journalists of Serbia.

During September 2021, 993 texts were recorded in which at least one provision of the Code was violated, which is significantly more than in September last year (when there were 661), September 2019 and 2018 (773 and 772), as well as in relation to the same month in 2017, when 583 violations were recorded.

A higher number of violations of the Code of Journalists compared to the average was determined in July and August 2021, and the same trend continued during October, when more than 50 violations per day were recorded.

The largest number of violations of professional standards refers to the provisions from the chapter Responsibility of Journalists and Truthfulness of Reporting, and the “record holder” in the number of violations for now is the newspaper Alo.

We invite colleagues to – having in mind the importance and influence of the media on each citizen individually, but also on society as a whole – take into account the manner of reporting. We especially urge you to refrain from publishing harassing content, violating the right to the presumption of innocence, open political classification and targeting of individuals and groups.

The Press Council will publish the final results of the six-month monitoring of ten daily newspapers in January 2022.

You can see the results for the first three months here: Results (in Serbian)