Journalists’ code violated 2,715 times in four months, fewest violations in Danas
(Source: Danas) Daily newspapers in Serbia violated the Code of Journalists of Serbia in 2,715 articles from October 1, 2022 to January 31, 2023, it was said today at the presentation of the monitoring of daily newspapers in Serbia conducted by the Press Council.
The Chairman of the Complaints Commission of the Press Council, Tamara Skrozza, said that “champions in violation of the Code” remain the same, so the first place is Srpski telegraf with 642 texts, Alo with 600 and Informer with 540 texts.
In fourth place are Večernje novosti with 328 articles in which the Code was violated, on the fifth Kurir with 320, sixth Blic with 183 texts, Nova with 50, Politika with 30 and Danas with 22 texts.
She said that the Kurir newspaper “made great progress” and that in October 2018 it had 137 articles violating the Code, and in October 2022 72 texts.
The media violated chapter four of the Code the most – 1,394 times, and this chapter covers the presumption of innocence, unmarked advertising, publication of inappropriate and pornographic content, chapter 1 relating to the truth of expression 1,003 times and chapter 7 related to violations of the right to privacy and disclosure of children’s identity 722 times.
Skrozza pointed out that the press in detail conveys the events from TV reality programs and pointed out that in the texts on the pages dedicated to the show, an inappropriate vocabulary is used that is not marked with an asterisk, and that this vocabulary is also transferred to other parts of the newspaper.
“Obscenities are spreading to other parts of the media, they are no longer just in the show business sections, but in all parts – ‘Pinocchio is calling you from Nova’, ‘Fools Vjosa and Kurti will not go to the Open Balkans’ – these are the headlines. It is noticeable that the media outlets do not shy away from disturbing content — this is, in my opinion, due to the trial of Veljko Belivuk. This is transmitted without pardon, without thinking about the public interest,” Skrozza said.
Journalist Vera Didanovic said that her impression is that there is an incredible ease in violating the Code of Journalists of Serbia, with the awareness that the rules are being broken because it pays off to a particular media at a certain moment.
“The most violations are in three sections – politics, crime and show business. In the political section, the norms on the truthfulness of reporting are violated, untruths are placed, as facts are presented speculations and assumptions,” Didanovic said.
She added that in the crime sections there are visible attempts to violate less the presumption of innocence, while on the pages of show business there are fewer and fewer performers and producers of pop culture, and more and more coverage of TV reality programs.
“There are a lot of violations of privacy rights on the show website. This year was an example of the case of actress Anđelka Prpić. It turned into torture not only for Prpic, but for her partner and her unborn child,” Didanovic said.
Speaking about reality programs, Skrozza pointed out that there is a “radicalization of the situation”.
She stated that in the reality program, in a separate room, lives a child who was born and is growing there, that the name and surname of the child are known, and his character was hidden in public until recently, but that now it was seen in a television program, and the print media published a photo of him with a slightly blurred face.
“I am fascinated by the fact that the responsible institutions are not responding,” Skrozza said.
Press Council secretary general Gordana Novakovic said that it was noticeable that journalists complained to the Press Council Commission against each other, as well as that political parties and MPs began to address them.
Skrozza said that “many have flocked to denigrate competition or political dissenters before the Council”, because it was said that the Council’s word would be listened to more when it comes to media co-financing.