(2020) PRESS COUNCIL ANNUAL REPORT

The work of the Complaints  Commission

From January to December 2020, the Press Council received 163 complaints, which is significantly more than the previous year, when 81 complaints arrived. This is also the largest number of complaints in one year since the Council started working. The Complaints Commission of the Press Council considered 118 complaints, and only in 16 cases determined that the Journalists’ Code was not violated. Only ten complaints were resolved through mediation, which is a smaller number compared to the previous two years.

Last year, members of the Press Council’s Complaints Commission most often decided that the media violated the articles from the first chapter of the Journalists’ Code, which refers to the truthfulness of reporting – 59 such cases.

The Press Council received the most complaints from individuals – 91, followed by 21 complaints from citizens’ associations, 19 complaints from the media and journalists, 16 from members of the Complaints Commission, 13 from state bodies, two frmo companies, and one from the electoral list.

The work of the Complaints Commission was financed by the Delegation of the European Union in Belgrade.

Complaints filed from January to December 2020:

1.Mirko Milovanović –Alo, Informer, Srpski telegraf, Kurir –  The Commission decided on the basis of the parents’ complaint which referred to the same texts

2. Dobrila Damjan – Srpski telegraf – The Commission decided on the basis of the parents’ complaint which referred to the same text
3. Marina Kessler – Srpski telegraf – The Commission decided on the basis of the parents’ complaint which referred to the same text
4. Nebojša Vučinić – Kurir, Informer, Alo, Srpski telegraf – The Commission decided on the basis of the parents’ complaint which referred to the same texts
5. Aleksandnar Ćirić – Informer – The Commission decided on the basis of the parents’ complaint which referred to the same text
6. Aleksandar Ćirirć – Srpski telegraf – The Commission decided on the basis of the parents’ complaint which referred to the same text
7. Vida Petrović Škero – Pink.rs – Public warning

8.Vida Petrović Škero – Informer – Public warning

9.Vida Petrović Škero – Republika.rs – Public warning

10.Vida Petrović Škero – Srbija danas – Code violated – portal published the decision

11.Autonomni ženski centar – Kurir – complaint considered with parents complaint

12.Autonomni ženski centar – Srpski telegraf – complaint considered with parents complaint

13.Autonomni ženski centar – Informer – complaint considered with parents complaint

14.Autonomni ženski centar – Alo – complaint considered with parents complaint

15.Aleksandra i Robert Karimanović – Srpski telegraf – Public warning

16.Aleksandra i Robert Karimanović – Informer – Public warning

17.Aleksandra i Robert Karimanović – Alo – Code violated –  paper did not publish decision

18.Aleksandra i Robert Karimanović – Kurir –  Code violated – paper published the decission

19.Mreža organizacija za decu Srbije – Srpski telegraf – Public warning

20.Mreža organizacija za decu Srbije – Kurir.rs – Code violated –  portal published the decision

21.Mreža organizacija za decu Srbije – Alo.rs – Code violated –  portal did not publish the  decision

22.Mreža organizacija za decu Srbije – Informer.rs – Public warning

23.Mreža organizacija za decu Srbije – Blic.rs –Code violated –  portal did not publish the  decision

24.Vladica Gavrilović – Ozonpress.net – Commission could not make a decision

25.Daliborka Nestorović – Ozonpress.net – No Code violation

26.Jovana Pešić – sajt NUNS – complaint resolved by mediation

27.Dragoljub Janković – Ozonpress.net – complaint rejected– contested article was not provided /sent

28.Ministarstvo kulture i informisanja RS – Srpski telegraf – Commission decided on complaint by parents

29.Ministarstvo kulture i informisanja RS – Alo – Commission decided on complaint by parents

30.Ministarstvo kulture i informisanja RS – Kurir – Commission decided on complaint by parents

31.Ministarstvo kulture i informisanja RS – Informer – Commission decided on complaint by parents

32.Đuro Mečanin – Ozonpress.net – No Code violation

33.Ministarstvo kulture i infomisanja RS – Kurir – Code violated –  paper did not publish decision

34.Ministarstvo kulture i infomisanja RS – Srpski telegraf – Public warning

35.Konstantin Ljubomirović – Tpknews.com – Public warning

36.Ministarstvo kulture i informisanja RS – Kurir – Code violated –  paper did not publish decision

37.Siniša Jasnić – Blic – Code violated –  paper did not publish decision

38.Igor Petrović – Toppres – complain rejected – does not pertain to media content

39.Dalibor Tešić – Razbibriga – complain rejected – does not pertain to media content

40.Udruženje A11 – Večernje novosti – Code violated –  paper published the decision

41.Vladan Vlajković – Novi Palež – Public warning

42.Zlatko Čobović – Politika – No Code violation

43.Zlatko Čobović – Kurir (I) – Code violated –  paper did not publish decision

44.Zlatko Čobović – Kurir (II) – Commission could not make a decision

45.Zlatko Čobović – Kurir (III) – Commission could not make a decision

46.Zlatko Čobović – Kurir (IV) – Commission could not make a decision

47.Zlatko Čobovć – Kurir (V) – Code violated –  paper did not publish decision

48.Branko Vujković – Podrinske (I) –  Code violated – paper published the decission

49.Branko Vujković – Podrinske (II) – Code violated – paper published the decission

50.Boban Birmbančević – Podrinske –  Code violated – paper published the decission

51.Zlatko Čobović – Informer (I) – Public warning

52. SBB – Informer – Public warning

53.Branko Vujković – Podrinske (III) – No Code violation

54.Goran Gavrić – Danas – complaint rejected – complaint not completed per request of secretary general

55.Zlatko Čobović – Informer (II) – No Code violation

56.Zlatko Čobović – Republika.rs – No Code violation

57. Zlatko Čobović – Kurir (VI) – No Code violation

58.Sanja Vujović – Espreso – complaint rejected – complainant not personally effected

59.Enever Gaši – Kurir – complaint rejected – complainant could not prove authorship of article

60.Branko Vujković – RTV Šabac – complaint rejected – media outlet not under jurisdiction of Council

61.Vesna Lakićević – Tabloid – Public warning

62.N1 – Kurir – Code violated –  paper did not publish decision

63.GM Info – GM Press (I) – Public warning

64.Zlatko Čobović – Kurir (VII) – Code violated –  paper did not publish decision

65.Beogradski centar za ljudska prava – Blic.rs (I) – Code violation – portal did not publsh the decision

66.Beogradski centar za ljudska prava – Kurir (I) – complaint resolved by mediation

67.Beogradski centar za ljudska prava – Kurir (II) – complaint resolved by mediation

68.Beogradski centar za ljudska prava – Blic.rs (II) – Code violation – portal did not publsh the decision

69.Beogradski centar za ljudska prava – Blic.rs (III) – Code violation – portal did not publsh the decision

70.Beogradski centar za ljudska prava – Blic.rs (IV) – Code violation – portal did not publsh the decision

71.Beogradski centar za ljudska prava – Srbija danas – Code violation – portal did publsh the decision

72.GM Info – GM Press (II) – Public warning

73.Snežana Miletivć – Blic.rs – Code violated –  portal did not publish the  decision

74.Novosadska biciklistička inicijativa – SAT plus – No Code violation

75.GG „Mario Spasić- uvek za rodni kraj“ – RTV Trstenik – complaint rejected– media outlet not under jurisdiction of Council

76.Ministarstvo kulture i informisanja RS – Blic – No Code violation

77.Nacionalna avangarda – Danas – No Code violation

78.Miloš Milošević – RTV Šabac – complaint rejected – media outlet not under jurisdiction of Council

79.Mihaela Bojić – Blic – complaint withdrawn

80.Zoran Kesić/Ivan Ivanović – Srpski telegraf/Republika.rs – Public warning

81.Danica Popović- Politika – Code violated –  paper did not publish decision

82.Zaštitnik građana – Nova.rs – Commission could not make a decision

83.Violeta Stepanović – Infocentrala – Public warning

84.Nikola Minović – Nova.rs –  complaint withdrawn

85.Nikola Minović – Ozonpress.net – No Code violation

86.Kurir- N1 info (I) – Commission could not make a decision

87.Dimitrije Vojnov – Večernje novosti – complaint resolved by mediation

88.Kurir – N1 info (II) – Commission could not make a decision

89.Autonomni ženski centar – Espreso – complaint resolved by mediation

90.Vojin Rakić – Informer (I) – Public warning

91.Vojin Rakić – Politika (I) – Commission could not make a decision

92.Predrag Azdejković – Na dlanu – complaint resolved by mediation

93.Vojin Rakić – Alo.rs –  Code violated –  portal did not publish the decision

94.Vojin Rakić – Dnevnik – Public warning

95.Vojin Rakić – B92.net –  Public warning

96.Vojin Rakić – Pink.rs (I) – Public warning

97.Vojin Rakić – Blic.rs – Commission could not make a decision

98.Vojin Rakić – Tanjug (I) – Public warning

99.Vojin rakić – Kurir (I) – Commission could not make a decision

100.Vojin Rakić – Informer (II) – Public warning

101.Vojin Rakić – Republika.rs – Public warning

102.Marko Lens – Kurir.rs – Code violated –  portal published  decision

103.Marko Lens – Srbija danas – complaint resolved by mediation

104.Marko Lens- Alo.rs – Code violated –  portal did not publish the decision

105.Predrag Azdejković – Direktno.rs – complaint resolved by mediation

106.Vojin Rakić – Pink.rs (II) – Public warning

107.Vojin Rakić – Kurir (III) – Commission could not make a decision

108.Vojin Rakić – Informer (III) – Public warning

109.Mirko Poledica – Glas zapadne Srbije – Public warning

110.Vojin Rakić – Sajt SNS – complaint rejected – not pertaining to media oputlet

111.Marko Lens – Novosti.rs – Code violated –  portal did not publish the  decision

112.Vojin Rakić – Tanjug (II) – No Code violation

113.Vojin Rakić – Politika (II) – No Code violation

114.Violeta Marković – Glas zapadne Srbije – Public warning

115.Marko Petrović – Kurir – complaint rejected  – complainant not personally effected

116.Vojin Rakić – Informer (IV) – Public warning

117.Pavle Jelesijević – Glas zapadne Srbije – Public warning

118.Milena Maslaćević/Slobodan Bus Vukajlović – Glas zapadne Srbije – Public warning

119.Željko Damjanović – Glas zapadne Srbije – Public warning

120.Danas – Srpski telegraf/Republika.rs – Commission could not make a decision

121.Biljana Jovanić – Glas zapadne Srbije – Public warning

122.Božidar Mitrović – Politika – complaint rejected – complainant not personally effected

123.Miljan Milenković – Južne vesti (I) – Code violated – portal published  decision

124.Miljan Milenković – Južne vesti (II) – Code violated – portal published  decision

125.Miljan Milenković – Nova.rs – Public warning

126.Miljan Milenković – Danas – complaint resolved by mediation

127.Miljan Milenković – N1 info – Public warning

128.Miljan Milenković – Glas javnosti – Public warning

129.Ministarstvo kulture i informisanja RS – Kurir –Code violated – paper did not publish decision

130.Igor Žeželj – N1 info – No Code violation

131.Pavle Jelesijević – Media portal (I) – Public warning

132.Miljan Milenković – Alo.rs – Code violated –  portal did not publish the  decision

133.Miljan Milenković – Direktno.rs (I) – Public warning

134.Miljan Milenković – Direktno.rs (II) – Commission could not make a decision

135.Ministarstvo kulture i infomisanja RS – Kurir – Code violated – paper did not publish the decission

136.Ministarstvo kulture i informisanja RS – Nova.rs – Public warning

137.Nebojša Petrović – Espreso – complaint rejected – complainant not personally effected

138.Info vranjske – Podpržarpress – Public warning

139.Info vranjske – Vranjskaplustv.rs – Public warning

140.Info vranjske – RTV-Vranje.rs – Public warning

141.Davor Lukač – Informer.rs – Public warning

142.Davor Lukač – Alo.rs – Code violated –  portal did not publish the  decision

143.Ana Grubin – Srpski telegraf – Public warning

144.Ministarstvo kulture i informisanja RS – Nova.rs – No Code violation

145.Mineko LTD – KRIK – Code violated –  portal did not publish the decision

146.Ivana Jovanov – N1 info – complaint rejected – complainant not personally effected

147.Viktorija Borojević – N1 info – complaint rejected – complainant not personally effected

148.Katarina Ružičić – N1 info – complaint rejected – complainant not personally effected

149.Biljana Ilić – N1 info – complaint rejected – complainant not personally effected

150.Ana Grubin – Kurir –  Code violated – paper published the decission

151.Marko Lens – Newsbeezer.com – complaint rejected – media outlen not under Council jurisdiction

152.Jelena Jolović – N1 info – complaint rejected – complainant not personally effected

153.Milan Zeljak – N1 info – complaint rejected – complainant not personally effected

154.Željko Mijušković – Republika.rs (I) – Public warning

155.Željko Mijušković – Republika.rs (II) – Public warning

156.Lidija Kandolf Sekulović – Republika.rs – Public warning

157.Željko Mijušković – Republika.rs (III) – Public warning

158.Željko Mijušković – Republika.rs (IV) – Public warning

159.Pavle Jelesijević – Media portal (II) – Public warning

160.Nataša Ilić – Nova.rs – Public warning

161.Igor Vukotić – Blic – Code violated –  paper did not publish decision

162.Gej lezbejski info centar – Danas – No Code violation

163. Gvozden Nikolić – Ozonpress.net – Code violated – portal published decision

OTHER ACTIVITIES

Monitoring of daily newspapers

The Press Council, with the support of the Delegation of the European Union, monitored the observance of the Code of Journalists of Serbia in eight daily newspapers with national coverage in the period from the beginning of July to the end of December. The results were presented at an online press conference in early February 2021. According to these results, the Code was violated a total of 4999 times in 2020, which is slightly less than in all previous years. In the eight dailies in the second half of the year, a total of 3,724 articles were recorded in which the Code was violated, most of which in the newspaper Alo (928), followed by Kurir (651), Vecernje Novosti (627), Srpski Telegraf (594), Informer (509), as well as Blic in which there were 240 such cases. Politika (32 texts) and Danas (35) had least violations of professional standards.

Practice, but also the numbers show that the media still do not take into account the rights of children, so, according to the monitoring results, the newspaper Alo violated the Code of Journalists in 84 such texts, Večernje novosti in 55, Kurir in 52, Informer in 19, Srpski Telegraf in 11, and Blic in7 cases.
In the second half of last year, there were no such cases in Politika or Danas. The project was implemented with the financial support of the EU Delegation.

Online media monitoring

The six most visited online media in Serbia violated the Journalists’ Code as many as 2,829 times in just three months, according to the results of the monitoring, which was conducted from the beginning of April to the end of June. This period coincides with the most severe corona virus attack and the ban on movement, when a large number of citizens received information almost exclusively through online media. Every day for 12 hours researchers followed the news on six news portals – Srbija Danas, Telegraf, Espresso, B92, Mondo and 021. The news published on the portals in the period from 8 am to 8 pm was monitored for violations of the Code of Journalists of Serbia and the Guidelines for application of the Code of Journalists of Serbia in the online environment. The largest number of violations was recorded in the chapter on the truthfulness of reporting, followed by the privacy, dignity and integrity of the persons reported and in the chapter on journalistic responsibility. The project was supported by UNESCO.

Additionally, the monitoring of these online media continued in the period from1  April, 2020 to 7 September 2020, in reduced scope, every first week of the month. The results of this monitoring showed the continuation of the trend of violations of the Code with 328 identified violations of the Code of Journalists in the texts related to the reporting on covid-19. This project was realized with the support of the Balkan Fund for Democracy and the Embassy of the Kingdom of Norway.

Amendments to the Statute

By the beginning of October 2020, in as many as 13 cases, the Cpmplaints Commission failed to make a decision, which is why it was concluded that it was necessary to change some of the rules of work. After a joint meeting of the members of the Commission with Management Board on October 7, at which the possibilities for improving the work of the Commission were discussed, the Board decided on October 30 to amend the Statute of the Council and the Rules of Procedure of the Complaints Commission so that seven votes will be needed to make a decision, in place of eight, while the quorum for holding the session remained eight. The article of the Rules of Procedure were also changed, according to which it was obligatory to substitute a member of the Complaints Commission for the entire session to avoid deciding on a complaint againt the media in which member works. According to the new decision, that member will be excluded from the discussion and decision-making on that complaint, and replacements will be determined as needed, if it is estimated that there will be no quorum.

New members

During 2020, the jurisdiction  of the Press Council was accepted by 13 media outlets: Business and Finance monthly, Perspektiva newspaper and portals: Luftika.rs, Krug, Preshevapress, Mašina, VOICE, Zelena strana, E-stvarnost, Plus online, Boom 93, Biz life and E-Braničevo.

Seminars and trainings

As part of the project supported by the US Embassy, ​​an in-house training was held for a new member of the Council, the Boom93 portal from Požarevac.

In November, members of the Complaints Commission participated in an online training on implementatinon of the Guidelines for the Application of the Code of Journalists of Serbia in the online environment.

Part of the planned activities in this segment, which is financed by the US Embassy in Belgrade, was not realized due to epidemics and was postponed for next year.

Other activities

At the end of May, the Press Council moved to a new office in Kraljice Natalije 28.

During May, a ten-day online campaign was conducted against the spread of misinformation about COVID-19 in cooperation with UNESCO.

During the fall, a manual “In the Public Interest – Manual for Journalists, Editors and Journalism Students on the Most Violated Provisions of the Code of Journalists of Serbia” was published. The manual, which contains an overview and explanation of the decisions of the Complaints Commission regarding the most frequently violated chapters of the Code, was sent to the media, journalists’ associations and faculties that educate journalists. The activity was supported by the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia.

During the fall, the Council’s website was upgraded to make it easier to enter data.

A traveling exhibition “Fake News” was made, which is intended for young people and during 2021 it should be presented at several high schools in Serbia.

Within the same project, which was supported by UNESCO, the Press Council published the “Lexicon of Media Literacy”, also intended for young people, which contains terms such as fake news, sexting, trolling, journalistic duck and others, but also presents basic concepts of media literacy.

In the first half of the year, a new android application “Local Media” was created, in response to the needs of journalists in local media. The application is available through the App store service, and the project was realized with the support of the US Embassy.

The report “Co-financing of media that violates ethical standards” was prepared with the support of the EU Delegation, and contains an analysis of data on media outlets  that have  during 2019, by the decision of the Complaints Commission, violated the Journalists’ Code and also have received funds at competitions for co-financing of media projects.

During 2020, the Press Council responded to 77 inquiries from local governments and state bodies for a total of 1,492 media outlets that participated in competitions for co-financing media content of public interest. In several cases, the money was allocated to the media, for which the Complaints Commission decided several times during the year that they had violated the Journalists’ Code. The number of inquiries is almost 30 percent lower than in the previous year, when there were 99.

In March, Alf Bjarne Johnsen, chairman of the Norwegian Independent Press Council, visited the Press Council, while six representatives of the Council participated in the forum “The role of regulatory and self-regulatory bodies in pre-election reporting – Norwegian experiences” in Belgrade.

In May, a representative of the Council participated in a webinar on the impact of the coronavirus on the work of European press councils in cooperation with the Alliance of Independent Press Councils of Europe.