Results of the Work of the Complaints Commission and Monitoring of Compliance with the Serbian Journalists' Code of Ethics in Daily Newspapers from July 1 to December 31, 2025

Report on Monitoring Compliance with the Serbian Journalists’ Code of Ethics in Daily Newspapers in the Period from July 1 to December 31, 2025

The report on monitoring compliance with the Serbian Journalists’ Code of Ethics in daily newspapers for the period from July 1 to December 31, 2025, was presented on January 22, 2026, at a discussion held at the Press Center of the Journalists’ Association of Serbia, organized by the Press Council.

Nine national print media committed 7,346 violations of the Serbian Journalists’ Code of Ethics in 4,506 articles from the beginning of July to the end of December 2025, which is about 10 percent more compared to the same period in 2024, according to the Code compliance monitoring conducted by the Press Council for the eleventh time. The newspapers with the most violations in published articles were Alo, Informer, and Kurir, while Danas and Nova had the fewest. The most frequently violated chapters of the Code were those related to truth in reporting, respect for and protection of privacy, and journalist responsibility. This is the first time the monitoring has been done according to the new Serbian Journalists’ Code of Ethics, which was adopted in December 2024.

The monitoring results were presented by journalist Bojan Cvejić and journalist Vera Didanović, who monitored newspaper reporting for six months, while the Secretary General of the Press Council, Gordana Novaković, spoke about the work of the Complaints Commission.

The Press Council monitoring included a content analysis of nine print media with national coverage – Alo, Blic, Danas, Večernje novosti, Informer, Kurir, Politika, Nova, and Srpski telegraf.

The top two places, according to the number of violations of ethical and professional standards, were held, just like last year, by Alo (2,004 violations in 1,205 articles) and Informer (1,456 violations in 837 articles), while this time Kurir came in third with 1,318 violations in 811 articles. They are followed by Srpski Telegraf (with 668 articles), Večernje novosti (456), Politika (190), Blic (182), while the Danas newspaper again recorded the fewest deviations from the Code this year with 40 such articles, and Nova newspaper with 117.

The author of the report, Bojan Cvejić, stated at the discussion that almost all newspapers saw an increase in the number of violations compared to the previous monitoring.

“Exceptions are Srpski Telegraf, which is at last year’s level, and Blic is the only one that significantly reduced the number of contents not in line with ethical and professional standards. The Danas newspaper, although it had the fewest violations, this time recorded almost twice as many violations as it had before,” said Bojan Cvejić.

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