August 2, 2018
In the two central news broadcasts of public service Radio-Television Vojvodina – covering the Vojvodina region in the north of Serbia, most information originates from Belgrade (which is not in Vojvodina), while a large number of places in Vojvodina get airtime only when they are visited by representatives of the government or during pre-election campaigns. Of journalistic genres, the newscasts of RTV most frequently include reports and news items, while there are very few media initiatives and television packages. The economy is the topic area reported on the most, though this mostly includes transmissions of the statements of government representatives.
These statistics were gleaned from an eight-month project to monitor RTV news programmes that was conducted by the Movement to Support RTV in cooperation with the Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation, within the auspices of the project “Shift RTV”.
“In the central informative news broadcasts of RTV there is the most reporting on the activities of officials at all levels of government – state, provincial and local – and this is reported on more than issues related to the media, minorities, the judiciary, education, health and social policy,” said Sanja Kljajić, from the Movement to Support RTV, speaking during the presentation of the results of this monitoring activity. According to her assessment, the monitoring of RTV’s news programming showed that the editorial policy of this broadcaster “follows the agenda of the government”.
According to data released by the portal VOICE, the ratings of RTV in July this year showed a drastic fall over the past two years.
