Civic and Uncivic Values: Serbia in the Post-Milošević Era

7. The Post-2000 Media Situation in Serbia

7 The Post-2000 Media Situation in Serbia Izabela Kisić and Slavija Stanojlović The 5 October 2000 ouster of Slobodan Milošević did not mark the break with the decade-long policy which he had embodied. On the contrary, the ideological masterminds of the Greater Serbia project (influential intellectual circles rallied around the Serb Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Association of Writers of Serbia, etc.) and “executors ” thereof on the ground (army, police and their intelligence services ), removed the highly compromised Milošević in order to continue the implementation of that project by other means, whereby “democratic transition” was a facade which clouded the intent of their efforts. The foregoing was indicated by all the key events which marked the period from October 2000 to July 2008, notably the hand-over of Slobodan Milošević to the Hague Tribunal, his trial and death, and the cruel liquidation of the first Serb democratic Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić. All of the foregoing developments can help us understand the EU’s insistence on the formation of the state union of Serbia and Montenegro (in 2003), the Serb response to Montenegro’s declaration of independence (2006), the prolonged sabotaging of any rational resolution of Kosovo’s status—whose recent declaration of independence in February 2008 was the final act of dissolution of the former SFRY— and finally, the continuous undermining of Bosnia-Herzegovina by dint of control and instrumentalization of Republika Srpska (considered a legitimate war booty). Some representatives of the political class and security apparatus, headed for eight years by Vojislav Koštunica, had blocked any attempt at a genuine social overhaul which would have put in place European standards and values. Moreover, they thus hold hostage a vast majority of the population who sincerely want to accede to European integration , in the first instance to the European Union. The majority of the mass media, under the sway of influential lobbies and new, unidentified owners, back the general orientation of the ruling class by continuing to generate confusion among its readership. On the other side, nationalistic themes were present because there was never any owning up or confrontation of the past on the level of society as a whole. This can be discerned, among other things, in the voluminous publishing activity, which justifies and simplifies the Miloševi ć era. A clear distinction which in the Milošević era existed between the pro-regime and so-called independent media, disappeared in the wake of his fall in the year 2000. Hence, the media situation in Serbia is now more confused and worse than it was 10 years ago. Mechanisms During the rule of Slobodan Milošević, the print and broadcast media were mere instruments of policy geared toward the full justification of the Greater Serbia project and its result, namely the wars in the former Yugoslavia. In the post-5 October period the expected changes, that is discontinuation of such a policy, failed to materialize. That said, the media not only failed to respond to controversies of the Serbian transition , but moreover became an integral part thereof, and a principal contributor to further confusion among the citizenry. Such intentional confusing was made possible by the lack of political consensus on the new set of values to be put in place and failure of the political elite to effect a clear break with the Milošević era legacy. The print media are largely responsible for the enormous rise of the Serbian Radical Party and the radicalization of the Serbian society. Furthermore changes in the legal provisions and regulations of the media did not suffice to alter the general reporting standards. Indeed, the majority of the media-related laws were passed thanks to the pressure of the international community. Most of them are in keeping with international standards. However, the intervention of the international community was focused on the media-related legal regulations, while all other issues, notably those related to media ethics and the set of operational values were left in the hands of domestic experts. The latter , alas, were not strong enough to successfully tackle those ethical concerns. The issues over which the reformists and anti-reformists most often clashed were the following: co-operation with the Hague Tribunal and the trial of war crimes indictees, resolution of the Kosovo status, rela164 Izabela Kisić and Slavija Stanojlović tions with neighboring countries, decentralization (above all stances on Vojvodina’s autonomy), minorities...