12. 10. 2004

Serbia second in media sustainability

BELGRADE, October 12, 2004 (Beta) – Serbia is ranked second out of twenty countries in transition on the index of media sustainability for 2003, according to research by the non-governmental organisation IREX ProMedia, which monitors media in transition countries. Serbia’s average score of 2.52 on the index in 2003 shows a gradual improvement over the 2002 figure of 2.42 and the score of 1.86 in 2001. Topping the list is Croatia, with an average rating of 2.83. The index of media sustainability is a scale of 1 to 3. The average score is established from five different categories – freedom of speech, professionalism and the number of sources, performance management and agencies. The European Union’s press representative in Serbia-Montenegro, Aleksandar Djordjevic, who worked with IREX on the ratings, said that Serbia had fallen from 2.22 to 1.8 on the freedom of speech index for 2003. This, he said, was equal to the ranking for the year after the ousting of Slobodan Milosevic. The primary reason for this is that during the state of emergency and the police operation which followed the assassination of prime minister Zoran Djindjic, media were restricted in their reporting to publishing statements from Serbian Government briefings and information gathered from “anonymous sources” from the government, said Djordjevic. The lower score for freedom of speech is also due to the Information Act with its added restrictive clauses, lack of access to the Information Act, which forces journalists to use unreliable sources, and the flouting of the recently adopted Broadcast Act, said Djordjevic. He added that the level of professionalism in journalism had been stable since 2002, scoring 2 on the index.