15-23 February 2014
Election Monitoring Centre of the House of Human Rights and Democracy (hereinafter: Centre) analyzed the writing of 7 daily newspapers (Danas, Politika, Blic, Alo, Kurir, Informer and Vecernje novosti) in the period from 15 to 23 February based on Internet editions, or printed ones, if internet editions were not available. The goal of the analysis was to determine the presence of texts in which political parties express their opinions and present themselves to the voters in the course of the election campaign. Therefore, the analysis did not include all those articles in which journalists analyse the elections or any aspect of them, columns, comments and similar texts. Furthermore, the articles in tabloids, which report on mutual quarrels on a personal basis among the representatives of political parties, have been also omitted, as essentially they do not send any message to voters related to programmes and goals of political parties.
On the basis of the findings of the analysis, the Centre concludes that Serbian Progressive Party (SPP) has by far the greatest presence in all analysed media, apart from Danas Daily. That presence is usually at about 40 percent. There is no negative article about SPP in this kind of texts.
The presence of officially still the strongest parliamentary opposition party, Democratic Party (DP) ranges from 5 to 20 percent.
Kurir Daily and Informer Daily conduct clearly negative campaigns against Democratic Party. All articles about DP in Kurir Daily are extremely negative and the largest number of front pages has been dedicated to this party, also in the extremely negative context. Negative articles about DP prevail also in Informer Daily. Politika Daily has only one article about DP, and it is negative. Vecernje novosti Daily published two articles about this political party, one being negative and the other neutral.
The conclusion of the analysis is that 4 out of 7 daily newspapers, specifically Kurir, Informer, Vecernje novosti and Politika Daily openly favour the Serbian Progressive Party. Blic Daily and Alo Daily can be said to mildly favour this party, but within acceptable limits of the balance between objective information and the right to its own editorial policy. Danas Daily is the only analysed newspaper, which does not favour any political party.
Human Rights House consists of:
- Civic Initiatives
- Belgrade Centre for Human Rights
- Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights – YUCOM
- Helsinki Committee for Human Rights
- Policy Center
Findings per Media
1. Kurir Daily
In percentages, 40 percent of texts refer to the Social Progressive Party (SPP), while the coalitions around Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) and Democratic Party (DP) are present with 18.57 percent. The curiosity is that all texts about DP are negative. The coalition around Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) has about 23 percent of negative texts. The coalition around Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is present with 10 percent, 14 percent of which is negative. New Democratic Party (NDP) is present with 7.14 percent, United Regions of Serbia (URS) with 2.86 percent, while Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) and the Third Serbia are present with 1.43 percent each.
2. Informer
SPP is present with 37.5 percent, SPS with 29,17, while DS is present with 25 percent. However, 86 percent of texts about SPS is negative and in case of DS the percentage is 67. All texts about SPP are extremely positive. URS is present with 8.33 percent.
3. Vecernje novosti
In percentages, SPP is present with 41.67 percent, the coalition around SPS with 19.44 percent, while New Democratic Party (NDP) is present with 11.1 percent in total number of articles. Dveri Movement, URS and DP are present with 5.66 percent each, and Albanian political parties, list of Sasa Radulovic, DPS and Serbian Radical Party (SRP) with 2.78 each. The only negative texts are about DP (50 percent of articles is dedicated to this political party) and Radulovic
(100 percent of published texts is negative).
4. Politika
In percentages, SPP is the topic of 44.44 percent of articles, which are all either positive or neutral. SPS is present with 22.22 percent but a half of it is negative. LDP and Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians are present with 11.11 percent each (neural texts). DP is also present with 11.11 percent with 100 percent of it being negative.
5. Blic
In percentages, SPP is present with 22.5 percent, and the coalition around SPS with 17.5 percent. LDP and URS are present with 15 percent each, and DPS with 10 percent, while DP and NDP are present with 7.5 percent each. The list of Sasa Radulovic and SRP are present with 2,5 percent each.
6. Alo
In percentages, SPP is preset with 35 percent, while DP and SPS were given 20 percent of space in articles each. LDP is present with 10 percent and DPS, NDP and the List of Sasa Radulovic with 5 percent each.
7. Danas
Danas Daily has the most equitable approach to political parties expressed in percentages also. DP, NDP and SPS are present with 16.67 percent each, while SPP, LDP, DPS, Dveri Movement, Third Serbia and the List of Sasa Radulovic are with 8.33 percent each. Danas Daily has no negative articles about political parties.
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