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Media Bias, Legislative Challenges, and the Fight for Freedom. The Future of the Media in Serbia – Facts and Trends

Valentina Sigeti, Teodora Koledin

Sarajevo; Novi Sad; Ljubljana: Mediacentar; Novi Sad School of Journalism; Peace Institute; South East European Network for Professionalization of Media (SEENPM) (2025), 50 pp.

"Alongside the rise of new technologies and the evolving global conditions in the media industry, journalism and media in Serbia will face numerous challenges, particularly in the areas of basic media freedom and journalist protection, based on the findings of this research: • There is no reliable ... data on the number of journalists in Serbia, or how many of them are women or members of marginalized groups. • Media ownership in Serbia is highly concentrated, particularly in the television broadcasting sector, which affects media reporting. Channels with national frequencies often align their narratives with the government’s or ruling party’s agenda. • The state and ruling party demonstrate tendencies to control the media. This is evident in the newly updated law that allows business companies engaged in electronic communications, such as the state-owned Telekom, to own media outlets. Additionally, findings indicate that some media owners at the local level are connected to the ruling party. • Media financing is often misused to encourage biased reporting. Public calls for funding are corrupted by GONGO media organizations, which prioritize funding pro-government outlets; state advertising is not regulated by law, and the media community was left out of the discussion on new advertising laws; despite receiving the majority of its budget from citizens’ subscriptions, the national public broadcaster RTS is still perceived as one of the most progovernment outlets in the country; foreign donors, including the EU, US and UK, provide significant financial support for media projects in Serbia, but there is no transparent data on the total amount of money donated. • National minorities are represented through media outlets funded by National Councils of National Minorities. However, journalists from some of these media outlets work under political pressures and engage in self-censorship. National minorities living in the northern province of Serbia, Vojvodina, are also served by the provincial public broadcaster RTV. RTS does not provide content in the languages of the Bosnian, Vlach and Bulgarian communities in Serbia’s eastern and western regions. Romani and Albanian communities are represented on RTS, but the amount of content is minimal. • Television is the most commonly used source of news and information, with citizens watching up to eight hours of television daily. The most-watched TV news programmes are central-informative political shows on channels with national frequencies, which are widely considered pro-government. • Only 30% of Serbian citizens trust the media. Social media is the least trusted media type, while television is the most trusted." (Executive summary) more

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Gesellschaftliche Teilhabe und Meinungsbildung auf Twitch: Von einer reinen Gaming-Plattform zum Ort für politischen Austausch?

Viola Carolina Granow

Media Perspektiven, issue 15 (2025), 16 pp.

"42 Prozent der 14- bis 40-Jährigen in Deutschland nutzen Twitch mindestens selten. Die Twitch-User sind überwiegend männlich und zum größten Teil zwischen 21 und 30 Jahren alt. Gaming ist meist der erste Berührungspunkt mit Twitch. Auf der Plattform stehen Content-Creator und ihre Livestreams ... more

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More Media, Rising Challenges for Journalists. The Future of the Media in Montenegro – Facts and Trends

Milica Bogdanovic

Sarajevo; Skopje; Ljubljana: Mediacentar; Montenegro Media Institute; Peace Institute; South East European Network for Professionalization of Media (SEENPM) (2025), 34 pp.

"Since the change of the long-standing DPS government in mid-2020, Montenegrin society has faced political crises. Frequent election cycles and instability in ruling majorities have affected the speed and quality of Montenegro’s integration into the EU, the work and functioning of institutions, an ... d the general social and political environment. After the reconstruction of Montenegro’s 44th government, anti-democratic and anti-European tendencies emerged. These tendencies are reflected in the advocacy for legislation aimed at changing the constitutional order regarding language and citizenship, suppressing criticism from the civil sector, and undermining relations with neighbouring Croatia, an EU member state. This has been accompanied by a decline in trust in key political institutions and an overall unsatisfactory political culture. Although several international studies monitoring the state of democracy, the rule of law, corruption perception, and media freedoms show progress compared to previous years, the current situation in media and journalism is not encouraging. In recent years, institutions have attempted to strategically address the media sector through the adoption of a Media Strategy and amendments to media laws. However, these regulations have not adequately addressed some of the key issues affecting the media landscape, such as media ownership transparency, strong foreign influence in media ownership structures, unregistered portals, and the fight against disinformation. Additionally, they have not implemented new European regulations in this area, indicating that media laws will need to be revised again. The significant increase in the number of media outlets in Montenegro has not led to greater media pluralism or improved journalistic standards. The media market is small, and the launch of new outlets lacks economic justification. The media scene is heavily influenced by foreign actors, predominantly from Serbia. Owners from Serbia control four out of five television stations with national frequency, and two out of three daily newspapers are foreign-owned. These media outlets inevitably influence public opinion and are used to expand political influence, which affects the quality of media reporting and threatens the survival of locally owned media outlets. Year after year, the amount of public funds allocated to media outlets through the Media Pluralism Fund has increased, which is important for their sustainability. The Agency for Electronic Media and the Ministry of Culture and Media distribute the funds transparently, but mechanisms for evaluating the quality of financed projects need to be established. The national regulator, the Agency for Electronic Media, has improved its communication with the public. Recent amendments to the law have expanded its jurisdiction, enabling it to impose measures of varying intensity. While it remains responsible only for electronic media, there is clear potential for the agency to develop into an independent and professional regulator that consistently applies regulations. Current self-regulatory mechanisms in Montenegro’s media sector are not effective, but there is potential for further development in the new amendments to the law. These amendments require media outlets to develop internal self-regulation if they wish to receive funds from the Media Pluralism Fund. Implementing this legal provision must be accompanied by raising awareness among media and journalists about the importance of strong self-regulation. This will help citizens recognize self-regulation as an independent authority capable of improving the quality of reporting and providing a reliable platform for submitting complaints." (Conclusions, pages 28-29) more

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Changing Media Landscape, Same Persistent Problems. The Future of the Media in Albania – Facts and Trends

Ilda Londo

Sarajevo; Tirana; Ljubljana: Mediacentar; Albanian Media Institute; Peace Institute; South East European Network for Professionalization of Media (SEENPM) (2025), 33 pp.

"Analysis of media in Albania and mapping of main trends through credible, regular, and complete data is a problematic endeavour. However, the data available show that it is safe to say that challenges for professional journalism remain formidable in Albania. Full formality of the media market has n ... more

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Democratic Decline, Economic and Political Pressures, Urgency for Reforms. The Future of the Media in Turkey – Facts and Trends

Sinem Aydinli

Sarajevo; Istanbul; Ljubljana: Mediacentar; Bianet; Peace Institute; South East European Network for Professionalization of Media (SEENPM) (2025), 39 pp.

"The state of the media and democracy in Turkey faces critical challenges that hinder freedom of expression and pluralism, due to restrictive legal frameworks, economic instability, and cross-ownership in the media sector. Although digitalization has transformed news consumption, the government’s ... more

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The power of humour

D+C: Development and Cooperation, issue 4 (2025), pp. 28-54

"All over the world, satirists courageously stand up for democratic values, often under extremely difficult conditions. Through their art, they create spaces for freedom and challenge authorities. On the other hand, extremists use humour for their political purposes too: They ridicule those who diss ... more

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How Democracy Promoters Can Respond to Populist Protests: The Case of Brazil

Melissa Li

Berlin: Global Public Policy Institute (GPPI) (2024), 86 pp.

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Rompe la Burbuja: Guía para Convencer en Contextos Políticos Polarizados

Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) (2024), 7 pp.

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Unpacking Affective Polarization in Afghanistan: Ethnic Politics, Elite Competition, and Online Divisive Content

Mohammad Qasim Wafayezada

Tokyo: Toda Peace Institute (2024), 25 pp.

"Affective polarization has been a persistent feature of Afghanistan’s society and politics in the past decades. However, with the instantaneous collapse of the republic’s government and the return of the Taliban, the country has witnessed heightened affective polarization along ethnic and ideol ... more

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Bulgarian Media Since 1989: From Instrumentalization to Capture

Ivo Indzhov

Central European Journal of Communication, volume 2, issue 36 (2024), pp. 185-203

"In the second decade of the 21st century, Bulgaria earned the unsavory reputation of having the least media freedom in the EU’s (Reporters Without Borders). This paper examines the current state of Bulgarian media based on two research concepts: for instrumentalization, respectively the capture o ... more

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La couverture médiatique des soulèvements iraniens 2022-2023 : Analyse de la presse française

Yekta Akhbarifar

Paris: L'Harmattan (2024), 179 pp.

"En septembre 2022, suite à l'assassinat d'une jeune fille kurde iranienne par les patrouilles d'orientation, l'Iran connaît des mois de soulèvements contre le régime. Si ces derniers adoptent de nouvelles formes de contestation, ils sont causés par les mêmes injustices que les précédents mo ... more

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opulism, conspiracy narratives and governmentality in Duterte’s Philippines

Fernan Talamayan

International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics,, volume 20, issue 2 (2024), pp. 153-172

"This article examines the semantics of populist rhetoric and conspiracy narratives in the Philippines to understand how they can be operationalized for governmental purposes. Focusing on Rodrigo Duterte’s presidency (2016–22), I argue that conspiracy narratives simplify socio-economic issues an ... more

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COVID-19 and government trust: A spiral of silence analysis in South America

Stephen M Croucher, Anthony Spencer, Sandra Bustamante, Thao Nguyen, Oscar Gomez

International Communication Gazette, volume 86, issue 7 (2024), pp. 565-580

"The COVID-19 pandemic has uncovered prejudices, systemic inequities and critical feelings about governmental institutions around the globe. Since the start of the pandemic, the 12 nations that make up South America have had more than 67 million cases and 1.3 million fatalities. Public trust in and ... more

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Russian Collective Identity Construction in State Media During Russia’s Full-Scale Invasion of Ukraine

Polina Eremenko

Global Media Journal - German Edition, volume 14, issue 1 (2024), 20 pp.

"In the evolving landscape of communication technology, the interplay between media and collective identity becomes crucial due to its ability to shape the socio-political dynamics of nations. This article aims to address the role of collective identity construction in Russian state media, arguing t ... more

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Journalism for Development: The role of journalism in promoting democracy, political accountability and sustainable development

Joseph E. Stiglitz, Anya Schiffrin, Dylan W. Groves

Paris: UNESCO (2024), 17 pp.

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Democracy and AI: How Technological Progress Can Strengthen Democratic Structures

Nikolai Horn, Matthieu Binder

Potsdam; Berlin: Friedrich Naumann Foundation; iRights.Lab (2024), 39 pp.

"[...] this paper presents approximately 30 worldwide examples of successful AI use to promote various aspects of democracy. At the same time, the corresponding challenges that need to be addressed are highlighted. From the examination of international examples, the following theses can be derived: ... more

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Vilify, ridicule, disinform: Political communication and media trust in the age of generative AI

Christian Schwieter, Milan Gandhi

Potsdam: Friedrich Naumann Foundation; Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) (2024), 23 pp.

"This report examines political communication and media trust in the age of generative artificial intelligence systems (AI). Firstly, it provides a brief explainer of generative AI tools and techniques, looking separately at systems that generate text and those that generate or manipulate images, vi ... more