Serbian Media

Relations between Serbia and the European Union have been tense in the past few months. The former Yugoslav republic has been pressed to surrender accused war criminal Ratko Mladić, and failure to do so is threatening Serbia's hopes of joining the EU.

But despite difficult relations with the bloc, Serbia is the biggest recipient of EU money in the Balkans. Along with rebuilding infrastructure, the media is an important field the EU has been involved with since the 1990s -- when small independent media outlets were supported in their fight for democracy during the Slobodan Milošević era.

Svetlana Djukić from the European Agency for Reconstruction (EAR) said transforming former state-run RTS television is an ongoing challenge.

"RTS was the biggest propaganda machine during the Milošević era, but at the same time it was not fully financially supported," Djukić said. She said the equipment was completely outdated and it was a very difficult situation for the over 8,000 employees.

Equipment belongs in a museum

The station RTS was destroyed during NATO bombings in 1999. Over the past few years, the European Union has invested a total of 4.5 million Euros ($5.7 million). This funding has mainly gone into broadcasting infrastructure and modernizing the station's computer network.

Bojan Brkić, the deputy editor-in-chief of the RTS news program, said improving technology was a top priority.

"In many parts of this TV station, you will still see black-and-white monitors and technology, which are only museum exhibits in other parts of the developed world," Brkić said. "That's where donations are essential."

Politics no longer play a role

According to Brkic, it's not only the technologies that have to change, but the mentality as well. Brkic joined RTS almost five years ago -- shortly after the fall of Milošević. He said the challenge of turning a broadcaster with a bad reputation into a respected and credible institution motivated him to take the position. He said they were trying to make the staff more professional.

"We hire people because they graduated from journalism schools, with great marks or show talent. Political inclinations are of no importance whatsoever," Brkić said. "I don't even know the political sympathies of any of my staff on the news program."

At the core of the RTS overhaul is the change from a state-owned station to a public broadcaster -- funded by subscriptions from citizens. RTS is now responsible to the citizens, and no one else.

The finance ministry can no longer say how its funds should be spent. Even though Brkić admits he gets occasional phone calls from the government and other powerful Serbian institutions, he's adamant that direct manipulation and interference is a thing of the past. Today, RTS is not afraid of being critical of the government, Brkić said.

"If I get reliable information confirmed from a couple of sources that a minister in the government committed fraud, I am going to broadcast that news," Brkić said. "I'm not going to cut it because it involves a minister in the government."

EAR's Djukić said the station has already regained a lot of credibility over the past few years. While investigative reporting is labor intensive, expensive and time consuming, she said it's a priority of EU funding.

B92 learned to survive in a commercial world

Another broadcaster that has received significant EU investment is B92 -- a station with a long history of standing up for democracy and freedom of the press. B92 began in 1989 as an experimental student radio station. Over the years, it expanded into the Internet, becoming the most visited Web site in the entire region. During the late 1990s, B92 was the backbone of the resistance against Milošević. Today, it is almost completely commercially funded.

Thanks to the continuous support of numerous international donors -- including the EU -- B92 added television to its services in 2000. Now, B92 television can be seen all over the country and the number of viewers is steadily increasing.

A few years ago, however, the company needed help in working out how to survive in a commercial world. Veran Matić, the founder and director of B92, again approached the EU.

"We sent our analysis of past training to the European Agency of Reconstruction and we said that many of the trainings and measures funded by the EU were just wasting money because they were done in a bureaucratic way without taking care of our needs and what we really want," Matić said. "The new training was tailor-made: we decided on the topics and things were done according to our needs. It was flexible. For us, this was the most successful model of training and education."

Whether a reporter or an editor, a human resources specialist or a financial expert -- every employee at B92 has received training over the past two years. 500,000 Euros, which is roughly a quarter of B92's EU funds, were invested in training. The rest was used to provide quality programming, said EAR's Djukić.

"In Serbia, everything is politics."

The transformation of the Serbian media landscape sounds like it's working well in theory. But speaking to people on the streets of Belgrade, one detects a general disillusionment with the country's television and radio.

"The problem with RTS is that the government and political parties still very much control this broadcaster," said one young man, whose opinion was echoed by many others asked on the streets. "They were the ones choosing the current director of RTS. This is a big flaw. In Serbia everything is politics. Politics are involved in virtually everything."

B92's director Veran Matić vehemently defended the independence of his broadcaster. But he said that the Serbian media landscape is currently in turmoil, and is still ruled by politics.

"The Serbian media are boiling themselves down to being tabloids. The quality is very bad, even worse than the media during Milošević," Matić said. He said a lot of media lived off political parties or the profits of criminal organizations.

"They on the other hand influence the content and the quality of the programs -- something has to be done," Matić said.

Supporting the implementation of Serbia's new media laws, transforming RTS into an independent broadcaster, and funding quality productions, investigative reporting and media education are the first steps in the right direction.

Observers of Serbia's media in the post-Milošević era argue that EU investment has been a positive force. However, they are quick to add that for long-term success, reforms of the media in Serbia need to go hand in hand with fighting corruption and permanently strengthening Serbia's institutions and democracy.