SERBIA

THE NEW YORK TIMES ON SERBIAN MEDIA: After protests in Novi Sad, RTS “changed Its tune”!

by Serbian Times3. February 2025.3. February 2025.

Serbian state media are “changing their tune” in reporting on the massive protests taking place in the country, writes The New York Times.

State television had largely ignored student blockades, which, according to The New York Times, were directed against President Aleksandar Vučić. However, it has now turned the spotlight on the protests.

When tens of thousands of demonstrators blocked three key bridges over the Danube River in Novi Sad this past weekend, paralyzing Serbia’s second-largest city, the ruling party issued a sharp warning—not to students and citizens, but to the public broadcaster covering them, writes The New York Times journalist Andrew Higgins.

“After largely ignoring the three-month-long street demonstrations led by students across the country, Radio Television of Serbia (RTS)—which has long served as President Aleksandar Vučić’s propaganda megaphone—suddenly changed its tune and placed the protests in Novi Sad among its top news stories,” The New York Times reports.

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“What’s even worse, at least for the ruling party, is that RTS reported factually, without condemning the demonstrators as foreign intelligence operatives or opposition puppets, as it had done in the past,” the American media outlet adds.

The Serbian Progressive Party, led by Vučić, issued an unusually strong statement late Saturday, denouncing what it called the “scandalous reporting” by RTS. The party accused the broadcaster of “grossly abusing the journalistic profession” and “siding with politicians who seek to destroy the constitutional order of the Republic of Serbia”.

“Media control has been a central pillar of the Serbian system under Vučić, allowing him to withstand multiple rounds of protests by demonizing and discrediting demonstrators while maintaining a firm grip on power for over 12 years,” The New York Times assesses.

Journalist Andrew Higgins questions whether the Serbian president is losing control over the media—and with it, perhaps, his increasingly authoritarian rule.