'93 ELECTIONS ON TV

AIM, Belgrade, Dec. 21

The three most prominent television stations in Serbia behaved differently before the recent elections. State television favoured the ruling Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) - in the central daily news program, about four hours were devoted to the SPS, to the Democratic Movement of Serbia (DEPOS) 43 minutes, Ssesselj's Radicals were given only three minutes in the TV news. The Independent Television "Studio B" (NTV) favoured the DEPOS (126 minutes, while the SPS got only 26 minutes). TV "Politika" equally distributed the time in its central information program called DAN (the DAY) devoted to political parties - both SPS and DEPOS got 29 minutes each.

The difference between the programs about the elections on major TV stations in Serbia was striking again. On the whole, the programs of each of the analyzed TV stations differently presented to the viewers both the weight of the election result and the nature of what was offered in the elections. The differences in the programs were most apparent in information telecasts. Their contents, regardless of the adopted rules of conduct of the media in the elections, should have relied on professional standards alone, so that the differences in TV news on all three stations should have been negligible. But the leading news programs of Radio-Television Serbia (RTS), of the Independent Television "Studio B" (NTV "Studio B") and the Television "Politika" reflected flagrantly the differences in the very platforms of the three stations.

The RTS quite obviously favoured the ruling party in its evening news. From the day the election lists of candidates were completed until the beginning of the pre-election silence (from Dec. 3 until Dec. 16), there were 95 presentations of the SPS which lasted almost four hours all together (257:14 minutes). The Associated Leftists were also given quite a good deal of publicity. As participants in the elections, they were presented in 30 presentations which lasted for a little over an hour (61:40 minutes), which is more than all the time on state TV devoted to all the major opposition parties together: 30 presentations were broadcast on the DEPOS (43 minutes), 17 about the Democratic Party (38:27 minutes), the Democratic Party of Serbia had 13 appearances lasting 33:55 minutes. In distinction from the previous early elections, the representatives of the Serbian Radical Party appeared only twice, for 3:09 minutes on the whole, and the newly-established Party of Serbian Unity appeared in 4 presentations lasting 6:46 minutes.

In the information program of NTV "Studio B" called "The Days of the Week", the activities of the DEPOS received most of the attention - 126 minutes. The Democratic Party (3:27 minutes) and the Democratic Party of Serbia (26:34 minutes) also got more time than the ruling party - all the presentations of the SPS lasted 21:44 minutes. The Associated Leftists and the Party of Serbian Unity were not even mentioned in the central news program of this TV station, and as for the Serbian Radical Party, contrary to the last-year's elections when this party was completely ignored, there were 6 presentations lasting 5:44 minutes.

Competitors in the elections were presented equally in the main news program of TV "Politika" called "Dan" ("Day"). Both the DEPOS and the SPS were given 29 minutes each, the Democratic Party had only one minute less, and the Democratic Party of Serbia was allocated 22 minutes. Apart from them, the Associated Leftists (3 minutes), the Party of Serbian Unity (4 minutes) and the Serbian Radical Party (6 minutes) were the only parties which received any significant attention at all.

The contents of information broadcasts of all the three stations were considerably changed during the campaign, since the block devoted to the elections was the most extensive one in them all. Yet, TV "Politika" managed to preserve the established standard of its main news program (the "Day" lasted its usual 30 minutes on the average), the NTV somewhat prolonged its broadcast ("The days of the Week" lasted 48 minutes on the average), while the RTS "Daily news" reached 110 minutes on the average. The duration of the RTS news was certainly affected by the legal obligation of the public Television to enable equal access to the medium to all the parties which had submitted lists of candidates for the elections, in special programs, but also in the central news telecast. In the last 14 days of the campaign, the special segment of the program devoted to the elections ("The Election Chronicle") in which all the participants had a right to equal number of appearances (in respect to the number of lists of candidates they submitted), according to their own choice, formed 36 per cent of the central daily news program at 7.30 p.m. Hence, 53 different parties and groups of citizens presented themselves in 184 election chronicles, and only 20 of them had more than three presentations (and the corresponding number of submitted lists). Apart from the eight parties which appeared most frequently (in 75 presentations), in the remaining 119 instances, the viewers watched 45 different submitters of election lists, three minutes of each.

The majority of information significant for the elections, however, were placed in another program segment called "Regular party activities" in the specialized terminology of the RTS. This block formed on the average 24 per cent of the news broadcast, and during the last forthnight before the elections, 60 per cent of the segment was devoted to the activities of the SPS. Regular activities of the DEPOS got 3.3 per cent, the Democratic Party 1.4 and the Democratic Party of Serbia 1.06 per cent of the time in this segment. Associated Leftists were given 9.3 per cent of the time, and all the other parties (as well as procedure presentations, service information, reports on the activities of the republican election bodies and all other news and comments concerning the elections) 24.3 per cent. Favouring the SPS in this part of the program was carried out through an obvious promotion of the election offer of the ruling party in the form of "regular reporting". The attitudes, election promises and expectations of the party in power were hence, presented as "regular" and "normal", and thus made the offer of all parties was quite marginal.

The greatest portion of the daily news program was devoted to the regular informative part (45 minutes or 40 per cent). Placed between the two election blocks (endless, monotonous, three-minute presentations in the chronicles and numerous SPS discussions, gatherings, promotions, within the "regular party activities") this "usual" part of the daily news transmitted to the viewers a picture of the world in the relation to which the election offer was defined. This picture included difficult but promising everyday life (economic results achieved in spite of the sanctions, the capability of the state to ensure regular supply and operation of the public services in spite of the shortages and hyperinflation), the party in power deserving the credit for it. For all the failures and problems in everyday life, the opposition is to blame ("There is no state of the law in Serbia, because the opposition will not permit its introduction"), or the international community, but this too, will change after the elections: a SPS official explained that this party needed the majority in the Parliament in order to have the sanctions lifted.

Snjezzana Milivojevicc

(The data from an investigation titled "TV Presentation of the Participants in the 1993 Early Parliamentary Elections in Serbia" carried out fro the Citizens' Association of Serbia - DEPOS)