Unfortunately, since Vidovdan containers in Belgrade and Novi Sad are being removed so that they are not used for street blocking, and the protesters were accused of burning containers and causing chaos in the streets. Unculture won, hygiene, physical and mental, suffered, thanks to propaganda, of course.
THE SAME GARBAGE, FROM THE SAME KITCHEN
This requiem for containers is actually an introduction to the story of media that have suffered a similar fate. During the past weeks, the first joint TV show emerged from that propaganda container, which was produced in chorus by journalists and propagandists from the television stations "Informer", "Pink", "Happy", B92, "Prva" and "Studio B". It was simulcast before Vidovdan, and after it the editors, together with Seselj, once again explained how the civil war in Serbia is coming. I would not waste words now on the show itself, which consists of secretly made recordings of student plenums and fabricated accusations and pub nonsense, but on the dangerous materialization of the idea of the Association of Journalists of Serbia, which will apparently act as a single newsroom. That newsroom will publish official positions and news, directing the media in Serbia. For example, today the key word on the front pages and announcements in tabloids is "container". After the special show, this is no longer a coincidence, but an indicator of the absence of pluralism in reporting, editing, and, by God, in media ownership. The huge number of channels is actually an illusion of choice, because you are watching identical content on all channels. In short, whichever container you look into, you will see and smell the same garbage, from the same kitchen.
Unfortunately, the channel whose existence for more than four years was actually a media anomaly also ended up in that container. It is about the information channel "Euronews Serbia", which was introduced after Emmanuel Macron's visit as a kind of example that it is possible to plant a pelzer of media in Serbia through a license that will try to be objective, pluralistic, between the two media blocs symbolized by Telekom and UM. He gathered really top media professionals from the late B92, RTS and N1, "Nova S", "Al Jazeera", who managed to create an affiliation that met all standards in the shortest possible time and passed at least two external program validations. They also managed to position themselves as credible, despite obstructions from both the government and the opposition.
THE INSTALLING OF AN EDITORIAL OFFICE
The existence and quality of work of "Euronews Serbia" for more than three years was proof that you can engage in journalism in Serbia without being a member or promoter of any political option. Unfortunately, as the idea of the EU is weaker in Serbia, and the EU institutions care less and less about the state of the media here, the government managed to completely destroy the credibility of this channel through the director Minja Miletić and the editor-in-chief Dragana Pejović. After a huge number of employees opposed the shameful press release of "Euronews", which, unsigned and pushed, was further spread through "Informer" and other media from the beginning of the text, a gruesome reprisal followed. A large number of journalists lost their jobs or were marginalized, after the sudden systematization of jobs and "reduction in the scope of programs". Paradoxically, this reduction is happening at the moment when the affiliation is expanding to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia.
The fact that the government wanted to launch its announcements from the "Euronews" channel, and not, say, "Informer", shows how that "European" cover is being misused to abolish freedom of reporting and discipline the media and journalists. It is a fact that colleagues received the support of UNS, NUNS, the European Association of Journalists and other, less and less media and organizations outside the control of the government, but unfortunately, this is a posthumous recognition for what they managed to do in the editorial office of "Euronews Serbia" before this violent takeover. In the meantime, the semblance of pluralism disappeared, because United Media was sold, so colleagues from N1 or Nova S may face a similar danger. The authorities have actually shown that in relation to the media, it is not about intolerance of criticism, but absolute obedience is demanded from them. In practice, this means, as one of the dismissed colleagues, Marija Šehić, said, that employees are required to, under the threat of punishment, suspension and finally dismissal, unquestioningly convey and carry out the editor's requests.
When it comes to professional integrity, I have to remind the viewers that in the promo campaign, on May 9, 2021, the trademark of "Euronews Serbia" were journalists and editors who individually, one by one, put their name and surname as a pledge that it will be a place for confrontation of opinions, attitudes, without propaganda, primitivism and discrimination. When the new management changed the editorial policy, the entire newsroom showed solidarity, which is another endemic phenomenon in the journalistic guild in Serbia. Today, this channel is left without many of those professionals, and I'm afraid without credibility.
REQUIEM FOR "EURONEWS SERBIA"
It seems to me that at the very end of this requiem for "Euronews Serbia", Minja Miletić, as one of the founders of ANS, will offer with a big smile in an all-night interview not only a glass of cold water to Miša Vacić, whom she teased the other day, on N1. Now Misha will get both sweet and coffee pride, because that's what the favorite interlocutors and analysts of the new management look like today.
As for Dragana Pejović, who first evaluated and then condemned the newsroom to which she was brought, her words about the position of journalists that she uttered for Cenzolovka as a journalist of NIN and a trade union activist on the subject of mobbing sound paradoxical. The only question is by which mechanism of the media Stockholm syndrome you turn from the protector of the profession and the position of the journalist into a beheader. Here's a quick reminder.
CENSORSHIP: How much mobbing is there in the media and how is it manifested?
PEJOVIĆ: What is it other than mobbing when a long-time editor of a political column takes the place of a journalist of a Belgrade column, which is an impossible path even for someone who makes the biggest mistakes in his career? What is mobbing if the journalist does not get any task, no matter what he proposes? But everyone hopes that tomorrow they won't be on the street, even though the only salvation for all of us is to just accept it. When we are ready to end up on the streets, power and capital will be upset.
At the end of this text, let's refrain from pathos, that was not my intention at all. Each of us signs with our first and last name, the space of freedom has always been conquered and defended in our media until you are fired or shut down. You can't buy professionalism and integrity, but you can sell it, albeit only once, and then you're in that container from the beginning that pushes, fills and empties daily politics as necessary.
