Will you see the president's address in Dnevnik RTS while Pink or Informer is standing in the corner of the screen, since state officials are seen much more often on these channels, as guests of the morning program or the collegium in constant convocation
Citizens stood in lines for hours complaining about their electricity bills. In Novi Sad, there was noise for days until the moment when Elektrovojvodina apologized to the users. It seems that someone realized that the devil had played a joke, that is, that the electorate of the ruling coalition does not have to pay for electricity, that the bills are late and that they were issued on a temporary basis. When you have 11000 complaints, you can say that electricity is charged completely arbitrarily. The Solomonic solution that was found is an e-government portal where those grandparents will pay for electricity online in the future. With the same electricity, regardless of the engaged power, green, blue and red zone, expensive and cheap tariff, consumers pay a fee for RTS. Popularly speaking, a subscription for television we pay regardless of how and who calculates our electricity consumption.
It is logical then to ask ourselves, since we are already paying for the work of the public media service, how our money is spent. If we put aside for a moment the complacent bragging about the centenary of Radio Belgrade, the nurturing of the Serbian language (as if some other language is spoken in Serbia), the fact remains that the public service is under serious threat to bring its content closer to commercial tabloid TV channels. We could seriously consider the professionalism and objectivity of the newsroom, where it is increasingly difficult to recognize media pluralism. For a whole century, radio and television news programs have always and unreservedly protected the interests of the current government. We hoped that the practice of media TV Bastille would never be repeated, but unfortunately it is still present today, most often in the form of ignoring every voice of criticism addressed to the authorities. The last example is the news about the results of the vote on the proposal for the Law on Mining of Lithium and Boron, which, after four days of dramatic parliamentary session, was published in the 15th minute of Dnevnik, in one simple extended sentence. The opening of the Afghan restaurant a few days later received more than five minutes. So much for priorities.
I must admit that on RTS channels, second and third, as well as on cable programs, you can still find a large amount of quality programming, primarily in the fields of culture and science, as well as a representative selection of series and film programs. However, that segment that resists the onslaught of primitivism and lack of culture is slowly thinning and disappearing like snow on the poles.
Day by day, in the program scheme of RTS, more and more space is occupied by daily talk shows like "Jedan dobar dan", where, along with a light conversation about pilates, we get to know turbo-folk singers with augmented lips and a hoarse voice from the tiring stall last weekend. Okay, you can say that Aleksandra Mladenović appears in the series "My Father's Killers" with a song, but it seems to me that this is a sufficient level of acquaintance for the needs of public service. Perhaps the topics could have been the functioning of our variety show, the phenomenon of the musical diaspora, the fiscalization of this economic and service branch, musical trends and the crisis of authorship, today's standards of female beauty, why not the preservation of the Serbian language in the genre of turbo-folk, there are many topics to discuss except new material and emotional status.
Imagine the confusion if you were then invited to watch the hit play "Lu" at the Željko Mitrović theater. You will also get confused when you see the president's address in Dnevnik RTS while Pink or Informer is standing in the corner of the screen, since state officials are seen much more often on these channels, as guests of the morning program or the collegium in constant convocation.
You may be confused when you come across the soap series "Bitter Revenge" a couple of times a day on another RTS program, usually reserved for cultural and scientific content. This 2018 Portuguese blockbuster is said to have been screened worldwide and tells the story of dramatic intrigue in the farming empire of “Ouro Verde”. Just tell me what is the fundamental difference between RTS and the channels that are dominated by Turkish series or domestic giants like "Game of Fate", where Cassandra will appear soon.
The last straw, as far as I'm concerned, was the discovery that the public service had spent tens of millions of dinars for advertising in pro-government tabloids. I have already written about the senseless spending of citizens' money on billboards advertising the presenters of the Olympic Games in Paris - "Gates of Triumph", because where else would the largest number of viewers watch the Olympics? I wonder how those responsible will explain the millions that were spent to advertise RTS programs in "Srpski Telegraf", "Informer" and other tabloids, in which professional journalistic standards are constantly violated. Which programs are considered interesting by RTS viewers, maybe those who write on the front page about the imminent apocalypse predicted by the prophetess Sofia Klisurska, claiming that three quarters of humanity will be wiped off the face of the Earth? It would be logical that with the news about Trump, who also threatens the apocalypse if he loses the elections, Sofia Klisurska appears in Dnevnik.
This sudden turn, hands down, is not from yesterday and is not a surprise, but it shows the dramatic destruction of public service with light and bizarre content in the fog of oblivion. That's why RTS's turning to Serbian tabloids is actually an expression of the real situation, because like like like rejoices, hugs, kisses and caresses, until the dawn breaks! Or that media and metaphorical end of the world is actually just around the corner. Not a good day.
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