Serbian Culture - Serbian Media

Serbian Media

As of 2001, there were 27 daily newspapers and 580 other newspapers published in Serbia. Some of these newspapers have Internet editions. Politika founded in 1904 is the oldest daily newspaper in the Balkans. There were also 491 periodical magazines published in Serbia with the Nedeljne informativne novine (NIN) and Vreme amongst the most notable.

Television broadcasting started in 1958 with every country in the former Yugoslavia having its own station. In Serbia, the state television station was known as RTB and became known as RTS after the breakup of Yugoslavia. Under the Communists and Milošević regime, state broadcasting was controlled by the ruling party. The RTS station was bombed during the NATO action against the Milošević regime due to its propaganda role under that regime.

There was some private broadcasting with the B92 radio and television station starting in 1989 although it was shut down in 1999 during the hostilities. After the fall of Milošević, RTS became known as Nova RTS as an assertion of independence while B92 commenced broadcasting. During 2001, there were 70 television centres in Serbia of which 24 were privately owned. In 2003, there was a return to censorship as the Government of Zoran Živković temporarily imposed a state of emergency following the assassination of Zoran Djindjic and the European Federation of Journalists continues to hold concerns over media freedom in the country.