RTS Renews Debate Invitation to Srdanovic, Vucic

Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) renewed its invitation last night to Ilija Srdanovic, the top candidate on the Student List (Students Win), to take part in a pre-election debate with Aleksandar Vucic. The public broadcaster made the renewed offer in an open letter published between 6:48 p.m. and 7:57 p.m., and in it rejected the claim that it does not cover the Student List’s campaign. As of this writing, the Student List has not given a final answer. The first proposed slot is tomorrow, September 29, at 9 p.m.

RTS originally sent the debate invitation to three participants: Vucic, as the candidate heading the United Serbia (Aleksandar Vucic) list, Srdanovic, as the top candidate on the Student List, and Vukosava Crnjanski, director of the election watchdog CRTA. Tuesday, September 29, and Thursday, October 1, both at 9 p.m., were offered as possible slots. The public broadcaster said it wanted to use the campaign to open space for discussion of issues that matter to citizens, of the parties’ platforms, and of the conditions under which the election is being held.

Vucic accepted the invitation. CRTA turned it down, though not on Sunday morning as the first reports on the story suggested, but on Saturday evening, September 26, as soon as the invitation was published on the RTS website. The organization said it is an observer of the election, not a participant in it, and that it has no election platform of its own.

Why is CRTA refusing to take part?

CRTA explains its refusal by pointing out that its role in the election process is one of oversight, not of running for office. The organization tracks the course of the campaign and assesses the conditions under which the election is held, rather than competing for votes, and it says a debate invitation blurs the roles of the different actors in the process. In its response to CRTA, RTS said it had not invited the organization as an election participant, but precisely as a body that monitors the election process and publicly assesses the work of the media, including RTS’s own work, and that the invitation remains open for both proposed slots.

Srdanovic responded to the invitation on his own Instagram account on September 27, around 2 p.m., pointing to the public broadcaster’s coverage of his list so far.

To Serbia’s public broadcaster: Eighteen days have passed since the election was called. Your programming has shown neither the image nor the voice of a single Student List candidate. Not a picture, not a sound. Now you want us to give artificial resuscitation to political drowning men who have no jurisdiction over us? Finally become the public broadcaster of all citizens of Serbia.

The Student List’s media team, which had asked RTS for additional information a day earlier, did not refuse the debate but set conditions. The team wants to be told the topic, format, duration and the names of all participants, as well as in what capacity Vucic would take part, as president of the state or as the candidate heading the election list. The students also pointed out that while Srdanovic is the top candidate on the list, he is not, under election law, its holder.

Srdanovic is indeed the top candidate on the list, but he is not its holder in the sense that term is defined by the election law.

The students said their list does not carry a single person’s name in its title, and that whoever represents it at a topical debate should be chosen according to the subject of the discussion, not settled in advance around one name.

RTS’s newsroom said in last night’s response that the same criterion had been applied to both lists.

the same principle was applied to both electoral options: the people invited are those who hold the first, or leading, place on the lists.

The public broadcaster says it airs segments on the Student List’s campaign every day in the pre-election editions of Jutarnji dnevnik and Dnevnik 2, under the same conditions as for the other lists in the race. The letter also addressed the insulting remarks directed at host Vesna Radosavljevic, arguing that they

should not be an obstacle to dialogue, nor a reason to deny any election participant the space for a substantiated debate.

Meanwhile, answering questions from reporters, Vucic said he accepts a debate with representatives of the Student List, adding that he believes they would lose it.

I accept, both with them and with the first candidate on the student blockaders’ list, whatever they choose to call themselves. As for our list, I am both its holder and its top candidate. If I am not able and not ready to answer your questions after all my years and 15-16 hours of work every day, then I should not be doing this job.

The president added that Student List candidates cannot take part in a debate because, in his view, they would lose every one, given that they are, in his words, well known figures with no record of success in their work so far.

The September 29 slot, the first one offered for the debate, falls two days after Vucic’s announced resignation as president of Serbia, which he revealed on the evening of September 27. RTS itself noted this in its letter to the Student List, stating there is no doubt in what capacity Vucic was invited: as the candidate heading the election list, not as head of state.

As of this writing, the Student List has not announced a final decision on taking part, nor named a candidate who might represent it. It also remains open whether RTS will agree to let the debate wait until the Student List gets the answers it is asking for, or whether Tuesday’s slot will stay the only offer on the table.