Student list refuses to appear on TV Informer
The Students Win list said in a statement that its representatives will not take part in any program on the channel. Informer's response has not been published.
Representatives of the Student List - Students Win will not appear on any program of the Informer television channel. The account Students in Blockade announced this on social media on November 11, in a statement titled “Response to DezInformer” and signed “The Winners”.
The student movement cites years of violations of professional standards, the Law on Electronic Media and the Serbian Journalists’ Code of Ethics as the reason. The statement implies that the channel invited the list’s representatives to appear, but it does not say who made the invitation, when, or for which program.
What did the students tell Informer?
They explained the decision this way:
We believe this decision is entirely justified, given your years-long practice of violating all professional standards, the Law on Electronic Media and the Serbian Journalists’ Code of Ethics
The student movement goes on to list its grievances against the channel’s staff. The statement reads:
Not a single representative of our list wants to appear on a media outlet whose employees, over the past two years, have painted targets on the foreheads of students, future members of parliament from the majority in the National Assembly, citizens and their families, calling them ‘Ustashas’ and ‘terrorists’
That is the claim of the statement’s authors, and in the texts we read Informer did not address it.
The statement then challenges the timing of the invitation:
It is symptomatic that you are suddenly interested in what our representatives have to say about current social and political events, when for the past two years your coverage of some of the largest gatherings in the history of our country, and of the list that in the end won the absolute support of the people, was, to say the least, shameful
What are the decisions of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media?
The students also invoke decisions of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) and bans on the broadcast of certain Informer programs. As a result, they say, it remains “completely unclear for which program you planned to invite us”.
The REM Council previously imposed a five-day advertising ban on Informer, as well as bans on the program “Kolegijum” lasting 10 and 15 days. We covered the regulator’s decisions on this channel in the article “REM punishes Kurir and Prva, Informer loses its morning program”.
What does Informer say?
Neither an answer nor a reaction from Informer to the refusal was found in the media that carried the statement. It also remains open which program is meant, since the list itself says this is unclear to it, and the invitation is not described in the sources.
In the statement, the list describes itself as the winner of the election and speaks of the “future members of parliament from the majority in the National Assembly” as its own representatives. The statement does not say whether the position toward Informer could change.
