Serbia's media regulator has sanctioned three television stations for breaking the rules during the election campaign and enforced a seven-day ban on the morning show of pro-government channel Informer, in the first major media decisions since the student-backed Student List swept the country's parliamentary election. Supporters of Informer rallied outside the regulator's building in Belgrade as the decisions were announced on Tuesday, 10 November.

At its session on Tuesday, the council of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) banned TV Kurir from airing its "Dnevnik" news show for one day and "Vesti" for two days, imposed a one-day advertising ban on TV Prva, and gave TV V5 from Valjevo a warning. It dropped proceedings against a fourth station, TV K1.

What the regulator decided

Kurir was penalised over broadcasts from the election campaign. According to N1's reporting of the session, the "Dnevnik" edition aired on 29 September carried a political advertising message in its main news show, which the Law on Electronic Media prohibits, and the campaign programme was not labelled as such.

TV Prva was penalised over its show "Dan na dan", in which the host insulted council members, according to Cenzolovka, cited by N1. Prva's attorney said the show was an outside production that had already been taken off the air before the proceedings began. The council accepted that as a mitigating circumstance but judged the violation especially serious, so a one-day advertising ban was imposed by majority vote.

TV V5 was warned for an unintentional error, after it rebroadcast Informer's "Specijal" programme. The proceeding against TV K1 over its show "Dobro jutro, Tanjug" was dropped by majority vote, after the station said the programme was designed as a debate presenting opposing views.

Informer's morning show goes dark

Earlier on Tuesday morning, the seven-day ban on Informer's "Prva info" show was enforced for the first time, and the screen showed only the station's logo from 7:00 to 8:30. The council had imposed the ban unanimously on 4 November, and Informer announced on 9 November that it had received the formal decision.

REM council president Stevica Smederevac told the FoNet news agency that the ban covers not only the name "Prva info" but any content in the same format, even if the programme is renamed or moved to another time slot. He said monitoring of Informer's programming would begin on Tuesday, when the ban takes effect, and added that freedom of speech "is not the freedom to insult and attack council members or anyone else".

Proceedings against Informer had previously been opened over several issues, including its broadcast of an unlabelled party gathering on 3 October, the airing of the documentary "Drzavnik", and comments targeting REM council member Rodoljub Sabic and Zoran Gavrilovic of the Bureau for Social Research (BIRODI).

Rally outside the regulator

The rally outside the REM building on Nikola Pasic Square was called by Informer, Serbian Sovereigntists president Vuksa Dragovic and the Center for Social Stability. Among those present were SNS president Milos Vucevic, Zorana Mihajlovic and Nebojsa Bakarec, along with defence minister in the caretaker government Bratislav Gasic. The crowd chanted "We won't give up Informer". Police were nearby and there were no major incidents, although N1 said some participants hurled insults at its crew.

Informer editor-in-chief Dragan J. Vucicevic said that around 7:30 that morning, three police officers came to his home with a warrant to bring him in on a charge of prolonged insult, filed by Sanja Fric of the Student List. He said he was released to attend the session after police consulted a judge and the prosecutor's office.

Addressing the crowd, Vucicevic said 330 employees and their families were in danger and accused the regulator of acting unlawfully. He said Informer had filed criminal complaints against all council members and would appeal to the Constitutional Court.

A regulator under pressure after a political earthquake

The decisions come two weeks after the Student List, a movement born from nearly two years of anti-corruption protests, won the snap parliamentary election on 25 October and ended 14 years of rule by Aleksandar Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party. Vucic conceded defeat on election night.

The protests began after 16 people died when a concrete canopy collapsed at the renovated railway station in Novi Sad on 1 November 2024. Days before the REM session, on 4 November, Serbian authorities detained nine serving police officers and one former officer for allegedly using excessive force against detainees during the protests, the Interior Ministry said.

Two questions remain open: the council's decision on the wider proceeding against Informer itself, and the fate of an initiative from media associations and civil society organisations, lodged on 27 October, to revoke the channel's licence. Neither had been decided by the time the session ended.

Sources: Srpske Novine and RKS News.