ENC Analysis: In favour of censorship & propaganda: Elites, media capture & the journalistic profession in the WB

ENC Analysis: In favour of censorship & propaganda: Elites, media capture & the journalistic profession in the WB

The European Neighbourhood Council (ENC) released its new analysis entitled “In favour of censorship and propaganda: Elites, media capture and the journalistic profession in the Western Balkans (the case of Serbia)”.

The ENC Analysis is written by Prof. Branislav Radeljić, ENC Academic Council Member and Director of Internationalization at Necmettin Erbakan University. In his paper, Dr. Radeljić uses Serbia as a case-study to describe the behaviour of political and economic power structures towards the media sector, as well as the decision of numerous journalists to embrace self-censorship due to external and in-house pressures. He argues that along with the different regimes, journalists themselves should also be blame for the precarious status of the journalistic profession. By ignoring ethics and codes of conduct in the face of government propaganda and highly problematic agendas, journalists have simultaneously contributed to the erosion of their own profession. The piece likewise suggests that international state and non-state actors can only provide evaluations and recommendations, but not the solution to the media crisis in Serbia and the regime’s preference for authoritarian rule.

The full analysis is available here.