Serbian demonstrators against large pink TV channel: ‘Don’t lie against my grandmother’

A woman with huge breasts, a man with extremely large lips and a man with piles of bills: the cartoons are drawn on a protest board. The board will be held up in Belgrade by a Serbian student at the end of January. “Don’t lie to my grandmother,” it says. The message is for the Serbian TV channel Pink TV. On the protest board are the faces of the director of Pink TV, their most popular presenter and the president of Serbia.

With more than 60 sub -channels, the commercial channel Pink TV is the largest and most viewed channel in Serbia (6.7 million inhabitants). The channel is on the basis of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and President Aleksandar Vucic. The 57-year-old Zeljko Mitrovic, director and founder of Pink TV, has ties with the sitting government. Furthermore, there are twenty -four hours a day reality programs with uncensored violence and sex. According to critics and several to research Lead the programs – predominantly the journals and the reality series – to polarization in the country. More than 85 percent of Serbs watch television for news and entertainment. On average, they look around eight hours a day, according to research by Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN).

Serbs have been demonstrating against corruption and erosion of the rule of law among President Vucic for months. They demand a transparent and democratic Serbia. The demonstrators also turn against the ‘corrupt’ TV channels, who are on the hand of the government. Pink TV is the roadmaker of this: they have been broadcasting pro-government programs and misinformation for more than thirty years. Pink TV did not respond to questions from NRC.

The bloter, the better

The most popular presenter of Pink TV, Jovana Jeremic (34), walks into a TV studio for the most viewed morning program in the country, Novo Jutro (New morning), to be presented. She takes in her Tight, Neongroene Jumpsuit Place at the table. The tune of the program plays, she looks seriously in the camera and says: “I love this tune. Dramatic, dramaqueen. ” Opposite her is her guest Vojislav Seselj (70), founder of the ruling party SNS and convicted of war crimes during the Yugoslav wars. “Good morning,” he says with some disgust, possibly somewhat stunned about the setting.

The news and talk shows on Pink TV sometimes take an hour and a half. This visibly leads to boredom among the presenters, who are sometimes appealing in the broadcast. During the so -called informative programs, presenter Jeremic talks about herself, she dances, teases, shouts and is often scantily dressed – even when she interviews the president.

“Pink TV is a kitschy troop channel,” says Nemanja Rujevic, journalist at the Serbian Independent Nieuwsmagazine Vremon the phone against NRC. Most people who are behind the tube are the elderly. “They don’t know much about technology, love light content and have no critical capacity,” says Rujevic. The ideal audience for propaganda, he says. “They mainly watch Pink TV to enjoy themselves and the channel uses that. For example, by broadcasting interviews with Vucic on Primetime and telling how great he is. ”

During the day, Pink TV broadcasts advertisements with fragments of their reality programs Zadruga or Elita 8. Turbo-folk (Serbian pop music) can be heard along the canals. On almost every channel you can see presenters who present reality shows. In those programs, participants regularly fulfill, they have sex with each other. There is a spoke of glorification of female hatred, according to a research from the University of Novi Sad. Fifty participants are followed for eight months in the reality shows.

Enemy

Anyone who is not for SNS is placed on Pink TV as an enemy; The channel gives the opposition no broadcasting time. “Which channel someone looks at in Serbia, says enough about whom the person will vote,” says Jelena Kleut, senior teacher media studies at the University of Novi Sad, in a video call with NRC. Kleut and Tijana Uzelac, researcher at BIRN, see a connection between how demonstrators are presented on Pink TV and how they are then treated. “On the news they claim that the protests are supported by abroad to drive the Serbian population apart. Or even to ensure a civil war, “says Uzelac in a video call with NRC.

This ensures that this is the protesters, according to Kleut. “During demonstrations, it is repeatedly on demonstrators raven with cars. ” According to her, this aggression is fueled because the president threatens on television to use troops to eliminate the demonstrators.

The aggressive language and behavior can also be seen in the reality shows of Pink TV. In 2023, for example, a 13-year-old student died in a high school in Belgrade. “Many people think that he had taken an example of aggressive ex-criminals and convicted murderers participating in reality programs on Pink TV,” says Uzelac. After the shooting, one of those programs, at the request of Vucic, was taken off the tube for a few months because, according to him, it would endanger the safety of Serbian citizens. But after a few months it could just be seen again.

The journalist and the researchers say all three that Pink TV seems to report from a parallel reality. Rujevic: “If people only get fake news, they are naive and they no longer know how to control real news. They are no longer used to looking at serious media. If people are constantly exposed to light forms of entertainment, they become numb. It is the same as ticking three hours in a row. “

Fake news

According to critics, Pink TV should have been punished for a long time. Because the channel break The conditions set by the government to be broadcast on national television. For example, the channel has no educational, scientific, cultural or children’s program. “Every time Pink TV violates a rule, then media supervisor adjusts the rules so that they can continue to broadcast,” says Rujevic.

The Serbian Media Supervisor (REM) is independent on paper, but mainly consists of members appointed by the government. In 2017, when Vucic became president, Pink TV started to broadcast even more political programs. “The government threatens to cancel the channel if Mitrovic does not broadcast pro-government programs. Mitrovic sees nothing more than money and therefore uses everything to get maximum broadcasting time, “says Rujevic. The commercial blocks are also filled with political campaigns.

The reporters of Pink TV are just puppets, he says. In recent months, for example, disinformation was spread over the number of protesters during the (student) protests. In the news Nacionalni Dnevnik Only the center of a bridge in Novi Sad was filmed during a protest. This made it seem like there were few demonstrators. Opposition channel N1 did show shots of all the demonstrators around the bridge.

Pink TV also spreads manipulative images. “In the run -up to the 2023 elections, Pink sent TV deep -fake images of a politician from the opposition party. ” It was an excerpt from the talk show Utisak Nedelje From the independent television channel Nova S. through artificial intelligence, it seemed as if he was swearing. “Many viewers have been kicked in,” says Uzelac. According to her, Pink TV also endangers innocent demonstrators. “The channel recently published the private data and passports of two students who had demonstrated.” Uzelac expects these incidents to take place again if there will be new elections this year.

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