Latest monitoring: Media in Serbia reports negatively on EU, positively on Russia and China

Media outlets spreading pro-Russian disinformation in the Balkans often use advertising bought from reputable Western companies to bolster their credibility, media experts concluded at a roundtable discussion in the European Parliament on Tuesday (Sept. 19).

The conference, which focused on the media situation in EU member Bulgaria and EU candidate Serbia, was hosted by Bulgarian MEP Andrey Kovatchev and organized by the Balkan Free Media Initiative (BFMI).

Claire Atkin, CEO and co-founder of the “Check My Ads” Institute, a technology watchdog specializing in the advertising industry, pointed out that companies that buy media advertising through specialized firms are usually unaware that their ads end up on pro-Russian disinformation channels .

“Although the Internet has been used for many years as a channel to sell products and services, we are now finding that it is being used to sell radicalization ideas,” she said.

She explained that her institute had identified the three agencies most likely to buy advertising on television channels, a system where companies “don’t know they are there.”

For the general public in the Balkans, Atkin explained, the name and brand of a well-known Western company increase the credibility of press articles that contain misinformation.

At the same time, she acknowledged that companies do not want to be associated with media “that would make them uncomfortable.”

Rasa Nedeljkov, program director of the Belgrade-based Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA), an NGO that defends democracy, described a system in Serbia in which it is very easy to manipulate the public.

He said Serbs consumed news mainly from television stations, with five terrestrial television stations covering the area. According to CRTA monitoring over six years, Serbian media generally reported negatively on the EU and positively on Russia and China.

He said that 95% of the interviewees on these five channels belonged to the ruling majority, with President Aleksandar Vučić appearing most often.

For example, he said that in 2022 Vucic had 300 live addresses with an average duration of 45 minutes.

At the same time, he said that 60% of advertisers were from the “political West.”

“Companies from European countries basically support media in Serbia that portray the EU in a negative light,” he said, adding that Serbian coverage of the war in Ukraine is indistinguishable from Russian propaganda.

Referring to the infamous Pink TV, known for promoting great entertainment with non-stop “turbo-folk” music, he said:

“Pink creates a pink reality for Serbian citizens. “For example, they denied the massacre in Bucha (Ukraine) in a broadcast placed between ads of the German company Lidl,” he said.

“We want to try to make these companies aware of the reality they hold for Serbian citizens,” he said, stressing that support for the EU in his country is in free fall in this trend.

Atkin also addressed the issue of PSYOPS, psychological operations to convey selected information to the audience in order to influence their motives and objective reasoning./The Geopost/