RULE OF LAW AND DEMOCRACY
04 NOVEMBER 2021

The lack of media freedoms in Serbia is perhaps most felt locally, in small towns across the country that depend heavily on reporting on local events and problems. While large cities in Serbia can enjoy some kind of pluralism since they are also covered in the national media (in addition to the “local” ones), small towns (especially in the south of the country) do not have a large number of active media. The few media that have remained are in danger of self-censorship and financial pressure from local authorities.

Even worse, small towns cannot count on the help of the active non-governmental sector in monitoring what the authorities are doing and informing the public about it. Due to the “belgradisation“ and centralisation of Serbia, remote local places remain forgotten on the map of the media and NGO attention. When the cameras are turned towards Belgrade, it is easy for local “sheriffs“ to manage people’s lives and go unpunished. Whether the electoral system of Serbia is to blame for that is a completely different question, but the real situation is that when democracy and freedoms give up, the citizens of small (underdeveloped) municipalities get burned the most. In our case – the south of the country.

Local media occupy a special part in the lives of people in small towns. When will they turn off the water for repairs? When is the library open? How to get to (what little is left) cultural and artistic events in the city? The answers to these questions will be missing in the cities where the media have disappeared. There are several municipalities and cities in Serbia where the media scene is completely black because there is no active media. If you want to find out more information about your place in such an environment, you have to do it through the websites of the local self-government: the municipal site, the site of the library, the cultural centre, the waterworks and so on.

The media, of course, play a different, far more responsible role than that of reporting on everyday (small) problems. The job of the media is to report to the public on everything that is considered in the public interest. In small towns, this is even more important. Local governments have limited budgets and need transparent and detailed planning for spending these funds. Such a thing is not possible if there are no media that will keep an eye on the politicians. The role of the media as actors holding the government accountable for their actions has long been established, but it is even more difficult to do so locally due to a lack of freedom and opportunity to do so.

While all relevant reports and organisations point to a lack of democracy in the country (Freedom House, V-Dem Institute, Economist magazine’s Democracy Index), and the opposition wonders if it is able to come to terms with itself and try to win the local elections in, small local communities remain in media darkness, forgotten on the political periphery of the state. The lack of interest of opposition political parties to deal with the local affairs, the arrogance of local party masters and the general degradation of society results in an even more difficult situation at the local level, forcing young people to not think about a return to their hometowns, even after studies. This pushes them to Belgrade or regional cities, such as Nis and Novi Sad, where the situation is not much better.

What is left for citizens from smaller communities is to unite and fight against the current pressure, stigmatisation and problems in the development of local democracy and the media. Ironically, it seems that international actors/programs, such as the EU, USAID or UNDP, are helping the development of local communities more than the Serbian government and the opposition combined. Through these channels, local organisations and the media can get much-needed money that is not tied to state structures, which gives them a dose of independence and the opportunity to write about real problems and the situation at the local level. This creates positive effects on local democratisation.

It will be a long time before the Serbian political consciousness matures enough to actively influence the decentralisation and “debelgradisation“ of Serbia, which would give breathing space and a chance for development to smaller places. Currently, that job is reduced to small, insufficiently funded organisations and citizens’ associations. Their role is to influence changes in their places so that in the future young people can really return to their hometowns to find a job, start a family and continue with their lives. For now, there is no opportunity to change the situation, so young people are increasingly directing their future towards Belgrade (or abroad), and small Serbian towns are being emptied.