Serbia’s ‘Captured’ TV Screens All Tell the Same Story

Serbia approaches October 25 elections with a deeply polarized and uneven national media ecosystem. The media environment is characterized by systemic political influence, instrumentalization, government control, the independent regulator’s paralysis and heightened security risks for independent journalists and media outlets.

These worrying trends have greatly affected the pre-election media space, which has been defined by extreme structural asymmetry. Meanwhile, traditional television, dominated by heavy regime influence and a lack of critical voices, remains the main vehicle for political communication and voter mobilization.

Traditional TV is watched in Serbia for five hours daily on average, and is the main source of political information for the older population. On the other side, websites and social networks offer diverse views and are the main source of information for people aged 15 to 30.

Paradoxically, despite more than 2,500 registered media outlets, Serbia has been placed in a group of high-risk countries concerning media pluralism because of severe deficits in political independence of the media and lack of overall market plurality, according to the Media Pluralism Monitor 2026.