New criticism from the West due to the announcements of the Russian state media in Serbia

 

It followed the day after the news that the Russian state channel Russia Today (RT) was opening a Serbian-language newsroom in Belgrade.

RT, as a Kremlin-controlled media that is financed from the state budget, has been banned from broadcasting in the European Union since March 2022.

 

He has been labeled as key to the spread of Russian propaganda and is the target of a broad package of sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

But the authorities in Serbia, despite calls from Brussels, refuse to comply with European sanctions.

 

Vladimir Bilčik wrote on Twitter that the launch of Russia Today in Serbia is contrary to European foreign policy.

 

"Deeds speak louder than words. Seeing how Russian propaganda is returning to Serbia in a big way through the launch of Russia Today is contrary to Serbia's obligation to work on harmonization with European foreign policy," he said.

 

 

On November 13, Sputnik, a media outlet that is also under European sanctions for spreading Russian propaganda, announced that RT in the Serbian language "will soon start working".

 

As announced in the text on the Sputnjik website, the editor of RT in Serbia should be Jelena Milinčić, the daughter of the editor of Sputnjik in Belgrade, Ljubinka Milinčić.

The information does not provide more details about the start of RT.

 

On social networks, RT in Serbian has a Telegram account "RT Balkan". With almost 10,000 followers, they publish propaganda content and statements by Russian officials justifying aggression against Ukraine.

 

RSE sent an inquiry to the RT head office in Moscow, but until the publication of the text, there is no answer as to whether and when a newsroom in Serbian will be opened in Belgrade.

 

However, three months after the beginning of the Russian aggression against Ukraine, in May 2022, the company Balkans Media DOO with headquarters in Belgrade was registered in the Agency for Business Registers of Serbia.

He is the owner of the TV Novosti organization from Russia.

The same organization is listed as the owner of Russia Today on that media's website.

The director of the Balkans Media company in Belgrade is Russian citizen Nikolay Bogachikin, one of the editors at Russia Today.

 

The founding capital of the company is 1.1 million dinars (about 10,000 euros), and the main activity is the production and broadcasting of television programs.

The opening of the company would be the first step for television to apply for a broadcasting license before the institutions of Serbia.

 

The editor of the European Western Balkans portal, Nikola Burazer, believes that the appearance of another Russian media on the air, in addition to Sputnik, would have an impact on the entire Western Balkans.

 

"It would additionally strengthen the position and reputation of Serbia as a base for the spread of Russian influence and disinformation in the entire region," he said.

 

He points out that the pro-Russian media in Serbia can be divided into two groups.

 

"On those whose values are oriented towards Moscow and whose primary goal is to promote the interests of the Kremlin, while on the other hand there are local pro-government media that try to present the government in Serbia positively by reporting on Russia and praise the government's cooperation with Moscow," adds Burazer.

 

Thus, the Raskrikavanje portal analyzed more than 4,000 texts that were published in five newspapers in Serbia during the six months of the war in Ukraine.

About 1,600 texts (40 percent) were judged to be biased towards one of the actors.

This sample is dominated by texts that are positively intoned towards Russia and negatively towards the West.

 

Although it supported several resolutions condemning the invasion in the United Nations, the government for rejecting sanctions against Russia has the support of more than 80 citizens, according to research by the Demostat agency and the non-governmental Institute for European Affairs.

 

According to Burazer, RT could represent a "problem" for official Belgrade - because it would exclusively promote the interests of the Russian Federation, but not the authorities in Serbia.

 

"This would perhaps make it difficult for Serbia to make a foreign policy turn and impose sanctions on Russia. I would not be surprised if the authorities prevent the appearance of such a TV channel this time - of course, if they intend to make turns towards the West," he adds.

 

So far, none of the representatives of the government has commented on the possibility of RT getting a newsroom in Serbia.

The work of electronic media - television and radio channels, internet editions of media, distributors of cable, satellite and internet television - is controlled by law by the independent Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM).

 

Decisions in the REM are made by the Council of nine members elected by the Serbian Parliament.

The President of the Council of REM, Olivera Zekić, stated that the institution did not receive Russia Today's request to issue a broadcasting license.

 

"For now, no request has been submitted," Zekić told RSE.

 

The Ministry of Information, which manages the registry of foreign media in Serbia, did not respond to RSE's inquiry - whether RT had registered or submitted a request to register a representative office.

 

 

On the occasion of earlier unofficial announcements that RT will open a television station in Serbia, the European Union (EU) made an announcement during July 2022.

It was announced that Brussels expects Serbia to refrain from intensifying relations with Russia.

 

In the announcement of Peter Stan, EC spokesman for foreign affairs and security policy of July 15, it is added that Serbia is expected to comply with the decisions of the European Union, among which is the restriction of broadcasting of the Russian state television RT.

 

"RT is part of the Russian propaganda and disinformation instruments with which the Kremlin monitors the illegal aggression against Ukraine and the murders of the Ukrainian people," Stano said.

 

Serbia has been a candidate for EU membership for more than a decade, since March 2012. That is why it has the obligation to follow the decisions of Brussels in order to fulfill the conditions for joining.

Nikola Burazer points out that for several months, Serbia has been under "constant pressure to introduce at least some of the sanctions against Russia and thus show its commitment to the EU's foreign policy".

 

The opening of RT in Serbia would be "another item" in European reports criticizing Serbia for its cooperation with Moscow.

 

Serbia is among the few countries in the Balkans where rallies in support of Russia have been organized since the beginning of the aggression against Ukraine, while murals of the president of that country, Vladimir Putin, and symbols of the Russian invasion "adorn" the facades of many cities.

 

Sanctions against the Russian state media Russia Today and Sputnik in the European Union include all means of transmission and distribution - cable and satellite television, television over the Internet (IPTV), their websites, applications and accounts on social networks.

 

"All relevant licenses, authorizations and distribution agreements have been suspended. These measures cover all EU member states and are directly applicable," it was announced on March 2.

 

The accounts of these media on social networks - Twitter, Facebook, YouTube - are blocked in the EU  

But in Serbia they have profiles on social networks, with the mark that the media is under the control of the Russian state.

In Brussels, they assessed that RT and Sputnik are important instruments in "encouraging and supporting Russian aggression" against Ukraine and that they represent a "significant and direct threat to public order and security of the EU".

 

"We will not allow apologists (defenders) of the Kremlin to pour out their toxic lies that justify Putin's war or sow the seeds of division in our Union," said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the day the sanctions were adopted.

 

The spokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Marija Zaharova, described Europe's move as "informational terrorism from the West."

The Kremlin has banned the operation of foreign media in Russia, such as Radio Free Europe (RSE), and citizens have limited access to social networks - for example, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

 

Media house Sputnjik has its correspondent office in Belgrade and a website with radio programs and news in the Serbian language.

The editor-in-chief of that media in Serbia, Ljubinka Milinčić, is also the owner of Signal Medija doo, headquartered in Belgrade.

 

As REM member Judita Popović told RSE, Signal Medija doo submitted a request for a radio frequency in the territory of the city of Belgrade. REM will decide on this request on November 22.

The two largest cable operators in Serbia broadcast the Russia Today channel in English, while the signal from the satellite in the EU was not switched off on March 2.

 

With the private operator SBB, Russia Today is still not available, while the state operator Telekom Srbija returned it to its offer just a few days after March 2 - when the European satellite signal was switched off.

At the beginning of February 2022, in the days when the eyes of the world were focused on Moscow due to the Ukrainian crisis, an official ban on the Russian state channel RT in the German language (RT auf Deutsch - RT DE) arrived from Germany.

 

The channel tried to reach the German audience through Serbia.

On December 6, the Serbian regulator, the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM), issued the channel "RT DE" a license for satellite transmission of the program.

 

In this way, "RT DE" wanted to bypass German regulations that prohibit the broadcasting of foreign state-owned channels, including RT, as a Kremlin-financed media.

Moscow responded by banning the Deutsche Welle media in Russia.

By checking the register of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media, it was determined that the license issued to the RT DE channel is still valid - until December 6, 2029.

 

At the beginning of September 2022, the attention of the public in Serbia was attracted by a show about Kosovo, which was broadcast on the Russia Today website in English.

 

In addition to the footage of the barricades on the border between Serbia and Kosovo, set up during the summer of 2022 when representatives of Serbs from the north of Kosovo protested against the Kosovo Government's decision on license plates, right-wingers in the show called for conflict with their statements.

 

Serbia: Signs of War; The stark future of the Kosovo conflict" is the title of the show on RT's website in which right-wingers invoked the conflict with their statements.

 

RSE's analysis determined that at least three key claims from the show were untrue.

Among other things, the narrator stated that "many in Belgrade believe that Serbia has slowed down", alluding to the moves of the Serbian authorities and the dialogue with Kosovo, which is conducted under the auspices of the EU.

They assessed that "it is time to resolve the situation in Kosovo as Russia did with Crimea".

 

And these are the facts: in 2014, Russia illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula, which is an integral part of Ukraine. The secessionist referendum in Crimea, held on March 16, 2014, was rejected the same year as illegal - by the votes of 100 member states of the UN General Assembly.

 

In 2016, that international body also condemned human rights violations in Crimea, "temporarily occupied" by Russia, in a resolution. The same was repeated in the acts of 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Serbia does not recognize the Russian annexation of Crimea, but supports the sovereignty of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders, which includes the Crimean peninsula.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 – nine years after NATO bombed the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

 

In March 1999, NATO forces began bombing because of the exodus and crimes committed by Serbian military and police forces against the Albanian population in Kosovo.

 

More than 10,000 people were killed in that war, and thousands disappeared.

In 2010, the International Court of Justice stated that the declaration of Kosovo's independence did not violate international law.

 

Kosovo's independence has so far been recognized by over 100 countries, including the USA and most of the countries of the European Union.