Photo: ScreenshotImagine Predrag Sarapa repentantly apologizing one morning in Pinka's studio in a live program for showering the public with progressive lies and propaganda for years. Or Milomir Marić in a moment of righteous enlightenment. Can you imagine that?
The world found itself in wonder: a Russian journalist Marina Ovjasnikova she made a performance during the news on Russian national television saying that the war in Ukraine must be stopped and that the lies that the Kremlin-controlled media have been publishing for decades must be stopped. Because of this, she was detained, interrogated for hours and finally released with a fine of 30 rubles (about 300 euros).
She expanded the message, which was seen by the whole world via social networks, with a longer recorded statement on Instagram. There she talks about the "aggression" against Ukraine, the "fratricidal" war, and that she is "ashamed" to have participated in the regime's propaganda. For that, she faces a multi-year prison sentence, the indictment has not yet been filed.
We in Serbia asked ourselves, who could do a similar thing here, on all these TV stations that are under the control of the regime of Aleksandar Vučić, the president of Serbia and SNS. Is it possible to imagine something similar happening on RTS or some other TV station that supports this government?
In 30 years of multipartyism, we can hardly remember a public act of repentance by a journalist. In all events, be it wartime, peaceful, or revolutionary, the only thing we saw were journalists who showed that there was not even a shred of integrity in them.
If we look at what the TV stations that are under the management and control of the regime (5 terrestrial and 5 cable plus almost all local stations) look like, we will see journalists and presenters who in an earlier period may have shown some professionalism and integrity, but they trampled all of that for the sake of petty sinecures , deleted and now work opportunistically according to the principle of "tie your horse where the boss tells you". The horse is the truth, and the boss is the Vučić regime.
However, let's imagine in some parallel reality that some star of the current TV stations does something similar. For example: the now legend of TV Pink, Predrag Sarapa, comes to work one morning and instead of passing the ball to Dragan J. Vučićević, throws him out of the studio, and then stands in front of the camera and says in a live program that he is sick of telling half-truths, of constant insults people who don't support Vučić and constantly flattering Vučić. Is that possible to imagine?
Or, the new star of TV Prva, MSS, presenter of Tema and the Morning program, or, by some miracle, Milomir Marić, who raised television courtship and prompting journalism to the highest possible levels? Imagine Milomir with a message: I no longer want to serve and lie to the people of Serbia! How do you feel?
Although these things seem unimaginable, something similar happened once in Serbia. In the fall of 2015, the famous front page of the tabloid Kurir appeared, which read: Serbia, sorry.
In the newspaper, there was a text from the owner, Aleksandar Rodić, who explained that until then he had done everything just to help the rise to power of Aleksandar Vučić, but that he would no longer do that, but would work in the public interest. In the case of Kurir, it lasted for several months, and after that we saw the reconciliation of the two Aces in the editorial office and everything quickly returned to the old way: we praise and defend Vučić, and we hit everyone else as we know how.
The public apology and promise was quickly forgotten, public interest was replaced by private interest, and what seemed like an incredible turnaround on the Serbian media scene turned into a banal business scheme.
So this event in Russia will be relevant for a few more days, and then it will remain in the memory as a single moment in which one person rebelled and nothing more than that. The machine continues to work, propaganda continues without interruption, Russia, as Aleksandar Tijanić (the third Aca) once said for Serbia, is not ready for the truth, so it really needs to be dosed.
Nevertheless, fortunately, the Russian journalist is healthy and currently at liberty, which is no small thing considering the state of media and political freedoms in Russia. Also, fortunately, in Serbia, Russian conditions do not yet prevail.
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A black picture and the breakdown of the rule of law subscribeThe archive of the weekly Vreme includes all our digital editions, since the very beginning of our work. All issues can be downloaded in PDF format, by purchasing the digital edition, or you can read all available texts from the selected issue.
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