State Capture and Strategies of Media Clientelism in Vučić's Serbia

Chapter 3 examines the gradual political instrumentalization of the media landscape under the ruling Serbian Progressive Party and President Aleksandar Vučić since 2012. Despite the adoption of the new media laws first in 2014 and their amendments in 2023, government influence of the media outlets vis-à-vis more subtle mechanisms of control has served to undermine media freedom rather than fostering democratic changes through genuine domestic reforms. This type of more subtle mechanism of indirect control is visible through the captured regulatory authority, state subsidies in the media vis-à-vis project co-financing, advertising contracts where the government serves as an intermediary, capture of public service media and recent amendments to the new media laws adopted in October 2023 that practically “legalized” government interference in the Serbian media. Further, disinformation campaigns which are created, presented and spread to deceive the public for economic or political gains are also another mechanism of media capture that is prevalent in Serbia.