The scene of physical strangulation in Pink’s reality show brings us back to the question of what the media in Serbia looks like and who it suits. REM cannot react because its Council does not exist, but even when it did, everything was the same
Spectators in Serbia have the opportunity to watch since dawn propaganda on television, which is Inform lowered to the level of a reality show. When it gets dark, figurative strangulation can turn into physical strangulation as seen these days in Pink’s reality show “The Elite”.
A participant of the reality show, after a previous argument, physically attacked another participant live in the program and began to strangle her. The disturbing scene lasted until the other participants, and then the security, restrained the bully.
The video of the violent scene from the reality show was broadcast by the Argentine media Real Time, and over 40 million people watched that video. The bully remained a participant in the reality show, and the competent institutions did not announce themselves.
Journalists and media associations have been pointing to violence in the media for years. The absence of the REM Council for over a year and a half allows electronic media to freely publish inappropriate content without fear of liability.
Same with and without REM
REM Council has the authority to impose sanctions on the media in case of violation of regulations, but this regulatory body does not function because the election of its members in the National Assembly has not yet been completed.
Retired professor of the Faculty of Political Sciences, Rade Veljanovski, says that REM cannot react now, but that when we had the Council of REM, nothing happened in that sense.
“Passionate hate speech, vulgar remarks, expressions that are absolutely unacceptable for public speech have brought us to a situation where we have fallen to the lowest branches,” said Veljanovski and emphasized that things can happen in the media that are unimaginable in civilized countries.
After the May mass murders in 2023, civil protests began under the name Serbia against violence, and one of their demands was the withdrawal of broadcasting licenses from Pink and Happy, the shutdown of print media and tabloids that publish fake news and continuously violate the journalistic code. Then the reality show “Cooperative” on Pink was canceled, after which the television began broadcasting the new reality show “Elita” in which scenes of violence are everyday.
Promotion of violence
Verbal violence in political speech, media consistency to such a narrative that includes targeting and insults, is increasingly spilling over into the streets of Serbia without adequate institutional response.
“One could expect the people who have power in this country, namely the people in power, to oppose it, to say that something like that is not allowed. We, unfortunately, have an apparently tacit, and sometimes not only tacit, consent of the holders of public offices and politics with such behavior,” said Veljanovski.
That this kind of media image is normalized and accepted by the citizens is telling Informer and Pink televisions, which produce inappropriate content every day, have a large audience. The viewership of these televisions shows that the citizens of Serbia, in the sea of media offers, for the most part choose to watch content that shows naked primitiveness.
Source: Vreme
