The most significant examples of foreign propaganda influence in Serbia can be observed in the disinformation spread about the war in Ukraine, the protests and their participants over the past two and a half years, the concealed agendas of local tabloids caused by the chronic lack of media pluralism, and campaigns targeting journalists and media workers. Behind all of this lies a clear signature: Russia. Russian Influence Through State-Owned Media The anatomy of Russian influence in Serbia&rsq...

Analyzing the debate shows on Radio Television of Serbia, Demostat concluded that these shows are not part of the regular program schedule but are broadcast "ad hoc." In this way, the Public Service attempts to create the illusion of the existence of debate and dialogue among political opponents. Such debates serve as a "façade" behind which lies the absence of pluralism of opinion and the balanced representation of all relevant political actors (both government and opposition). In s...

The European Union is the largest donor in Serbia - in the past ten years, the EU has invested more than four billion euros in grants in over 1,500 projects in almost all municipalities in Serbia, while it has offered more than seven billion euros in favourable concessional loans. This money is visible to all citizens, as it is used to improve infrastructure, roads and railways, strengthen the rule of law, public administration reform, environmental protection, agriculture, energy, judiciary,...

The pro-Putin and anti-Western narratives are promoted through all government-controlled print media, which openly spread Russian propaganda and disinformation. We are talking about pro-government tabloids (such as "Informer", "Srpski telegraf", "Alo", "Kurir"), but also newspapers with a long history and established reputation, though later ruined, such as "Politika" and "Vecernje novosti". Almost all televisions with a national frequency ("Prva," "Happy," and "B92"), as well as many online po...

Although certain geopolitical circles are increasingly vocal that instead of economic cooperation with European Union countries, Serbia should reorient towards strengthening economic relations with countries like China and Russia, statistics relentlessly show not only that this is an "impossible mission," but without the presence of investments and donations from the EU, the state budget that Belgrade has at its disposal could not be adequately filled. In other words, ceasing cooperation with B...

How do you assess the cooperation between Serbia and NATO? The partnership cooperation between Serbia and NATO is conducted with usual dynamics, based on the principles of partnership that include voluntariness, inclusiveness, and transparency, and, most importantly, is based on the partner countrys needs. The current cooperation between Serbia and NATO is a continuity of our collaboration since 2006 when Serbia became a member of the NATO Partnership for Peace Program. What are the priorities...

The lithium mine within the Jadar project would not pose a significant danger to the environment, agreed the professors of the Faculty of Mining and Geology, Cedomir Beljic and Nikola Lilic, who worked on the Environmental Impact Assessment Study, with a clear note that this project, in addition to the part related to mining activities, also includes technological processing, the effects of which they did not talk about, since it does not fall within their scope of work. These experts, who ha...

On March 3rd, the deadline for the constitution of the City Assembly in the capital officially expired. The question remains why it took so long to make the decision to repeat the vote. According to Demostat, such a move was logical and expected, since procrastination, i.e. the use of maximum legal deadlines, is part of the SNS governing technology. Let us remind that the same scenario was seen during the formation of several convocations of Republic Governments, so we have the situation that pr...

The environment has paid a high price for industrial development; it is time to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and transition towards a green, sustainable economy. This transition must be fair, primarily towards workers, local populations, and all citizens who may be affected by the industrial transformation. Serbia has committed to contributing to the global reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and following the European Unions green agenda to make the European continent climate-neutral by...

The World Festival of Youth, which will gather participants aged 18 to 35, will take place from March 1 to 7, in accordance with the decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the development of international youth cooperation. According to the organizers, 20,000 young leaders will attend, with half coming from abroad. Media close to the Kremlin report that Serbia is privileged and has been given a larger quota than all the countries in the region combined, with 200 young people from our co...

The European Parliament called on the European Commission to launch an initiative to send an expert mission to Serbia, which could include experts from the OSCE/ODIHR, the Venice Commission and the Council of Europe, to assess the situation with recent elections and post-election developments, in order to facilitate the preconditions for establishing the necessary social dialogue, leading to the restoration of public trust and faith in institutions According to Demostats unofficial findings, ...

Pristinas decision to abolish the dinar as the currency in Kosovo is an excellent prelude to Albin Kurtis upcoming election campaign. With such a move, the prime minister continues to present himself to the public as a politician establishing Kosovos independence, even at the cost of another confrontation with the West, including the United States. The abolition of Serbian currency in Kosovo, not long after the decision of the Serbian government to recognize Kosovo license plates, is a signific...

The current political crisis can continue in the coming months, despite attempts by the authorities, led by Aleksandar Vucic, to downplay or deny the problems Serbia faced after the elections held on December 17th, marked by numerous irregularities, including vote buying, various types of pressure on voters, “mass voter migration” (bringing people from different parts of Serbia and Republika Srpska to vote in local elections in the capital). According to Demostat, it is necessary fo...

Media literacy, according to UNESCOs definition, is a set of skills and knowledge that enable citizens to be citizens, not subjects, to influence changes in their micro-communities, as well as in societies and states, and to make their decisions and choices related to the common good well-informed, based on accurate and verified information, says Jovana Gligorijevic. From the very definition of the term, it is evident that Serbias citizens are incapable of this, adds Gligorijevic. Speaking abo...

James OBriens message that it is “very important” that representatives of the opposition are adequately represented in new state institutions, including Parliament, does not mean that this senior official of the US State Department advocates a” grand coalition “of Progressives and “Serbia against Violence” in the new government, but that he advocates that the opposition accepts the won seats, primarily in the National Assembly. At the same time, it is notable ...

The European Union has learned important lessons after the pandemic and the war in Ukraine - that it did not invest enough in the pharmaceutical industry and medicines, that its level of dependence on Russian gas is enormous, and that it must seek new partners in supply chains for critical materials needed, among other things, for the green agenda, as it almost entirely depends on others, especially China. "The EU wants to be less dependent on China and Russia and is looking in its wider enviro...

"I also think that Branimir Nestorovi?s list has a connection with the ruling party, because it had a privileged media position in relation to other lists, which does not diminish their result”, Panovic said in the show  “Between Us” on Nova S. He also stated that the secret to the success of Dr. Nestorovics list is that they took the voters to the Zavetnici (Pledgers) and Dveri, as well as the Socialist Party of Serbia. Panovic says that many right-wing voters vote thin...

To be honest, I have no idea how the current difficult internal situation in Serbia can be resolved. The regime, namely Vucic, will not meet the demands of the protesting citizens, and those who protest have no ability to force the ruling structures to move in the direction of more democratic, transparent behavior, says Franz-Lothar Altmann, an independent German Academic and Professor of International Relations at the University of Bucharest. Speaking about the political crisis in our country,...

I think that the citizens of Serbia are not fully aware of how much we do and achieve together through our partnership. We believe that this is a real challenge, since NATO and Serbia are partners. We highly appreciate and respect Serbia, and we are always ready to communicate with the Serbian public about our joint activities, transparently and with the help of facts. This is especially important at a time when disinformation and fake news have become an integral part of our daily lives, said B...

We thought we had passed the infancy of conquering the space of freedom and fair and honest elections after the year 2000 and the fall of the disastrous Milosevic regime in the nineties and the countrys downfall in every respect - economic, social, political, and ostracism from the international community. "We did reach a commendable level of electoral quality, so much so that after the elections in the 2000s until 2012, we went home, finishing that election night by midnight knowing who won, w...