Update
The week on television: 21-27 September 2026
The ruling majority took three-quarters of political airtime and no negative coverage at all. Presid...
Sixteen media and journalists' associations and civil society organisations have called on Telekom Srbija to stop immediately what they describe as the unlawful terrestrial broadcasting of Informer TV, Kurir TV and other television channels, whose programmes have been made available free of charge via terrestrial aerials without the required licences. At the same time, they submitted an initiative to the newly constituted Council of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM), calling on it to take all necessary measures to restore compliance with the law in terrestrial broadcasting and to initiate proceedings against the individuals and legal entities whose decision to unscramble the channels, in their assessment, constituted a serious violation of the Law on Electronic Media.
The starting point of their argument is the scope of the existing licences. Informer TV and Kurir TV hold licences for distribution via cable, satellite and IPTV networks, but not for national terrestrial broadcasting. By making the channels available nationwide through the terrestrial network, the signatories argue, Telekom Srbija has effectively placed them on an equal footing with broadcasters licensed for national coverage - and in doing so has assumed a role that belongs to REM, the sole authority responsible for deciding who may use the limited public resource of the radio-frequency spectrum and the capacity of the terrestrial network.
The organisations consider this particularly problematic because it is happening in the run-up to the parliamentary elections. Informer TV and Kurir TV have thereby gained nationwide reach at a moment when, as the signatories put it, all relevant media monitoring shows that their coverage of government representatives is markedly one-sided, while their reporting on representatives of the Student List violates virtually every professional and legal standard.
Their second line of argument concerns the market. By granting certain cable channels free nationwide reach, the organisations argue, Telekom Srbija is abusing its dominant market position and directly discriminating against all other registered cross-border and cable channels, as well as against media service providers that pay fees for regular national broadcasting licences. In addition to the Law on Electronic Media, they hold that this also violates the Law on Protection of Competition and the Law on Electronic Communications. They further note that, as no statutory fee is being paid for national broadcasting, the arrangement deprives REM of revenue, since the regulator is financed from those fees.
The signatories close by asking Telekom Srbija and REM to investigate and stop the distribution of channels that do not hold the required terrestrial licence immediately, citing the potential consequences for media pluralism, for the equal treatment of participants in the electoral process, and for citizens' right to access diverse sources of information. This, they argue, would prevent irreparable harm to the fairness of the electoral process while safeguarding freedom of access to information in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights.
The initiative was signed by ANEM, the Association of Independent Local Media "Local Press", the Association of Media, the Association of Online Media, the Autonomous Women's Center, the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights, Civic Initiatives, the European Movement in Serbia, GS KUM Nezavisnost, the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS), the Independent Journalists' Association of Vojvodina (NDNV), the Krokodil Association, Partners-Serbia, Rainbow Ignite, RERI and the Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation.
CRTA's election observation mission has documented the mechanism behind the change in reach. Telekom Srbija unlocked its Arena Plus package as part of a six-month promotion, making around 30 channels freely available to citizens who receive their television signal via an aerial; among them are channels predominantly favourable to the authorities - Informer TV, Kurir TV, K1 and Euronews Srbija - and some of these broadcasters do not hold REM licences for terrestrial broadcasting in the areas in which they thereby became available.
The starting point of their argument is the scope of the existing licences. Informer TV and Kurir TV hold licences for distribution via cable, satellite and IPTV networks, but not for national terrestrial broadcasting. By making the channels available nationwide through the terrestrial network, the signatories argue, Telekom Srbija has effectively placed them on an equal footing with broadcasters licensed for national coverage - and in doing so has assumed a role that belongs to REM, the sole authority responsible for deciding who may use the limited public resource of the radio-frequency spectrum and the capacity of the terrestrial network.
The organisations consider this particularly problematic because it is happening in the run-up to the parliamentary elections. Informer TV and Kurir TV have thereby gained nationwide reach at a moment when, as the signatories put it, all relevant media monitoring shows that their coverage of government representatives is markedly one-sided, while their reporting on representatives of the Student List violates virtually every professional and legal standard.
Their second line of argument concerns the market. By granting certain cable channels free nationwide reach, the organisations argue, Telekom Srbija is abusing its dominant market position and directly discriminating against all other registered cross-border and cable channels, as well as against media service providers that pay fees for regular national broadcasting licences. In addition to the Law on Electronic Media, they hold that this also violates the Law on Protection of Competition and the Law on Electronic Communications. They further note that, as no statutory fee is being paid for national broadcasting, the arrangement deprives REM of revenue, since the regulator is financed from those fees.
The signatories close by asking Telekom Srbija and REM to investigate and stop the distribution of channels that do not hold the required terrestrial licence immediately, citing the potential consequences for media pluralism, for the equal treatment of participants in the electoral process, and for citizens' right to access diverse sources of information. This, they argue, would prevent irreparable harm to the fairness of the electoral process while safeguarding freedom of access to information in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights.
The initiative was signed by ANEM, the Association of Independent Local Media "Local Press", the Association of Media, the Association of Online Media, the Autonomous Women's Center, the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights, Civic Initiatives, the European Movement in Serbia, GS KUM Nezavisnost, the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS), the Independent Journalists' Association of Vojvodina (NDNV), the Krokodil Association, Partners-Serbia, Rainbow Ignite, RERI and the Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation.
CRTA's election observation mission has documented the mechanism behind the change in reach. Telekom Srbija unlocked its Arena Plus package as part of a six-month promotion, making around 30 channels freely available to citizens who receive their television signal via an aerial; among them are channels predominantly favourable to the authorities - Informer TV, Kurir TV, K1 and Euronews Srbija - and some of these broadcasters do not hold REM licences for terrestrial broadcasting in the areas in which they thereby became available.
Informer TV and Kurir TV gained national terrestrial reach while remaining outside REM's campaign monitoring sample.
Telekom Srbija has described the move as a business promotion and a test of subscriber interest. The same monitoring recorded the opposite movement over the same period: after Telekom Srbija took over Total TV, the critically oriented channels N1 and Nova were first moved far down the channel line-up and then removed from that platform altogether. Informer TV and Kurir TV gained national terrestrial reach while remaining outside REM's campaign monitoring sample, which covers eleven channels. The initiative now reaches a Council constituted on 22 September 2026, two days before it was filed, after roughly two years in which REM operated without one - and whether it is acted upon within the campaign will be an early indication of how the regulator intends to use the powers it has just regained. The full sequence of that selection is set out in CRTA's interactive tracker.
