Media ownership and democratic capacity of transitional society

What is it about?

This article examines the main influences of media ownership transformation on improvement of democratic society during the post-socialist period in Serbia. The purpose of this article is to examine, by use of a comparative method and theoretical analysis of the legal documents as sources, progress achieved in harmonizing national media legislation with the European regulatory frame and to suggest key problems resulting from this process.

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Why is it important?

In the circumstances of deepening economic and social crises of recent years, the role of the media in serving public interest is jeopardized by the partial interests of their financiers. Society is facing the negative effects of regarding media products as commercial goods whose creation is focused on increasing profit. In the post-socialist period in Serbia, domination in the media market is gained by companies with non-transparent ownership. Consequently, the damage to the democratic capacity and media culture of the public is considerable: citizens are not furnished with objective facts as a basis for their evaluation and decision-making competency.

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