"The Mapping Digital Media research confirms that digital television and the internet have had a radical impact on media businesses, journalists, and citizens at large. As might be expected, platforms distributing journalism have proliferated, media companies are revamping their operations, and citi
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zens have access to a cornucopia of news and information sources. Other findings were less foreseeable: digitization has brought no pressure to reform state broadcasters, less than one-third of countries found that digital media have helped to expand the social impact of investigative journalism, and digitization has not significantly affected total news diversity. The Global Findings reveal other common themes across the world: Governments and politicians have too much influence over who owns, operates, and regulates the media. Many media markets are rife with monopolistic, corrupt, or untransparent practices. It’s not clear where many governments and other bodies get their evidence for changes or updates to laws and policies on media and communication. Media and journalism online offer hope of new, independent sources of information, but are also a new battleground for censorship and surveillance. Data about the media worldwide are still uneven, unstandardized, and unreliable, and are often proprietary rather than freely accessible." (Website Open Society Foundations)
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"Serbia has a strategy for switching over from analog to digital broadcasting, prepared with broad public consultation. The basic legal framework is in place, but implementation is not yet underway. Moreover, if fair access to digital licenses is to be ensured, a new media law—harmonized with the
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EU’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive—is still needed. Broadband internet has had by far the most significant growth among the available distribution platforms over the past five years. More than 23 percent of Serbian households had an internet connection at the end of 2009—more than doubling the number of such connections just four years earlier. The internet as a platform for activism is rapidly expanding, with the number of petitions, initiatives, and debates online growing considerably. The internet has also led to more diversity and to a plurality of voices in political life. All that said, Serbia remains a television nation, with almost all households owning a TV set and three quarters of the population still using television as their main source of information. Serbia’s private media sector continues to be plagued by opaque ownership structures, with the owners of various media hiding behind off shore–registered businesses. Additionally, there is no publicly available register of media owners. Without mechanisms to render media ownership transparent, Serbia’s media sector will not achieve its potential for independence and diversity." (Website Open Society Foundation, 19.12.2011)
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