N1 TV refused to provide media coverage for the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) campaign advertising, said SNS leader and President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic, adding that N1 set conditions under which the party can be advertised in its programme.
“N1 sent us a note on how we can be advertised. Yesterday we said – give us five minutes per half an hour, we’d like to air our content,” Vucic told Prva TV, adding that his party first asked for the period between 7-10 pm and then between 5-7 pm but N1 refused.
“We even wanted to pay because we would compromise N1’s programming schedule, because I guess there should be a 24/7 anti-campaign for Aleksandar Vucic in their programming schedule. They don’t care about money, looks like they have enough,” said Vucic.
In response, N1 editorial board explained that the new advertising regulations do not allow paid content but only individual political advertising messages within a time frame determined by the law.
“Since we would be violating the Law on Advertising, which neither we or you want us to do, the only thing we can stick to are commercial breaks and regular advertising,” N1 responded.
TV advertising and TV sale cannot take more than 20 percent of the time in one hour of the programme broadcast by a commercial media outlet. According to the Law on Advertising, 12 minutes of advertising is allowed per hour in a TV programme with several advertising messages instead of only one, due to the principle of non-discrimination, said N1.