Tanjug was the sole state-run news agency in Serbia. Established in 1943, Tanjug was shut down in 2015 and privatized in 2021.
Media assets
News agency: Tanjug
State Media Matrix Typology: Captured Private (CaPr)
Ownership and governance
Tanjug was a state-controlled news agency until 2015 when the government stopped funding it and officially announced its closure. Nevertheless, Tanjug continued to operate in a total legal vacuum. It is still a mystery in what capacity and legal form the agency has been operating since 2016.
In 2021, it was reported that the company Tacno, incorporated in November 2020, bought “the property rights” of the agency, which means that it can use its content, logo, online portal, and some of its staff as it pleases. The owners of Tacno are Radoica Milosavljevic of RTV Pancevo (an openly pro-government station) and Minacord Media (a company controlled by singer Zeljko Joksimovic and Manja Grcic, a former manager in various local media outlets).
Source of funding and budget
Tanjug used to be financed solely through a state subsidy. In the past few years, however, the agency began to have serious financial problems as it claimed the state stopped funding it. In 2015, the agency stated that the government paid its last subsidy to the agency, a total of RSD 20.7m (US$ 210,000). Tanjug has since operated with funds that mysteriously arrived in the agency’s account. Local experts and journalists interviewed for this report in March 2023 and May 2024 say that the government continued to cover some of the agency’s costs. Still, both Tanjug and state authorities denied that.
Editorial independence
Tanjug has been the official news agency of the Serbian government. It was notorious for its government-supportive content. Even in the past five years since the government officially announced the closure of Tanjug, the agency continued to produce pro-government propaganda. Nothing has changed in the agency’s editorial policy since its privatization in early 2021.
No domestic statute or independent mechanism of assessment or oversight that would validate Tanjug’s editorial independence has been identified.
August 2024