Serbia's Vojvodina public broadcaster RTV apologised to viewers on October 26 for years of one-sided reporting, a day after Aleksandar Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) lost its parliamentary majority in preliminary election results.

“The public service did not perform its function for many years. It kept silent, turned a blind eye, informed unilaterally, reported uncritically, did not ask the right questions or did not ask questions at all. And for that, we owe the viewers an apology,” anchor Goran Eror said at the start of the evening news bulletin.

The bulletin on Radio Television of Vojvodina opened with footage of celebrations in Novi Sad and other Serbian cities that it had not aired on election night, despite objections from some of its staff, Vreme reported on October 26. The acting director of RTV's First Programme, Nenad Cacic, resigned at the request of part of the staff and of general director Goran Karadzic. Blazo Popovic was appointed in his place and Predrag Novkovic was named programme director. The Nezavisnost trade union had demanded Cacic's dismissal a year earlier over what it called pro-regime reporting.

The on-air confession is the clearest sign yet that the media built up under Vucic's Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) will be among the first institutions to be remade after the election. Serbia fell to 104th of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders' 2026 World Press Freedom Index in April, its lowest ranking yet and the worst in the region.

The Student List won 52.7% of the vote and is set to take 140 seats in the 250-seat parliament, according to preliminary results, ending 14 years of SNS rule. Its programme promises media reform, including an overhaul of the media regulator and the public broadcaster.

Pressure is now shifting to Radio Television of Serbia (RTS), the national broadcaster, which stopped covering Belgrade on election night after Vucic conceded, even as large crowds celebrated into the early hours. Students have demanded the resignations of RTS' director general, his deputy, the editors-in-chief of its news programmes and all its news editors, the Telegraph reported on October 27.

“It's RTS's turn,” the student account Blokada FFUNS posted on X after RTV's apology.

Anger at pro-government outlets has also spilled onto the street. Protesters entered the newsroom of the pro-government tabloid broadcaster TV Informer during a live broadcast on October 26 and confronted its editor and owner Dragan J Vucicevic. The Student List said it did not support intrusions into media organisations and would pursue media reform through parliament.

The apology echoes Hungary, where state news channel M1 went dark on July 7 behind a black screen reading: “Public media must not lie. We apologise for doing so for so many years.” That came three months after Viktor Orban's Fidesz lost power to Peter Magyar's Tisza party.