The director of Serbian state television RTS has resigned following a landslide parliamentary election victory by a student-led protest movement that unseated longtime leader Aleksandar Vucic. Manja Grcic handed in her resignation late on Wednesday following discussions with union representatives.
In an official statement, Grcic acknowledged that her continued presence in office was viewed by segments of the public as an obstacle to necessary reforms. She stated that she expects the Managing Board to exercise its legal authority promptly to guarantee leadership continuity and an orderly transfer of responsibilities.
Vucic, whose political career included serving as information minister under Slobodan Milosevic during the 1990s, maintained strict oversight of domestic media throughout his tenure. The shift in political power has already triggered institutional introspection across state media outlets. On Monday, the Vojvodina region’s public broadcaster, RTV, opened its evening news broadcast with an apology to viewers for past uncritical and one-sided reporting.
That public admission closely mirrored developments in Hungary, where the primary state television channel aired a black screen bearing the message that public media cannot lie and apologizing for years of misleading coverage, following the electoral defeat of former Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party three months earlier.
Media watchdogs have long criticized the state of press freedom in Serbia. Reporters Without Borders ranked the country 104th out of 180 nations in its 2026 World Press Freedom Index, marking Serbia’s lowest ranking on record. Election monitoring organization Crta reported last week that national television networks allocated three-quarters of political airtime to government figures, while portraying the student movement negatively in more than 80 percent of the coverage it received.
Meanwhile, the national electoral commission released updated figures on Wednesday indicating that the student coalition had captured 140 seats within the 250-seat parliament. Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party secured 104 seats, though final election results remain pending. The country now awaits announcements regarding whom the victorious student movement will appoint as prime minister and to other vital governmental positions.
