Under current conditions, the place of the Balkan region in the European geopolitical space is determined by several key factors, including political, economic, social, cultural, and religious ones. The media play an important role in the process of integration of the region into the European Union and contribute to the formation of the public sphere, but they also contribute to the traditional aspiration of the Balkan states to separatism. The region of South-Eastern Europe is unique, since upon its example all the stages of democratic transition can be shown, starting from the first democratic reforms in the 1990s to the accession to the European Union. However, the Balkan media demonstrate their own position in the coverage of the migration crisis. In the article, geopolitical, ethnic and religious factors affecting the development of the Balkan Peninsula and the media of the region have been considered.