15. 12. 2010

Talks on the Media Strategy with the Head of the OSCE Mission and the Head of Delegation of the EU to Serbia

In the hitherto process of the Media Strategy's development, the Delegation of the European Union and the OSCE Mission to the Republic of Serbia have given important support to the development of this strategic document. The EU Delegation to Serbia had engaged independent experts who prepared the Media Study as a basis for development of the national Media Strategy, while in September 2010, OSCE organized five round tables where international and domestic experts could give their recommendations on the future Media Strategy's content.

Having in mind the importance of the Media Strategy for the further sector's development, as well as the active participation of ANEM, NUNS (IJAS), UNS (JAS), NDNV (IJAV) and Local Press in the public consultations dedicated to the development of its Draft, the Head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia, H.E. Ambassador Dimitrios Kypreos, had the meeting with representatives of these associations on December 7, 2010, while H.E. Ambassador Vincent Degert, Head of Delegation of the EU to Serbia, met them on December 8, 2010.

The meetings were attended by the leading people of the five media and journalists' associations, who acquainted the ambassadors with their hitherto activities in the process of developing the Media Strategy, the basic principles of the Media Strategy they advocate for and their expectations about the future Strategy, announcing their active participation in the further process. During both meetings, the representatives of media associations expressed concerns over the deadlock in Media Strategy's development and stressed it was necessary to manage the whole process in a transparent way with an active participation of all interested parties.

At both meetings, it was ascertained that cooperation between these media and journalists' associations in the process of the Media Strategy's adoption was very important. After the meeting, OSCE issued a public statement in which it had called for a timely and transparent dialogue on Serbia's Media Strategy and stressed the importance of the media and journalists' associations' participation in strategic reforms of the media sector in Serbia.

OSCE public statement is available here.