15. 12. 2012

AMENDMENTS TO THE PROPOSED LAW ON PUBLIC ENTERPRISES

The Proposed Law on Public Enterprises, which the Serbian Government tabled in early December before the members of the National Parliament, stipulates that a public company is a company established by the Republic of Serbia, autonomous province or local self-government for performing activities of general interest, whereas the Article 2 defines information also as an activity of public interest within the meaning of this law. However, media laws and the Media Strategy stipulate that the founder of the media cannot be - neither directly nor indirectly - the state, territorial autonomy, local self-government, or an institution, company or other legal entity that is wholly or partially owned by the state, or that is wholly or predominantly financed by public funds. In addition, the laws and the Strategy also prescribe compulsory privatization of existing public companies in the field of information and withdrawing of the state from ownership in media.

Contesting this solution foreseen in the Proposed Law on Public Enterprises, ANEM carried out in December a series of joint activities with its partners from the Media Coalition (NUNS, UNS, NDNV and Local Press).

Considering that the provision of Article 2 of the Proposed Law provides for the retaining of existing state-owned media and establishment of new public companies in the field of information, which is in direct contradiction with the current media laws and the Media Strategy, the Media Coalition submitted to the competent Ministry and the Parliament's Committee, after releasing the joint statement, in which it had opposed this solution, their specific amendments to the Proposed Law:

• Amendment 1: "The word ‘information' shall be deleted from the Article 2, Paragraph 1 of the Proposed Law".
• Amendment 2: "In the transitional and final provisions of the Proposed Law, the existing Articles 69 and 70 shall become Articles 70 and 71, while a new Article 69 shall be added as follows: ‘Provisions of this Law shall also apply to non-privatized public companies in the field of information until their privatization, in accordance with legal provisions that regulate public information'".

These amendments support the exclusion of information from the activities of general interest within the meaning of this law, and prevent the establishment of new public companies in the field of information as well as retaining of existing once, while the application of the provisions of the law to non-privatized public media companies until their privatization shall be regarded as an interim solution only.

The Media Coalition informed the public about its amendments in a joint statement. These amendments have also been accepted and supported by the Association of Media. After submitting the amendments, the Media Coalition and the Association of Media were invited to a meeting of the Serbian Parliament's Culture and Information Committee, where they were informed by representatives of the Parliament's Administrative Committee that the proposed amendments of the media and journalists' associations had been fully accepted and that the Government had forwarded them to the competent Parliament's Committee to correct the identified shortcomings of the Proposed Law on Public Enterprises. After the Committee's session, all media and journalists' associations issued a joint statement.

According to the latest information, the Serbian Parliament accepted these amendments and adopted today the Proposed Law on Public Enterprises in keeping with the requests of the media and journalists' associations.