26. 12. 2012

INITIATIVE FOR AMENDING THE LAW ON CAPITAL CITY

Media and journalists' associations, gathered in the Media Coalition - ANEM, NUNS, UNS, NDNV and Local Press - participated recently in a public discussion on the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Local Self-Government with their written comments and recommendations, requesting that the Draft Law be complemented with some amended provisions of the still applicable law, namely those that were in contradiction to media laws and the Media Strategy, as they provided for local self-governments to establish radio and TV stations in the languages ​​of national minorities. The Media Coalition requested the deletion of these provisions.

Believing that the Law on Capital City is, for the same reason, in direct contradiction with the current media laws and the Media Strategy, the Media Coalition has submitted to the competent Ministry of Regional Development and Local Self-Government today the initiative for launching the procedure of amending the said law. Specifically, the Media Coalition has requested that the law be amended in the part pertaining to the power of the City of Belgrade to establish media, namely, the deletion of Article 8, Paragraph 2, Point 5 of the Law, which stipulates that the City of Belgrade may establish television and radio stations, newspapers and other means of public information.

In its Initiative, the Coalition stated that this provision had invested the City of Belgrade with the power to establish media, contradictory to the media laws and the Strategy, making it necessary to delete these provisions. In addition, the necessity of such amendment to the Law on Capital City derives from the strategic commitment of the state to withdraw from ownership in media, as well as from the media laws also prescribing it and the fact that the existence of this provision directly violates the principle of unity of the legal order, to the expense of the media, because one non-media law is regulating important media issues in exactly the opposite way to the media laws. This results in the inability to establish a functioning media market. To achieve this, it is necessary to create equal conditions for all its participants, but it is just not possible in the circumstances of the parallel functioning of private and non-privatized media in unequal position, to the expense of the private media.

The Media Coalition has also informed the competent Ministry of Culture and Media on this Initiative.

The Media Coalition will also take other necessary steps to make this important Initiative be adopted and implemented in the best interest of the media sector.

The Initiative is here (available only in Serbian).