20. 07. 2010

THE ELEVENTH MONITORING REPORT

Monitoring Report for May 2010, the eleventh in a row, points to the devastating fact that almost nothing has changed in the Serbian media sector, even after 13 months of the continuous legal monitoring.

From the finding of the Report, it can be concluded that no significant progress has been made in the field of freedom of expression and that all forms of violation of freedom are still present. In May, there were several cases of physical attacks on journalists, damages to broadcasting equipment of the media and police misconduct against persons suspected of threatening the safety of journalists, while court proceedings and decisions of competent courts had only further contributed to the feeling of insecurity among journalists and the media. Slow pace of work and confusing procedures of both executive and judicial authorities, who showed their reluctance to adequately punish any violation of freedom of expression and freedom of media, have resulted in an increase in the number of such cases, as well as growing self-censorship in the media.

The segment of the Report on the implementation of existing laws specifically deals with the Law on Public Information and the Law on Local Self-Government. The "Novosti" case, which has had a lot of attention of the media and the public, is particularly analyzed for potential risk of creating a monopoly over the distribution of media and the possible concentration of ownership of print media to the extent that could threaten freedom of expression. The Report deals with the case of "hate speech" in the entertainment show on TV Pink, which is "resolved" with the apology of the editorial board and the presenter, as well as a statement of the Ombudsman concerning the failure to comply with the presumption of innocence by some media. The Ombudsman's statement also includes a controversial request to extend the responsibilities of journalists and the media outside of limitations stipulated by the Law on Public Information, which is a bad trend also in judicial practice. Using the example of the distribution of local budget funds of the Pirot municipality to assist the media, the authors of the Report point to the problem of the lack of prescribed criteria and procedures for the allocation of these funds, which in practice leads to frequent complaints about the unequal position of the media and unfair competition.

In May, the laws were adopted on ratification of international acts in the field of telecommunications, important for the forthcoming broadcasting digitalization, as well as amendments to two laws, important for the media as well. The Amendments to the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance, which gives the authority to the competent Commissioner to impose penalties for failure to comply with his decisions, create the foundation for the complete exercise of this right, which is also important for the media. With the Amendments to the Law on Commemoration of the Day of Mourning on the territory of the Republic of Serbia, the monitoring of compliance with the provisions of this law for electronic media was transferred from the Ministry of Culture to the RBA.

The work of the competent authorities has also been the subject of legal monitoring. From a variety of information, we highlight activities of the RBA and the Government's Draft Law on Electronic Communications, which was prepared by the Ministry for Telecommunications and Information Society. From the report it appears that the RBA has been more active - it has published a report on the Monitoring of the work of RTS as a public service; it actively works on the monitoring of compliance with the Law on Advertising and has filed charges against the offenders; it has responded to a number of complaints regarding the content of programs of inappropriate contents of national broadcasters, particularly the unsuitable behavior of participants on the TV Pink reality show "The Farm". However, each of these activities, despite its good sides, had some controversial elements, which were explained in the Report. The authors of the report have also given the review of the fundamental solutions of the proposed Law on the Electronic Communications important for the media sector.

In the area of digitalization and privatization, nothing important and positive had happened. The Government's delay in appointing the Director of the Public Company "Broadcasting Equipment and Communications" has become a serious problem that may jeopardize the implementation of the entire process of digitalization of television in the planned time. More and more complicated status of both privatized and those yet to be privatized media, is caused by the lack of any proposed systemic solutions to obvious problems that come with the privatization of the media.

The Conclusion of the Report includes evaluation of the media situation, based on the analysis of the most important events in the reporting period, which indicates that media strategies can contribute to the improvement of the Serbian media sector, corresponding to the extent of offered answers to existing problems.

The Eleventh Monitoring Report for May 2010, conducted by the expert team of the law office "Zivkovic&Samardzic", in cooperation with ANEM, is available here, in whole or in part, by clicking on the selected section below.

Section FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION here
Section MONITORING OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF EXISTING LAWS here
Section MONITORING OF THE PROCESS OF ADOPTION OF NEW LEGISLATION here
Section MONITORING OF THE ACTIVITIES OF REGULATORY BODIES, AUTHORITIES AND COLLECTIVE ORGANIZATIONS here
Section MONITORING OF THE DIGITALIZATION AND PRIVATIZATION PROCESSES here
Section OVERALL CONCLUSION here
The COMPLETE REPORT can be downloaded here