30. 11. 2014
57TH ANEM MONITORING REPORT
Legal Monitoring of the Serbian Media Scene - Report for October 2014
Freedom of expression - The report analyzes two cases of pressures on journalists: non-transparent denial to issue an accreditation for covering military parade to Miroljub Mijuskovic, acting editor-in-chief of „Dnevnik" - the reason justifying the decision was an alleged negative security assessment; the second case concerns pressures by the prime minister and his associates against Olja Beckovic, the author of the program „Utisak nedelje" - in October, the journalist spoke publicly about the pressures, and the report points with this case to the thin line between what may consitute private communication or a contact with a journalist to a politician and an undue influence on editing and conduncting a program to a journalist. In the section on court proceedings the report analyzes the decision of the High Court in Belgrade to adopt the appeal of Dusan Stojic, Nenad Nenkovic and Milorad Bosnjak, who used to report from the war in the former Yugoslavia in 1990s for „Vecernje novosti", against the decision of the First Basic Court in Belgrade from 2013 rejecting their indictment for a criminal offence false reporting,against Nadezda Gace, Jelka Jovanovic and Miomir Brkic, all from the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (IJAS - NUNS)
Implementation of existing laws - The Law on Public Information and Media - regarding violation by daily „Blic" of the presumption of innocence of actor Goran Jevtic, the report notes frequent disregard for this legal and ethical obligation of journalists and inadequate legal provisions sanctioning such cases; the report particularly analyzes whether stating criminal charges constitute news; the report authors also stress key findings of the regular yearly report of the European Commission on the Serbia's progress pertaining to the media sector situation; the authors also cover the issue of distribution of budgetary means for public information at the local level after the adoption of new media laws, starting with a case in the city of Nis; The Law on Electronic Media - the subject of the analysis is the legal solution allowing owners of media content distribution networks to simulateneously be providers of audio-visual media services; the reason is the removal of B92 Info channel from analogue cable offer of SBB.
Adoption of new laws - Regarding drafting of the new Advertising Law, the report notes that state advertising in the media is one of the issues that the new law should regulate.
Work of competent authorities - The report analyzes the activities of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media, more precisely the Body's Council's interpretative release regarding the implementation of certain provisions of the Law on Electronic Media that regulate audio-visual commercial communications, and the Council's release on the specific international standard that will guide the regulator in the control of volume balance of all programs. The releases clarify the manner in which the regulator will implement certain provisions of the Law on Electronic Media until a relevant bylaw is adopted, which is very important for the functioning of the media. As for the state bodies, the subject of the report's analysis was the work of the Parliamentary Committee on Culture and Information, more precisely the procedure of the adoption of the report on the work of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media, as well as the failure to hold a Committee session on the freedom of media. The conclusion is that the activities of the Committee in the period covered by the report did not contribute to the improvement of the situation in the media sector.
Digitalization process - The report points to continued problems of the media in the process of digitalization.
Privatization process - Commenting on the statements of privatization opponents from the media sector, the report authors stress the importance of carrying out privatization for solving the problem of undue influence on the media.
In the Report conclusion the authors analyze the media situation in Serbia in the context of the regular yearly report of the European Commission on Serbia's progress that includes the findings about the situation in the media sector as well.
57th Monitoring Report was produced by the expert team of the ANEM legal department, Law Office "Živković&Samardžić", in cooperation with ANEM.
The Summary and Conclusion of the Report in English is available for download here below.
The full report and its sections in Serbian are available for download here.
The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Civil Rights Defenders
The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Open Society Foundation, Serbia.
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