05. 12. 2012

MEDIA COMMUNITY PROPOSES AMENDMENTS TO THE PROPOSED LAW ON PUBLIC COMPANIES

Belgrade, December 5, 2012 - The Media Community deems necessary the amendments to the existing Proposed Law on Public Companies, which provides for the establishment of public companies in the field of information.

The Media Community believes that the provisions of the said Law have to be harmonized with the existing laws and the Media Strategy. For this reason, the Media Community proposes to the Ministry of Finance and the relevant parliamentary committee the following amendments:

Amendment 1: "The word ‘information' shall be deleted from the Article 2, Paragraph 1 of the Proposed Law, since establishing of public companies in the field of information is in contradiction to the existing media laws and the Media Strategy".

Amendment 2: "In the transitional and final provisions of the Proposed Law, the existing Articles 69 and 70 shall become Articles 70 and 7, 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."

We sincerely hope that the Serbian Parliament will consider and adopt these amendments that, while not violating the spirit of the law, would ensure implementation of the provisions of the Media Strategy stipulating that media cannot be founded, directly or indirectly, by the state, territorial autonomy, local self-governments, or by any other company or legal entity that is entirely or partially owned by the state, or financed, either wholly or predominantly, from the public budget.

The Media Community is comprised of the following organizations: the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS), the Journalists' Association of Serbia (UNS), the Independent Journalists' Association of Vojvodina (NDNV), Local Press and Association of Media (ASMEDI).