06. 12. 2012

MEDIA COMMUNITY AFTER THE SESSION OF THE COMMITTEE FOR CULTURE AND INFORMATION OF THE NATIONAL PARLIAMENT OF SERBIA

Belgrade, December 6, 2012 - The session of the Committee for Culture and Information of the National Parliament of Serbia, which was held today, was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Culture and Information, relevant committees, the media community (ANEM, NUNS, UNS, NDNV, Local Press and Association of Media), as well as Members of the Parliament. Amendments to the Proposed Law on Public Companies - proposed by the media community with the purpose of preventing the collision between the existing media laws and the Strategy for Development of the Public Information System, on the one hand, and the Proposed Law on Public Companies, on the other hand - were considered during the session. We remind that the media community proposed yesterday amendments to the Proposed Law that would remove provisions allowing founding of public companies in the field of information, which directly violate the Strategy of Development of the Public Information System. The Strategy stipulates that the state is not allowed to own media outlets and that media outlets cannot be founded, directly or indirectly, by the state, territorial autonomous regions, local self-governments, or by any other company or legal person that is entirely or partially owned by the state or financed from the public budget, either wholly or predominantly. The media community has also proposed an amendment that would ensure, as a transitional solution, implementation of the provisions of the Law on non-privatized public media companies until their privatization.

Representatives of the Administrative Committee of the National Parliament of Serbia pointed out that the proposals made by the media community were accepted and that the Government had forwarded the amendments to the relevant parliamentary Committee, with the aim to rectify the shortcomings of the Proposed Law. The amendments would modify the Article 2 of the Proposed Law by deleting the word "information" from the paragraph 1 of the article. At the same time, a new paragraph 4 would be added in the Article 65 among the transitional and final provisions, defining that provisions of the Law would also be applied to public companies in the field of information which have not been privatized before the coming into force of the Law, until the day of their privatization.

The Media Community is satisfied with the decision made by the Government of Serbia and it expects that the National Parliament of Serbia will adopt the proposed amendments, taking into account their importance for creation of a functional media system in Serbia.   

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).