17. 02. 2003

Legislate Now!

The Association of Independent Electronic Media, ANEM, has posed a steady stream of questions over the past year on the apparent lack of media regulations. These questions have been put to both the federal and Serbian governments and the public has been kept informed of them. There has been no extensive public campaign such as we conducted under the Milosevic regime because we have wanted to create a healthy environment in which to resolve the problems of the independent media in a constructive manner.

However despite our many meetings with government representatives and our earnest efforts to reach a compromise, nothing has happened.ANEM periodically publishes reports on the media situation and makes recommendations. The most recent of these was published on October 4 under the title "Media in Serbia - Twelve Months On". This document was distributed to all the appropriate institutions and individuals in the country and abroad. It was also delivered to the office of Prime Minister Djindjic and representatives of the UN Institute for Peace. The document was also posted on the B92 Web site (http://www.b92.net). The question posed to the prime minister at the Institute for Peace in Washington was taken from this document. At issue, therefore, are questions which had previously been asked in this country as well, but in the context of offering solutions aimed at alleviating tensions, reaching a compromise and creating an atmosphere conducive to the passage of sound and appropriate media legislation.

As far as medals for past merits go, if anyone had wanted to give independent media and journalists this kind of pat on the back they would have done so by now. If we were interested in this kind of accolade, B92 and ANEM would have laid much more emphasis on the importance of our role over the past twelve years, particularly in the process of creating the conditions for the overthrow of the Milosevic regime. Given the short memory of those concerned I would remind the public that TV B2-92 covered a broad area of Serbia despite having been banned by the former regime at that time. Only viewers in the Belgrade area were unable to receive our program because of the large number of government transmitters jamming our signal but we did cover almost the whole of Vojvodina, Serbia's northern province, by broadcasting from transmitters located in Romania. We also covered eastern and central Serbia by broadcasting from Bosnia-Herzegovina, where our first two transmitters were blown up the night after they had been built. This did not stop us - we installed a new transmitter and resumed broadcasting. This is the first time I am telling this story in public, in order to prove that we need no medals, only fair treatment and justice.

Veran Matic
President of ANEM Managing Board