03. 06. 2011

STATE TO WITHDRAW FROM OWNERSHIP IN MEDIA

Belgrade, June 3, 2011 (Politika) - The withdrawal of the state from ownership in the media, financing of media by the state only through projects, avoiding concentration of ownership, transparent ownership in the media, these are some of the issues regulated by the Draft Media Strategy.

Members of the working group that worked on the Strategy are refraining from commenting concrete solutions before the Strategy is officially published on the website of the Ministry of Culture, Media and Information Society, which should be done in the next few days. Zoran Sekulic, director and chief editor of the Beta news agency and member of the working group, emphasized several major issues that Media Strategy is defining.

- The Draft Strategy starts from principal issues, such as public interest, defining the role of state in the media, the role of media in society, media ownership, and public broadcasting services, media literacy and media pluralism. A separate chapter of the document deals in detail with the state withdrawal from ownership in the media, having in mind the unified position of the working group, namely that, except in the sphere of public service broadcasters, the state can no longer be neither the owner and the founder of the media, nor can there be direct media funding from the state budget in the future. The financing of the media could only be done through projects that are in the public interest, on the basis of open competition available to all media under the same conditions. The Draft Strategy also deals with issues of transparent ownership and media concentration. The chapter on the media deals thoroughly with the press, news agencies, electronic media, public broadcasting services, regional and local media, media on minority languages, as well as media using new technology platforms - Sekulic said.

The issues of digitalization of terrestrial television, regulation and self-regulation in the field of media and government assistance are also treated in the document, while special section is dedicated to the Action Plan for implementation of the Strategy, which involves passing of new laws in the media sector, amending and harmonizing existing ones, as well as privatization of the state media or sale of state shares in some media, explains our source.

- The working group's first meeting was held on April 19 and the last one on June 1, when the Draft Strategy was submitted to the Ministry within the deadline. Expert working group of seven members and two representatives of the Ministry of Culture and Information unanimously adopted the Draft. Therefore, I am very pleased, considering that document, unlike any before, is a result of agreed positions and interests of all journalist's and media associations and media industry. This document could be a turning point for the media and media legislation, however, its final destiny - and I have no illusions there - largely depends on political will of executive and legislative authorities - said Sekulic.

Elaborating on the significance of the Strategy, Slobodan Kremenjak, attorney at law and also one of the working group members, indicated that new technologies used in the media required necessary changes of legal solutions. Those innovations are now stipulated by the Draft Media Strategy.

- Working on the Media Strategy, there were some issues, which caused public opinions to be totally divided, such as privatization, regional public services and media concentration. It is important that finding of solutions are not delayed with endless discussions - says Kremenjak.

He added that the goal of the members was to reach agreement within the group and to offer a solution that each member agreed with, in order to encourage all to solve other important issues concerning the further development of the media system in Serbia in a similar manner.

- It is, however, still unknown whether this document that we proposed would become the national strategy in the media sector. We have produced the Draft, but the Ministry is the one deciding whether this particular draft, or different one, would be put on public discussion, because they are entitled to modifications - Kremenjak concluded.