18. 08. 2011

Draft Media Strategy unavailable to journalists

The procedure is still ongoing and it would not be right to speak about the text until the work of the Commission is finished, says Dragana Milicevic-Milutinovic.

Belgrade, August 18, 2011. (Politika) - The Department for the Media of the Ministry of Culture, Media and Information Society completed the text of the Draft Media Strategy, and its content would be available to the public after holding the public hearing before the Serbian MPs. The Minister Predrag Markovic informed about it the Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic and asked him to form as soon as possible the Commission that would provide suggestions on the final text of the proposal of the draft of the Strategy for the Development of the Public Information System in the Republic of Serbia until 2016, which is the full title of the Media Strategy.

The Ministry of Culture also announced that the Commission would be composed of the representatives of their Department for the Media, the Ministry of Finance, Republic Secretariat for Legislature, Serbian EU Integration Office, experts of the European Commission, the working group that prepared the first text of the draft and the Agency for the Protection of Competition that would provide suggestions on the final text of the Proposal.

"Upon considering the Commission's suggestions, the Minister will present the text at the public hearing in the Serbian National Assembly, before the Government adopts the Strategy", it was said in the statement.  

The procedure before the Government is still ongoing and it would not be right to speak about the text until the work of the Commission is finished, says Dragana Milicevic-Milutinovic.

- We have completed the text on the basis of the Draft Strategy prepared by the working group, the results of the public debate, contribution received by post and e-mail. The final text will be available to the public at the public hearing in the Serbian Assembly, which is expected very soon - Dragana Milicevic-Milutinovic said.

She said that the group that was working on the Strategy had seriously considered all received remarks and suggestions, also taking into account several public debates organized in Serbian cities/towns, the position of the AP Vojvodina, positions of almost all national minorities' councils, opinion of the independent expert of the European Commission...

- He participated in the work of the working group, but he gave his opinion after the final text had been completed. I believe that the proposal prepared by the Ministry is good and that the final version that would be presented before the Government would be aligned with the citizens' interests and European standards, Dragana Milicevic-Milutinovic emphasized.

Representatives of journalists associations have recently expressed concerns that they would not be able to see the text of the Media Strategy before its adoption, requesting from the Ministry to inform them on changes in the text prepared by the working group composed by representatives of media associations. UNS and NUNS said that they had not seen the text prepared by the Department for the Media.

- The Ministry of Culture hides from journalists what it has  in secrecy written in the proposal of the Media Strategy. We do not know who has written this document, let alone getting a chance to discuss it publicly. The public discussion was related to the text written by journalists, too, but the Ministry decided to dissociate from it. I believe that the democratic procedure has been foiled in this way - said UNS President, Ljiljana Smajlovic.

President of NUNS, Vukasin Obradovic, emphasized that none of the five media and journalists associations (UNS, NUNS, ANEM, NDNV and Local Press) that make the media coalition formed with the aim of development of the media scene through the adoption of a quality strategy, is not familiar with the content of this document.

- This is the fact we are concerned about. Having in mind that the proposal of the Draft would be before the said Commission, there is no reason for secrecy. I am also concerned about the procedure of the adoption of this document, because it differs from the usual one. The key impression is that, through establishing the Commission, the Ministry of Culture is looking for the accomplices for adoption of the Strategy, because it did not have the courage to do it on its own - Obradovic said.