05. 09. 2013

Waiting for Tasovac’s decision on TV fee

Belgrade, September 5, 2013 (Danas) - The new working group has sent to the Government and newly appointed Culture Minister a letter urging him to reconsider the possibility of keeping TV subscription fee rather then abolishing it.

Given that the draft media laws were "taken off" from the Ministry's website after only a couple of days, a new working group has been established, tasked to work on the new draft law on public service broadcasting, the daily Danas reports.

Members of this new working group could not however make any decision about the funding of Public Services, because the Government had already decided that RTS and RTV would be financed from the state budget.

The new draft law provides for the financing of public services from the state budget by the end of 2015, while the Government has only until the first half of that year to adopt a new model of financing that would be valid as of January 1, 2016. Having no possibilities to propose new model, members of the Working Group sent the letter to Tasovac and the Government to consider once again the option to keep TV subscription fee.  They are still silent on that letter, the daily Danas said.

Otherwise, due to the October European Commission report on Serbia's progress in the European integration process, it is desirable that media laws be adopted within the next month.