03. 12. 2013

RBA states it did not overstep its jurisdictions

Belgrade, December 3, 2013. (RTV) - RBA Council "did not overstep its jurisdiction in any way" by warning RTV and Radio B92, since both broadcasters broke the law", member of RBA Council Goran Pekovic said today. Because of the RBA decision, journalists' associations IJAS, IJAV as well as ANEM protested, saying the warning is limiting the freedom of expression by interference in the media editorial policy.

The warnings were given because of the breach of the provision of the Law on broadcasting and Broadcasters' Code of Conduct referring to "professionalism, objectivity and impartiality", Pekovic said in RTS morning program.

As previously stated, RBA Council warned RTV for "unprofessional, biased and subjective approach of author and host Lazlo Tot, during the show "Interview" with the President of Kosovo Atifete Jahjaga because "contrary to the rules of profession, he did not react, with sub-questions, to obvious misrepresentations by Atifete Jahjaga".

Radio B92 was warned since extremism and insulting speech were used in one of its entertaining shows "Mentalno razgibavanje" thus jeopardizing the dignity of personality and function of the Serbian President.

Reacting to the estimates of journalists' associations and some political parties, Pekovic said there was no ground for suffocating the freedom of the media or censorship, since "in censorship, material is checked in advance and then it is decided whether to approve it or not, while RBA reacts only after something was broadcasted".

He said that in case of warning given to RTV "nothing is disputable". He added that the host Laszlo Tot himself stated he did not have a good simultaneous translation, that he eventually gave up and did the interview with Jahjaga "completely without the translation".

"RTV itself estimated at the end that journalists' standards were breached, it took disciplinary action against the external associate and fired him, but no one within the system assumed responsibility", Pekovic said.

When asked why Radio B92 was given the warning for the entertaining show in which two authors trifle daily with individuals and functions, he said that RBA Council "reacts every time when something oversteps the boundaries of what is called humor".

"No one can say RBA suffocates the creativity of journalists if they took over something from You Tube and broadcasted as a joke. It is not a joke if the institution of the President of the Republic is brought into connection with a criminal act, and the disgusting one as pimping out minors", Pekovic said.

He emphasized as untrue the remarks that RBA reacted only because it referred to the President of Republic Tomislav Nikolic and added that "RBA is very sensitive to other examples of immorality".