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14. 03. 2014

RBA WILL ALSO CONTROL INTERNET PORTALS

14.3.2014 (Blic; by I.M.Jasnić) - Election silence ahead of early parliamentary elections began at midnight and will continue until the close of polls on Sunday at 20 hours. It appplies to all mass media including internet and web portals. It is forbidden to publish political messages, hold public meetings and publish assessments of the election results. The Republic Broadcasting Agency (RBA) will control the broadcast media, and penalties for offenders of the rules are in the form of a warning, public warning or revocation of licence.

RBA controls internet portals, but only audio and video materials published on them.

- Penalties will be enforced where we have the possibility to do so, and this refers to cable operators. Social networks are not means of delivering public announcements, rather they are a private thing, and that is why we will not going to address issues related to them.

In the elections of 2012, broadcast media which violated the regulations were instantly turned off until the end of election silence, Goran Karadžić of RBA said for "Blic". He added that such media will be turned off for two hours, till the end of a particular program, or till the end of election silence.

RBA Turned off Televisions

At the elections of 2012, RBA intervened in four cases.

HRT was turned off because of the interview with Boris Tadić, and televisions Kopernikus, Svet Plus, BN i Studio B were turned off because they disobeyed the law, Karadžić said.