26. 03. 2014

JANKOVIĆ: MEDIA BECAME TOOL OF NON-TRANSPARENT POLICIES

Janković pointed out that such media increasingly contribute to diminishing of the citizens' right to privacy and he added that the problem is that in Serbia the information on someone's guilt is not received from court verdicts any more, but from the media.

"The work of the media is of crucial importance for the fulfillment of citizens' rights and the media should be free... The Constitution says that the citizens have the right to timely information", said Janković and added that the tabloidization of media is widely recognized nowadays and that he wrote about "tabloidization of the state" in his yearly report for 2013.

He said that the trust of citizens in the institutions is systematically decaying.

"Those who control the public do so through the media. Therefore, we, as citizens, do not receive information about whether someone is guilty for a certain criminal act from a court verdict, but from newspaper headlines. It is up to the courts to maybe confirm the information. We do not receive information on investigations from police sources and the prosecutor's office, but again from the media", Janković noted.

He stressed as another big problem the fact that it is not investigated where the media get some confidential information from. He cited the example of the recent arrest of the narco-boss Darko Šarić and his conversation with two agents of the Security Information Agency.

"Is what he told them true? If it is, then how has it appeared in the media? If it is not true, why is it not being denied? There is a myriad of such examples. If someone summons the courage and asks these questions in the media, the person will be named Šarić's aid", said Janković.

Talking about data protection, Rodoljub Šabić, the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, said that the problem is that in Serbia it is not known how to control the abuse of personal data, and he stated that he had voiced his concern many times in such cases.

He said that the present Serbian Constitution does not envisage the protection of privacy, while the previous constitutions did so.

He stressed as a problem the fact that certain information reach media from different structures, such as politicians, prosecutors, judges, and that this is a "gross violation of rights".

Talking about the Serbian media scene, the NUNS President said that the scene is a "sad image of poorly paid journalists, susceptible to self-censorship".

He said that tabloids are becoming notice boards of certain politicians, and that such media increasingly "arrest" and "judge".

The tabloids are a consequence of political turmoil since year 2000, and they emerge as a fruit of the collective political consciousness that we do not need independent media and the critical public", Obradović concluded.