15. 03. 2008

ASSISTANT MINISTER OF CULTURE ON THE SUSPENSION OF PRIVATIZATION

Novi Sad, March 15, 2008 (Danas) – Assistant minister of culture for the media, Dragan Janjic, said that it was "bad" to suspend the process of privatization of the local media in Serbia, specifying that more than 30 auctions of media outlets owned by local self-government institutions were aborted.

Talking to journalists at the press conference of the Business Society of the Association of Independent Local Media, "Local Press", Dragan Janjic said that the situation in the media is now "absolutely confusing".

- Now we have privatized media, the media that does not want to be privatized, the media that considers it should be exempted from privatization, and the media that has already been exempted, etc., said Janjic.

The head of the Department for the Media of the OSCE Mission in Belgrade, Dragana Nikolic-Solomon, has also criticized the suspension of the privatization process.
"I believe that financial independence is a very important precondition for editorial independence. As long as there is a direct state ownership in the media, it can be dangerous to reporting and the freedom of expression", warned Nikolic-Solomon.

President of "Local Press", Vladan Filipcev, said that there were many problems in media outlets which were public companies before they were privatized.
"Above all, these problems are mostly related to disagreements between editorial offices, or their segments, with the new owners' editorial policy or attitudes", explained Filipcev.