16. 08. 2008

PUBLIC INVITATION FOR PROPOSALS OF CANDIDATES FOR NEW MEMBERS OF THE BROADCASTING AGENCY COUNCIL

Mandates of Slobodan Đorić, Velimir Milošević and Tomislav Trifić To Run Out in Six Months

Belgrade, August 16, 2008 (Politika) – Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, Mme Slavica Đukić-Dejanović, announced a public invitation for proposals of candidates for new members of the Republic Broadcasting Agency Council yesterday.

This public invitation does not necessarily entail that disruptions within the Republic Broadcasting Agency are continuing, and that is obvious if one is patient enough to read through a rather long reasoning for the public invitation. At the very end of the reasoning there is an explanation reading that there should be new nominations for the candidates of the Republic Broadcasting Agency members whose mandates are about to expire.

As for the situation with the RBA members' mandates, it is quite heterogeneous, which came as a result of a pretty complicated procedure prescribed by the law in relation to the selection of the RBA Council members.

Jelena Kolo, Head of the Republic Broadcasting Agency's Public Relations Office, explained to us that the Council members of this regulatory body are chosen for a six years period, but that it was not the case at the time when the RBA Council members had been elected for the first time. At that time, three members of the RBA Council were elected for a six years mandate, another three members were selected with a mandate of five years, while the remaining three members of the Council were elected with a mandate of four years.

Owing to this, the mandates of the three members of the Council - Slobodan Dorić, Velimir Milošević and Tomislav Trifić – will expire in six months' time, on February 17, 2009.

For all the activities that should be performed in order that the RBA Council to gets its new members, one needs six months to pass, as the law procedure prescribes.
The three members of the RBA Council whose mandates are about to expire should be replaced by the candidates that will in another three months at the latest be suggested by professionals' associations (broadcasting, journalists, media and film and drama professionals' associations), as well as the national non-governmental organization and citizens' associations working on the protection of the right to free speech, of the national and ethnic minorities' rights and of the children's rights.

The public invitation for suggestions and proposals of candidates was sent by the Madam Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Serbia to those associations.
Jelena Kolo reminded us that, according to Article 24 of the Broadcasting Act, each body with an authority to send in their proposals for candidates should send in a list with their proposals of up to two candidates for RBA Council members to the relevant parliamentary caucus, and that the National Parliament should then select only one candidate from each of these eligible lists.

After having selected two candidates for the National Parliament to vote for, the ninth member of the Council should be selected by Council members themselves, with the provision that the ninth candidate must live and work in the territory of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohia, and be eligible for membership in the Council according to a set of membership criteria.

Authorized bodies that can propose their candidates for Council membership, the abovementioned associations, have a deadline of three months after the Public Call for Proposals to send in their proposal in the form of a list of candidates for membership in the Council to replace the members whose mandate will expire on February 17 next year.

National Parliament of the Republic of Serbia will reach a decision on the selection of new Council members before the set date, and before the deadline when the present RBA Council members' mandates expire.

New member of the Council are elected for a six years period.