26. 08. 2003

Europe suspends assistance to Broadcast Council

BELGRADE, August 26 2003 – Three major European organisations are to decide in the next few days whether to offer financial assistance to the Broadcast Council Agency, after earlier plans for aid were suspended, Belgrade Radio 202 reports today. The organisations involved are the European Agency for Reconstruction, the European Commission and the OSCE. Deputy Prime Minister Miodrag Isakov said today that the problem was not so much a matter of funding, but of whether the Broadcast Council would be able to function properly without the support of the OSCE and Europe in general. “I don’t think it’s wise to force the issue and insist on a Council which does not enjoy support from Europe. “I believe that the Council should be re-elected because it has lost all credibility and authority in the course of the election process which was repeated a number of times,” said Isakov. The deputy prime minister also said that it was of the utmost importance to resolve the issue so that the Broadcast Council could begin resolving key issues of the media and broadcast frequencies. “Someone is obviously eager to profit from the presence of people who forced their way onto the Broadcast Council so that frequencies would be allocated to suit someone’s needs,” said Isakov, underlining the need for the issue to be investigated. In the meantime, the latest issue of the Official Gazette report that the cabinet has approved five million dinars from budget reserves for the Broadcast Agency Council.