16. 06. 2005

ORLIC: SERBIAN GOVERNMENT FLOUTED CONSTITUTIONAL CHARTER

BELGRADE, June 16, 2005 – Head of the Serbia-Montenegro Council of Ministers’ Information Directorate Slobodan Orlic met yesterday with the representative of the OSCE Media Department. Orlic said on the occasion that unilateral act of the Serbian Government, which broke the agreement on regulating ownership rights in federal public media and public information companies, has flouted the Constitutional Charter and Act that regulates its implementation. Orlic also noted that the Government’s intention was to keep public company “Vecernje novosti” under the dominant political influence. “The privatisation process of this company is unnecessarily compromised and further delayed by this act, while the Government directly interferes in the right of small shareholders to sell their shares on the market. In order to achieve what it wants, Kostunica’s government has put direct pressure on the work of the judiciary and has removed the public attorney from the case. The claim that the Serbian property has been threatened is untenable before the fact that the procedure of ownership transformation is conducted under the laws of Serbia, where the company Novosti is based”, said in the statement of the Information Directorate.