22. 07. 2005

WATCH IT OR NOT – YOU’LL PAY IT!

BELGRADE, July 22, 2005 – The Broadcast Act, which was adopted three years ago but has not yet been implemented, is likely to undergo new changes. The government has put new amendments to the parliamentary procedure, which alter the length of terms of the current members of the Broadcast Council and enable members to serve consecutive terms. Radio Television Serbia is also granted the authority to collect obligatory subscription fees, even before its transformation into a public service broadcaster. The election of the members of the Broadcast Council, a regulatory body that implements the Broadcast Act, was surrounded by irregularities from its onset, such as exceeding the deadline for members’ election, violation of election procedure as well as the dismissal of the entire council and appointment of new. Professor at the Faculty of political science and former member of the Council Snjezana Milivojevic rated these new amendments to the Act as very bad: “It is about a constant reluctance of the government to depoliticize the media sector and to establish a truly independent regulatory body. The Broadcast Council is not a political institution and this is the government’s attempt to change the system of nominations in order to obtain majority, to prolong or to secure the terms of its members. In fact, my impression is that the government did not realise, when it brought the Act, how radical this break was from the previous ways.” The Broadcast Council is foreseen as an independent regulatory body with the authority to elect the Managing Board of Radio Television Serbia, which would later elect its chairman. All of these were the prerequisites for the transformation of RTS, which would have the right to collect subscriptions once it becomes a public service broadcaster. However, Chairman of the Broadcast Agency Council Nenad Cekic announced the introduction of RTS subscriptions, starting from September 1, 2005, while the Culture and Information Minister Dragan Kojadinovic claimed that the subscriptions were the prerequisite for forming the public service broadcasters, not the other way around. The government however has proposed to the Parliament to authorise the right to RTS to collect subscriptions even before being transformed into a public service. Speaking for the B92’s radio show “Kaziprst”, Snjezana Milivojevic said that the public would not be given any options. She also said that the subscriptions were collected in many European countries, adding that it was a good way of financing a public service. However, the idea that the public service was based on public’s desire to watch it, and therefore to finance it, was only discredited by forced introduction of subscriptions. “If the RTS ratings are as good as they often say they are, then why shouldn’t the public pay the subscription fees? For example, in Germany and Britain, they have the consensus on whether the public wants to support their national stations or not. Would our public support RTS by paying the subscription, to pay for its autonomy and independence? The citizens do not want to pay the subscription only to have “48 hours wedding” as their top show.” However, the fact that someone pays cable TV each month would not relieve him from the obligation to pay RTS subscription.