29. 07. 2005

ANEM AND SEEMO DISPUTE AMENDMENTS

BELGRADE, July 29, 2005 – The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) and South East Europe Media Organization (SEEMO) protested over draft amendments to the Broadcast Act, which the Serbian Government has put into the parliamentary procedure. The amendments to the Act envisage the extension of the deadline for transformation of RTS into a public service broadcaster to April 30, 2008, as well as the deadline for the privatization of local media to December 31, 2008. The government has proposed changes to the length of terms of the Broadcast Agency Council members. Members of the Council nominated by the Parliament’s Culture and Information Council would have 6-year, members nominated by the Vojvodina Parliament, universities and churches 5-year, while representatives of non governmental organizations and professional associations 4-year terms. The government has also proposed the increase of fines for radio piracy and related offenses from 50,000-200,000 dinars to 300,000-1 million dinars. The fine for liable person of legal entity would be altered from 2,500-10,000 dinars to 20,000-50,000 dinars. Association of Independent Electronic Media is seriously concerned over draft amendments to the Broadcast Act and has appealed to the government to withdraw the draft from the parliamentary procedure, in order to prevent damages to the reforms in the broadcast sphere. South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) has also protested against the proposed changes to the Broadcast Act in Serbia. This Vienna-based organisation expressed concern over the amended length of term of each Council member and revoking of power of veto of council member nominated by Vojvodina bodies. SEEMO stated the amendments were proposed without consulting media organizations. In addition, SEEMO is informed that, instead of the ballot system that was used to randomly determine the term of appointment of individual members of the Broadcast Council during its first working period, the new amendments propose a fixed length of term for each of the elected members that favors those members who have been elected by Parliament. Thus, those nominated by Parliament as party candidates would serve terms of six years, while those nominated by professional journalists’ organisations and NGOs would serve only for four years. According to SEEMO, by revoking of power of veto power of the Broadcast Council member nominated by the autonomous province of Vojvodina, who until now has had the power of veto in all decisions concerning Vojvodina, the Belgrade government has displayed a singular lack of understanding of the problems that are specific to Vojvodina as a multi-ethnic province.