05. 08. 2005

PRESSURES ON COUNCIL’S INDEPENDENCE

BELGRADE, August 5, 2005 – The Broadcast Agency Council stated yesterday that the press conference, held by the Independent Association of Serbian Journalists (IJAS), Media Division of Nezavisnost Trade Union and Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) in Belgrade Media Center, was a certain form of pressure on council’s independence established by the law. “These organisations are aware that the proposed amendments to the Broadcast Act were partly initiated by the Broadcast Council. This regulatory body was pushed to this action because the existing legislation, created by the personal criteria of the groups gathered around ANEM and IJAS, cannot be implemented. In short, the badly written and contradictory Act needs to be amended”, said in the statement of the Broadcast Agency Council. The council also stated that “maintaining of the power of veto of the council member nominated by the Vojvodina Parliament was against the Constitution”. “The work of the Council would become absurd, since the member with the power of veto is currently under investigation for suspicion of abusing his authorities”, said in the statement. Further, the postponement of privatisation of local electronic media would leave wider strategic space, said in the statement signed by Vladimir Cvetkovic. Namely, according to Council’s records, from the moment the Act came into force three years ago until present, none of 113 radio and TV stations founded by the local government had been privatized. It is unrealistic to expect that the media would be privatized for less than a year under such conditions. The Broadcast Council said it would bring measures that would encourage privatisation of local media with the Development Strategy and other documents. Commenting on the voiced protest against the proposed procedure of determining members’ mandates, the Council noted that “this was also disputed in the first version of the Act. The amendments noted and corrected the omissions.” “As for the transformation of RTS into a public service broadcaster, it is utterly clear that there is no public service without its financial sources, that is, subscription. Such claims that RTS needs to be transformed into a public service broadcaster before the introduction of subscription are absurd, since it would lead to the financial control of the government (if it is financed from the budget) or to a bankrupt of the public service, if it isn’t financed at all.” Besides, the Broadcast Council believes that the business ethics of ANEM as the association of radio and TV stations should not allow interference in the internal organisation and transformation of RTS into a public service broadcaster. “Once again ANEM and IJAS use obvious tactics of declarative fostering, but in reality obstructing of the transformation of RTS into a public service”, said in the statement of the Council. “ANEM and IJAS do not have to worry about the pressures on the members of the Council, since the press conferences and statements of these two associations are in fact the strongest pressure which the council members have felt until now”, said in the statement. “The Broadcast Council reminds the public of the fact that ANEM and IJAS were the bearers of the two-year-long campaign which resulted in paralyzing the work of the council. The managements of these organisations weren’t protecting the public interest but preserving the chaos in the broadcasting field which in fact suits the groups linked to them.”