25. 08. 2005

PARLIAMENT ON BROADCASTING

BELGRADE, August 25, 2005 (B92) – The Serbian Parliament has begun the general discussion on the draft amendments to the Broadcast Act, which has not yet been implemented 3 years after its passing. The amendments envisage the postponement of the deadline for RTS transformation into a public service broadcaster, introduction of TV subscription and postponement of the deadline for privatisation of local media. The Broadcast Act was brought three years ago, but has not yet been implemented or respected. RTS has not yet been transformed into a public service broadcaster, which is, under the current valid Act, the prerequisite for introduction of TV subscription. The amendments to the Act defer the deadline for transformation of RTS, which expired two years ago, to April next year. At the same time, the amendments give the right to RTS to start collecting the subscription immediately. Culture and Media Minister Dragan Kojadinovic explained that the opposition before October 5, as opposed to the opposition today, called on the public to boycott the subscription, since RTS was the instrument of a political option that ruled in Serbia at the time. “It is true that we, the opposition then, were fighting against that. But one should be aware of the fact that RTS was not a public service working for the citizens of Serbia at the time. The technical problem of charging the subscription through the electricity expenditure scale was not the issue but the character of the program which was the instrument in the hands of Milosevic’s regime. By introducing this way of charging the subscription, the any possibility of any political influence on the program of the public service broadcaster will be eliminated, which is the most important thing.” Chief of MPs of the Serbian Radical Party in the Serbian Parliament Tomislav Nikolic however asked what where the difference between the times before October 5 and now was, considering that Tijanic was there then as he is here now, the Socialist Party of Serbia was in power then as it is in power now: “The authorized proposers are now in a situation when they must deny everything they were saying about the TV subscription while they were in the opposition. They valued the state television according to who was in power. They say the television wasn’t good then and that the subscription should not be charged. Now, when they are in power, now it is all right to charge it”, Nikolic said. Despite the claims of the Electric Power Industry of Serbia (EPS) that the subscription will not be charged together with the electricity bills, the president of the Serbian Parliament’s Culture and Information Committee Aleksandar Lazarevic said that would be regulated by the law. “The amendment in this legislation, which should regulate this field, will define the EPS as a company entitled to charge the subscription, while the records of subscribers would be provided by RTS as envisaged by the Act. The station is obliged to provide records before it is transformed into a public service, and to notify the citizens of the subscription charge. Accordingly, I expect that the real list of those possessing a TV receiver will be made.” The amendments envisage the extension of the deadline for privatisation of local and regional electronic media, which expired in July, to the end of December 31, 2008. The amendments also envisage that the six-year terms for the members of the Broadcast Council, nominated by the Parliament’s Committee, while the members nominated by the Vojvodina Parliament, universities and churches would have five-year, and representatives of non-governmental organisations and professional associations – four-year mandate. MPs from the Democratic Party announced that they would vote against the amendments. The Serbian Radical Party said they would not take part in the voting, while the rest of the parties in the parliament said they would support the legislation. Many professional organisations, together with the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) and the Association of Independent Serbian Journalists (IJAS) opposed these amendments.