20. 11. 2005

TV SUBSCRIPTION BEFORE THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT

BELGRADE, November 20, 2005 – TV subscription charge (300 dinars per household) should start next month. The monthly obligations for power expenditure will be increased by that amount. Under the decision of the Serbian Government, the Electric Power Industry of Serbia is assigned to collect the subscription together with the electricity bill. Lawyer Tihomir Konstantinovic said that the services provided by EPS and RTS were far from the European standards. “People are loaded with costs and constant inflation. I think the provisions of the subscription charge are illegal and unconstitutional given the fact that RTS has already secured the funds from the budget. I am sure the Constitutional Court will receive many initiatives and requests for constitutionality assessment of the Broadcast Act. It seems everybody in this country wants to solve internal problems at the expense of the citizens”, said Konstantinovic. Union of Serbian pensioners “Nezavisnost” criticized the TV subscription charge, saying that RTS would get the funds for “ironing out” their internal organizational problems. Pensioners noted that a vast majority of citizens had cable TV, and they would end up paying two TV subscriptions – one national and the other non-national. But they forgot that they had already paid a tax to RTS – as tax payers – through the budget for 2005. Deadline for RTS transformation into a public service broadcaster has been postponed until March 2006, however, the subscription for the national television will start in December this year. The Independent Association of Serbian Journalists (NUNS), together with the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), criticized this method of problem solving and threatening citizens with sharp sanctions if they refused to pay the subscription. Both associations agreed that the subscription was a widespread method of financing, but warned of the introduction of the subscription before the RTS transformation into a public service broadcaster.