02. 12. 2005

PRIVATISATION IN PIROT

PIROT, December 2, 2005 – President of the Pirot Municipal Council Vladan Vasic urged the management and managing board of the Public Publishing Company Sloboda last week to immediately take the initiative in the privatisation of this media outlet, reminding them of short deadlines, especially for the newspaper Sloboda. “We, the founders of this company, believe that all three media operating within the company must be privatized at the same time. It is however up to the management of this media company, unions and employers to decide whether these media would go to the privatisation individually or as undivided media”, Vasic said. Workers of the IJP Sloboda in Pirot fear of losing their jobs in the privatisation process. The most concerned are the employees in weekly Sloboda, the only print media in South East Serbia. The deadline for privatisation of this media is April 2006. Media Company Sloboda is consisted of the weekly Sloboda, with 61 year long tradition, Radio Pirot, which has been operating for 27 years, and TV Pirot that works for 6 years now. This informative company employs around 70 people – 10 in the weekly, 17 in Radio Pirot and 29 in TV Pirot. The rest is the staff working in the supporting departments. The average salary is around 15.000 dinars. IJP Sloboda director Svetlana Matic Metodijev said the company’s assets have been registered, and the preparation activities for the upcoming privatisation have been initiated. “The Privatisation Agency asked us to declare our status changes, that is, whether IJP Sloboda would enter the privatisation process as one company or with each media independently. At the moment, the employees are voicing their opinion on ownership changes”, said Matic Metodijev. Vladan Vasic promised that the Pirot Municipal Council would assist this media company in their preparation for the privatisation, securing the funds for each of the three media outlets from the budget for 2006. “Four million dinars have been secured in the name of the social security program, and each of these media will also receive funds for their salaries. The social security program envisages 20 percent decrease in staff, which means that only 14 or 15 people out of 70 staff members will be regarded as an excess. President of the Independent Union in IJP Sloboda and journalist of Radio Pirot Nenad Paunovic said the workers would not agree to any sorts of imposed models of privatisation until the collective agreement was signed with the founder. Paunovic also pointed out that the founder showed no inclination at the beginning of this year to strengthen the company before the privatisation. Journalist and former editor-in-chief of TV Pirot Dragica Pavlov Krstic said the privatisation was the only way for the media, financed from the local budgets, to free themselves from the most direct influence of the local authorities on their editorial policy. Journalist of Radio Pirot Snezana Manic said that she was not dreading the privatisation, and expressed hope that the company would not end up in the hands of a baker, butcher or someone of similar profession, but a person already affirmed in journalism.