17. 03. 2006

NEW PEOPLE IN PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTERS

NOVI SAD, March 17, 2006 – The vice-president of the media division “Nezavisnost” union Dragan Milanovic Pilac said yesterday at the press conference in Novi Sad that people appointed or nominated for members of the managing boards by the executive authorities should not lead the future public service broadcasters. Milanovic urged all interested individuals and organisations to respond to the public call of the Broadcast Agency and nominate experts for managing board members of the future public service broadcasters of Serbia and Vojvodina. He also called the public to adequately react in case of nomination and election of incompetent people. According to Milanovic’s expectations, the influence of the authorities on the work of the state television station will stop after the constitution of managing boards, adoption of the statute of new public services and appointment of new director. Milanovic said that all of this should be finalized by May 1st, and urged the Serbian Government to respect the envisaged deadlines for the transformation of RTS into a public service broadcaster. “Europe will not let us in without the true public service”, noted Milanovic. President of the RTV Novi Sad Union Branko Bojic said that there was no real cooperation between the union members and management. He accused the director Petar Jovanovic for such state of affairs, which resulted in general atmosphere of fear. “Lack of cooperation of the director with the unions is reflected in refusing to acknowledge the objections to social program, change of systematization and reorganization of the house, initiative to form a project team that would prepare the transformation of RTV Novi Sad into a public service broadcaster, but also in intimidating union activists and ignoring the union activities”, Bojic noted. Bojic wondered why neither politicians nor Jovanovic appealed to the European institutions and insisted on reconstruction of the building RTV Novi Sad, destroyed during NATO air campaign. Speaking at the press conference, he pointed out that such behavior of the director was enabled by disrespect of the Broadcast Act. The union members demanded from the RTS’ current and future management of the Vojvodina public service broadcaster to discard all that was done in the process of transformation by the management of RTNS led by Petar Jovanovic.