26. 04. 2006

AGENCY EXPLAINS DECISION

BELGRADE, April 26, 2006 – The Broadcast Agency Council explained its decision regarding national frequencies. The Council has continued to deny claims coming from many sides recently regarding corruption, especially in the exclusion of television stations BK and RTL from the national market. The Council unanimously adopted the proposal for awarding frequencies, with which the process was ended. The deadline for filing complaints and appeals is 15 days, and the council must respond to the appeals 30 days after they are received. In its explanation of why the frequencies were handed out to certain stations, the Council stated that the first criteria was that the administration showed business success in the stations which are already broadcasting programs, and would need an adequate and convincing guarantee for future business success, which holds true for everyone. Pink TV announced the greatest amount of investments in its program, over 100 million euros, TV Fox 38.5, Kosava-Happy TV 32.4 and TV Avala 21.8 million. TV RTL, which was not awarded the frequency, was planning to invest 21.3 million euros. The Council stated that much of the financial information of TV BK at the time of the public interview was blocked by its administration and not allowed to be looked at the Council. It also stated that BK TV the total amount blocked was 1,006,327,844. 61 dinars (approximately 11.6 million euros). The Council also stated that BK TV showed an overt amount of favoritism towards Bogoljub Karic and his Power of Serbian Movement party. The Council added that the status of TV BK was still unclear. One of the criteria taken into consideration for allocation of frequencies was the behavior of the applicant during the competition. The Council also stated that statements made to the public by BK and RTL were detrimental to the completion of the competition and that they made efforts to affect the decision and work of the Council through these public statements.