21. 09. 2006

PUBLIC DISCUSSIONS OF BROADCASTING LAW

BELGRADE, September 21, 2006 (B92)- The President of the Republic Broadcast Agency (RRA) said that efforts to sabotage the Broadcasting Law lead nowhere. Nenad Cekić stated at a public discussion of the law that efforts to sabotage the Broadcasting Law will only lead to prolonged chaos in the field. The discussion was organized by the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (IJAS) and the Republika daily. In July of this year, additions and changes were made to the law on the proposal of officials of the ruling coalition, along with members of the Council for Culture and Information, even though the OSCE and many media groups were against it. Serbian President Boris Tadić refused to sign the changes into law. IJAS official Nadežda Gaće said that she is concerned about the theory that Serbia is not mature enough to have an independent regulatory body which will control the field and determine the rules of conduct. “Since we are not very mature, this needs to be given to the Parliament or to the Government again to control. I am afraid that this is one of the most dangerous theories I have heard in the analysis of the Broadcasting Law and the work of the RRA, and I think that it has come from the behavior of the members of the Council.” Gaće said. Cekić said that he is worried by the tendencies of IJAS and similar organizations to make statements that are not based on facts, and said the same for the OSCE and the Culture Ministry. “I would like to hear some facts. Neither the initial text of the law, nor the changes or additions to the law, go against European standards. If the changes and amendments do not pass, then there will be pirating and 6,000 stations which will become stronger transmitters. If that is the European standard which IJAS supports, I have nothing against that; we certainly will not do anything that goes against the law.” Cekić said. Rade Veljanovski, one of the people responsible for writing the law, said that the biggest problem is that there is a lack of dialogue with the Government. “That is a crucial question. Instead of with the Government, the public, the media, the experts, the RRA is discussion amongst itself,” he said. The last changes in the law were adopted without any form of debate. ANEM stated that the most debatable part of the changes was the part of the law that stated that the government would determine and pass the RRA’s financial plan instead of the parliament, which brings the RRA’s independence severely into question.