02. 09. 2010

Joint stands of ANEM, IJAS, JAS, IJAV and Local Press on basic principles of media strategy

Believing that the Media Strategy is a necessary precondition for media sector development, five media and journalists' associations of Serbia - ANEM, IJAS (NUNS), JAS (UNS), IJAV (NDNV) and Local Press, set joint stands they are going to represent in the upcoming public debate about the Media Strategy. These stands, agreed before the start of the round tables dedicated to drafting the Media Strategy, were presented publicly at the first round table held on September 2, 2010 and are related to the following issues:

1) Transparent ownership

It is necessary to secure transparency of ownership of the media through the amending of legal regulations, while the information about this must be publicly available. This envisages:

- Names of companies, the percentage of their ownership and names of their owners, regardless of whether their head offices are in the country or abroad.

- Abolishing of the legal regulation that prevents foreigners from holding majority stakes in the media, because foreign owners already hold majority stakes in the media and this legal regulation is being manipulated with.

- Constant monitoring of ownership changing in the media, with the aim of preventing the violation of transparency regulations.

2) Prohibition of ownership concentration (monopolies)

Serbia must have legal mechanisms to prevent the creation of monopolies on the media market. This envisages:

- The passing of a special law that would regulate this field, or the clear defining of rules within the key media law.

- The law must prevent the owners from obtaining monopoly through the acquisition of other media.

- Legal provisions must not prevent the development of media companies, if they improve their position on the market with high quality products.

- When setting the threshold of legal media concentration for radio and TV stations, one must take into account the need for a certain consolidation of this market, on which more broadcasting licenses have been granted in the recent period than it was economically justified and sustainable, to the extent that would secure the preservation of both the market and of media pluralism.

3) A complete withdrawal of the state from ownership in the media: all media should be private, except Public Service institutions when they are publicly owned, in accordance with the law. This is the precondition for the prevention of political control over the media.

The state's shares in the media are not needed in either exclusive nor partial and mixed ownership. The state should incite and preserve private ownership of the media and create favorable legal and economic conditions for the media to survive and develop.

Despite the fact that the Law on Public Information prevents the state from owning the media, it has kept its shares in a large number of the media. The Law on Public Information envisages that the state "may be a founder" of a news agency and this provision should be revoked. If the state assesses that it needs a press bureau, a good portion of the work performed by the state media should be transferred to this bureau.

The Strategy must envisage the complete withdrawal of the state from ownership of the media and set a deadline for the completion of this process.

This envisages:

- The selling of shares and stakes the state holds in the media and the redefining of the position of media companies which currently exist as public enterprises.

- The establishing of a new model of relations between the local authorities and local and regional media, based on public interests, not on ownership.

- The creation of independent bodies and other mechanisms that would limit the attempts of the state, but also of large companies, to control the media.

4) Establishing of equal treatment of all media on the market

The Public Service, media in private ownership and media in which (in the transitional period that will be set by the Strategy) local and central authorities will keep a share of ownership, must have completely equal treatment on the market. This envisages:

- The clear defining of public interests in the media-related and other laws and the clear defining of the obligations of the state (central, provincial and local authorities) in this regard.

- Establishing the obligation for the central, provincial and local authorities to fund media projects of public interest from the budget.

- The fundamental changing of ways for the financing of public interests, to be based on the determination to finance such interests through projects that are available to all media under equal conditions, and not through ownership, i.e. through the model of public enterprises which would be in charge of the carrying out of public interests.

- The forming of independent bodies (at the republic, provincial and local levels) which would be deciding on the projects.

- The forming of special funds (at the republic, provincial and local levels) for inciting the programs and projects of public interest.

- The establishing of a system of tax and other incentives and financial incentives for media companies which value the work of professional journalists and which promote public interests.