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02. 12. 2010

Meeting with competent authorities dedicated to fight against broadcasting “piracy”

The unsolved problem of broadcasting "piracy" is one of the important causes hindering the establishment of equal conditions on the media market and normal operating of the Serbian media. Difficulties in solving this problem are, among other things, related to insufficient legal authorities of the regulatory bodies to individually cope with broadcasting "piracy" as well as the absence of synchronized action of all competent authorities with jurisdiction in this field.

Continuing to seek the ways of effectively solving this issue, ANEM initiated and organized the meeting dedicated to this topic, which was held in Belgrade on December 2, 2010. Apart from ANEM representatives, the meeting was attended by 17 representatives of the competent institutions and bodies: Republic Agency for Electronic Communications (RATEL), Republic Broadcasting Agency (RBA), Ministry of Internal Affairs, Public Prosecution, Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Society and Provincial Secretariat for Economy (Department for Traffic and Telecommunications). The aim of the meeting was to gather all competent authorities - regulatory bodies and relevant state authorities in order to reach an agreement on the implementation of the organized activities, which could have long-term effects for fighting broadcasting "piracy".

It was ascertained that illegal broadcasters caused multiple damage, both to broadcasters with legal licenses and the state; that this problem could not have been efficiently solved due to limited legal authority of regulatory bodies and lack of the organized support of competent state authorities; still some results had been reached, as the number of illegal broadcasters had decreased over the last several months, but the problem was still present; that the recently adopted Law on Electronic Communications was introducing new possibilities for efficient fighting of illegal broadcasting, but that there were mechanisms that could contribute to successful solving of this problem, prior to the full implementation of the Law. All the participants shared information on the activities their institutions undertook within their jurisdiction in this field as well as on their results. It was concluded that individual actions were not sufficient for the efficient solving of this problem. Therefore, it was agreed that the activities of competent authorities and regulatory bodies should have been coordinated and synchronized in the future, and all present participants had shown willingness to contribute to stopping and preventing of illegal broadcasting, within their jurisdiction and in collaboration with other competent institutions.

This meeting's conclusions will be presented soon at the ANEM press conference dedicated to this topic.