21. 12. 2011

Joint press conference of five media and journalists’ associations

On December 21, 2011, ANEM organized a joint press conference with NUNS, UNS, Local Press and Media Association, titled "The Year behind Us - Used or Missed Opportunity for Media Sector?" At the conference, held in UNS Press Center in Belgrade, the representatives of five media and journalists' associations that were very active in the past year regarding the implementation of reforms in the media sector, informed the public about their views and assessments of what had marked the media scene in 2011, what was good or bad, and what tasks and challenges still awaited the media community in the upcoming period. The conference speakers were: Sasa Mirkovic (ANEM President), Ljiljana Smajlovic (UNS President), Zoran Sekulic (representative of the Association of Media), Vukasin Obradovic (NUNS President) and Dejan Miladinovic (Chairman of the Local Press Managing Board). Slobodan Kremenjak, ANEM lawyer, Stojan Markovic, owner and chief editor of Radio "Ozon" and "Cacankse novine" from Cacak and Ljubica Markovic, Director of the news agency "Beta", also spoke at the conference, attended by more than 30 representatives of stakeholders - the media, journalists, competent authorities, international organizations and donor community.

All speakers agreed that the past year had been extremely difficult for the media and journalists in Serbia and that the expectations of the media community, that the adoption of the Media Strategy would announce a changed Government policy toward the media sector, had been betrayed. According to representatives of the associations, a recent government's announcement of the plan to allocate 368 million dinars from the public budget for 2012 to the News agency "Tanjug", newspaper "Panorama", "Radio Jugoslavija" and "Jugoslovenski pregled", shows that the state does not intend to comply with the Strategy's key postulates related to the withdrawal of the state from media and introducing the project financing of the media content of the public importance as of January 1, 2012. Sasa Mirkovic (ANEM), Vukasin Obradovic (NUNS) and Zoran Sekulic (Association of Media), addressed this topic specifically. Vukasin Obradovic (NUNS) said that by this move, the state acted contrary to the provisions of the Law on State Aid Control, and that this type of state subvention fell under illegitimate state aid, because it directly distorted the market, while the other two agencies on the market were put in an unfavorable position, which was very dangerous in terms of maintaining the plurality of the media market. What is the biggest concern of the association is that the government is the central figure in the media market and plans to keep this position, whereas the media are put in a position where, directly or indirectly, depend on the state and the people in power; the future of media scene, media and journalists in Serbia depend on the role of the state on the media market. According to Ljiljana Smajlovic (UNS), another recent event that illustrates the fact that the state does not intend to honor its commitments made in the Strategy is the announcement of sale of ownership of newspapers "Politika", "Dnevnik" and "Vecernje novosti" to the owners of "Kurir". Raising the question of the origin of "Kurir"'s money for buying "Politika" (since it would be a sum 40 times larger than the annual profit of "Kurir"), she said that it was possible that people close to the government would "cement media ownership" and the origin of funds they would use for buying the media would remain unknown.

Representatives of the associations expressed their concern over the genuine intentions of the state regarding the introduction of project financing of the media content. Dejan Miladinovic (Local Press) spoke about activities of the associations (ANEM, NUNS and Local Press), aimed at agreeing with the authorities on finding ways in which project financing could be enabled in local communities. However, according to Miladinovic, the recommendations regarding the implementation of project financing forwarded by authorities to local self-governments have not been applied, while the latest government's moves do not give encouragement that the Media Strategy (which envisages the introduction of this type of funding) would be consistently implemented in this respect, which would affect the local media the most.

Representatives of associations also agreed that this year was very unfavorable for media freedoms. This issue was particularly addressed by Ljiljana Smajlovic (UNS), who reminded that this was the year in which editors were sacked due to political pressures (editors-in-chief of "Magyar Szó" and "Alo"), journalists were under 24-hours police protection (Vladimir Mitric, Brankica Stankovic and Veran Matic), and the Prosecutor in Novi Sad filed charges against two journalists for allegedly revealing state secrets.

As another example illustrating the way the government treated the media, the speakers referred to a recent event, when, during the visit of the President Boris Tadic and the Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic to the Kragujevac Fiat Factory, only state agency "Tanjug" was allowed to report, while access was denied to other reporters. Commenting this incident, the director of news agency "Beta" Ljubica Markovic said that many independent media in Serbia again felt unwelcome by the government as if they were back in those years when they had been in opposition and that there was a doubt about the willingness of the state to implement what it was provided for in the Strategy and particularly, to give up the control of the media.

The topics of particular importance to electronic media were also discussed, such as digitalization, the Law on Cinematography and relation of broadcasters and collective organizations for the protection of copyright and related rights. Sasa Mirkovic (ANEM) spoke about the deferral of digitalization, its implementation in phases - by region, instead of, as it was originally planned, in one day, which was one more failure by the Government to implement yet another Strategy it had adopted. Mirkovic also referred to the Law on Cinematography, currently in the parliamentary procedure; this law practically implies that the electronic media in Serbia would finance cinematography by reallocation of the part of the funds that regulators receive from broadcasters' fees to the film production. As a problem, he also mentioned disturbed relations between broadcasters and collective organizations for the protection of copyright and related rights. He particularly addressed the issue of tariffs and the obligations of broadcasters to submit lists of broadcast musical works and phonograms to these organizations.

Slobodan Kremenjak, ANEM lawyer, talked about the last decision of the Commission on Copyright and Related Rights, namely the decision brought after the failure of re-negotiations of SOKOJ and ANEM as the representative association of broadcasters. The Commission has decided to accept the tariff proposed by SOKOJ. Although it has included some of the ANEM requests (discounts for regular payments, the application of territorial principles in determining fees, which takes into account the different development of certain regions), this tariff is essentially very unfavorable, especially for smaller media, because the minimum fee is now increased. Stojan Markovic, editor in chief of Radio "Ozon" from Cacak, who was sued for alleged failure to submit program lists to OFPS, spoke about this issue, which many stations across Serbia is facing. He especially talked on uneven practice of the courts when it comes to indictment for this commercial offense, as yet another proof of legal uncertainty of the media in Serbia. He also spoke about the new tariffs of collective organizations as disputable, both because of high fees and because of contracts signed by broadcasters with the organizations, namely the contracts that regulate their relations in other way. In his opinion, all this presents an effective way to suppress the local media.

The announcement of the decriminalization of defamation and insult was assessed as another important event in the media scene in 2011 year. According to ANEM lawyer, Slobodan Kremenjak, this announcement should have been welcomed, but we should bear in mind that this measure, if not in conjunction with changes in other regulations, could have a negative effect, which would be reflected in an increase in number of litigations against the media and journalists. Stojan Markovic, owner and editor-in-chief of "Cacanke novine", which was sued for defamation and insult by a politician, spoke about how the legislation and practice of the courts allowed that defamation and insult libel made by the media were punished twice through criminal and civil proceedings separately and that many thrive on at the expense of media in this way.

As yet another problem in the media sector, the following topic was also discussed: the monopoly in the media advertising market of agencies owned by individuals close to the government, which has significantly affected the functioning, as well as freedom of the media. This, however, is something that is not publicly discussed, because of the possible consequences and more widespread self-censorship in the media.

Representatives of the associations agreed that the media scene in 2011. was marked by numerous problems, and that the few positive developments were overshadowed by events that had demonstrated that the state had no intention to implement reforms in the way it had committed to in the Media Strategy. Concerned about the future of media reforms, the associations predict that next year would put even greater challenges before them and that they, as representatives of the media community, consider it their duty to work even more closely together in the future period and to use all lawful means in order to fight for the rights and interests of the media, journalists and the entire profession.