23. 07. 2010

THE TWELFTH MONITORING REPORT

The monitoring team has produced its Twelfth Monitoring Report, which includes all significant developments in the Serbian media sector in June 2010.

The brief overview of the contents of this Report:

Freedom of expression - various violations of this freedom continued also in June. The Report presents few selected cases - death threats to journalist from Uzice who wrote about a local businessman, the call for a boycott of the Islamic community of the daily "Blic" because of photomontage with the image of the chief Mufti published in satirical section of the newspaper, the civil action brought by a local councilor for violation of his honor and reputation in the article of the "Becejski mozaik", the first filing of charges of the Public Prosecutor against the media for violating the presumption of innocence of a minister, in line with the amended Law on Public Information. All of these events are commonly characterized with the fact that the persons, who have a certain influence in the public or perform public functions, felt that their rights were infringed by writings and other contents in the newspaper. Also, strengthening of self-censorship in the media may be the common consequence for all of them.

Implementation of existing laws - The authors of the Report used the outcome of the "Novosti" affair to explain and point out to the shortcomings of media regulation, particularly the weaknesses of last year's amendments to the Law on Public Information. The authors have also dealt with the application of the Broadcasting Law through the analysis of official reason of the RTS management to "remove" the program "Da, mozda, ne" (Yes, maybe, no) from the program scheme - at the last moment and without any consultation with its author - as well as with the consequences of such a procedure. As for the Law on Local Self-Government, using the example of Cacak and distribution of budget funds to local media, earmarked for information of local significance, the authors point, as in the previous Report, to the unequal practices of local self-governments and the shortcomings of the existing regulations and practices in this regard. The position of insiders was the topic of the international conference, organized by the Commissioner, as well as of this Report, in the part related to the implementation of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance, namely the shortcomings of the law in this regard.

Monitoring of the adoption of new laws - Expert monitoring team also focused on the adopted Law on Electronic Communications, which caused controversy in the public. The Report provides the analysis of its provisions, from those provoking the reaction of the Ombudsman, to those that are the basis for solving important problems - the broadcasting "piracy".

Monitoring of work of competent authorities - According to the Report, regulators have been quite active in this period. The RBA has made a decision on establishing a list of events of national interest for the citizens of Serbia and continued with monitoring of electronic media and the filing of misdemeanor charges for violation of provisions of the Broadcasting Law and the Law on Advertising, although it is not clear in the case of RTS why the violations of the provisions were treated as offense and not as an economic misdemeanor as it should; the RATEL informed the public of a significant reduction of number of "pirate" broadcasters. As for the authorities, only two ministries were active: the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Society and the Ministry of Culture. The first addressed the issue of the digital dividend as a prelude to a public debate on its allocation, while the other has, in cooperation with the European Union, presented long-awaited Media Study, which will be the starting point for Media Strategy. Collective organizations have dealt with their internal issues, which may indirectly serve to better understand the failure of negotiations on the level of their tariffs between them and the representative associations of users - the broadcasters. The analysis of the Agreement on business cooperation between the OFPS and PI and data on the fund for distribution to authors on the basis of broadcasting, released by SOKOJ, leads to the understanding of why a compromise for lesser amounts of their tariffs has not been found yet.

Privatization and digitalization - Using the example of two media companies, "Ibarske Novosti" from Kraljevo and RTV Krajina from Negotin, the authors point to needed urgent intervention of the state in the privatization of media, which shall offer system solutions for the sustainable development of local media in Serbia, in the interests of local communities. In the area of digitalization, apart from the activities of the competent ministry on the issue of the digital dividend, there were no other significant events. The basic condition for the continuation of the preparation for the TV digitalizing process, the appointment of the Director of the Public Company "Broadcasting Equipment and Communications", was not met even in this period.

In the Conclusion of this Report, you can read how the monitoring team saw the media scene in June 2010.

The Twelfth Monitoring Report for June 2010, produced by the expert team from the law office "Zivkovic&Samardzic", in cooperation with ANEM, can be downloaded here, in whole or in part, by clicking on the selected section below.

Section FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION here
Section MONITORING OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF EXISTING LAWS here
Section MONITORING OF THE PROCESS OF ADOPTION OF NEW LEGISLATION here
Section MONITORING OF THE ACTIVITIES OF REGULATORY BODIES, AUTHORITIES AND COLLECTIVE ORGANIZATIONS here
Section MONITORING OF THE DIGITALIZATION AND PRIVATIZATION PROCESSES here
Section OVERALL CONCLUSION here
The COMPLETE REPORT can be downloaded here