16. 08. 2010

THIRTEENTH LEGAL MONITORING REPORT

In the Thirteenth Monitoring Report, covering all significant developments in the Serbian media sector in July 2010, the team of authors analyzed the following:

In the area of Freedom of expression - A brutal attack on the weekly "Vreme" columnist Teofil Pancic, to which the journalist was exposed because of having different views and opinions from those of his attackers, has united both the government and the media sector in public condemnation of such act, which resulted in a rapid and effective reaction of the competent authorities; two cases of threats and attacks on journalists for the content of their blogs indicate, among other things, the increase of self-censorship in traditional media and the use of new media as an alternative platform for the dissemination of information; for all three cases, it is very important to see the position of the judiciary in this respect, as well as for two other cases analyzed by the monitoring team, namely the court proceedings which have already taken the first instance court decision;

Implementation of existing laws - In this part of the Report, the authors have dealt with: the Law on Public Information - the analysis of the statement of the Constitutional Court of Serbia, issued on the occasion of his decision, which declared the most provisions of the Law on Amendments to the Law on Public Information unconstitutional; the Broadcasting Law - the purpose and amount of RBA fees; information on the election of the General Manager of the Broadcasting Institution of Serbia; Law on Protection of Competition - two cases in which, in relation to takeovers and mergers in the media sector, the general Law on protection of competition has been applied, in the absence of a special Law on media concentration; these cases point to the shortcomings of the media regulatory framework, as well as to the fact that it is also very important how the laws are applied, not just what they prescribe;

Monitoring of the adoption of new laws - Media Study, created by experts engaged by the EU Delegation to the Republic of Serbia, should be a basis for the development of the Media Strategy; the authors of this Report analyzed the essence of the recommendations of the Media Study, some of them in particular, giving their own recommendations;

Monitoring of the competent authorities - From the analysis of the monitoring team in this Report, we particularly give emphasis to: the activities of the RBA in closing down of "pirate" broadcasters; Report on the activities of the Ministry of Culture in the last two years; the first instance court's decision in the dispute SOKOJ - RTS;

Privatization and digitalization - In the area of digitalization, the appointment of the Director of the Public Company "Broadcasting Equipment and Communications" is the most important event, because it has created the basis for the continuation of the preparation process of digitalization of television; at the same time, media privatization issue still has no real solutions, as shown in this Report;

The Conclusion of this Report contains findings of the monitoring team on the media situation in Serbia in July 2010.

The Thirteenth Monitoring Report for July 2010, prepared by the expert team of 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