24. 09. 2010

FOURTEENTH LEGAL MONITORING REPORT

The Fourteenth Legal Monitoring Report for August 2010 brings the review of the most important developments that marked the media scene in that period:

Freedom of Expression - the authors of the Report analyzed 2 cases of violations of freedom of information by public office holders who had expressed their dissatisfaction with journalists' reporting, by verbal and physical attack on the journalists in the first case, while in the second, by prohibiting local public services and companies to give statements to journalists without prior approval; three court rulings in media cases had been delivered, indicating that there had been positive developments in the area of protection of freedom of expression in Serbia, but also that those changes did not send a sufficiently clear message that any threat to this freedom would be promptly and adequately sanctioned; it remains to be seen what message will deliver the verdict in the trial of persons arrested under suspicion of committing brutal attack on journalist Teofil Pancic.

Implementation of existing laws - in this part of the Report, the authors particularly point to: the legal consequences of non-publication of the decision of the Constitutional Court, passed on July 22, 2010, on the disagreement of most of the provisions of the Law on Amendments to the Law on Public Information with the Constitution of Serbia and ratified international treaties; the fact that, although the RBA considered to have, in this period, successfully performed the supervision within its competence over the work of broadcasters, in practice, there are circumstances that can lessen the effects of its activities; the increasing use of the right to free access to information of public importance, the lack of respect of this right by public authorities and fulfillment of their legal obligations, through the analysis of an unusual case of violation of this right by public authority bodies, which, at the same time, represents the restriction of freedom of expression.

Monitoring of the adoption of new laws - in August, there had been no adoption or work on new legislation. Only the Media Study, offered as a basis for drafting the Media Strategy, was the subject of analysis and consultations within the media and journalists' associations, as well as their mutual talks.

Monitoring of the work of regulatory bodies - in this period, the regulators were the most active - the RBA had issued new broadcasting licenses, thus increasing the number of legal broadcasters, while RATEL delivered a number of its decisions aiming at bringing order to the air, by prohibiting the operations of illegal broadcasters and sanctioning the legal broadcasters for non-complying with the regulations; due to failure to appoint the Commission on Copyright and Related Rights, the collective organizations have continued to charge fees from broadcasters under the old tariffs that had been arbitrarily determined, while, at the same time, they entered the process of determining tariffs for exercise of rights to special fees, whose collection would cause the increase of operating costs of electronic media; the Culture Minister has again stirred up the media public with his statements, this time on the issue how to make a good information environment in Serbia, which indirectly explain why there are still no positive changes in the Serbian media sector.

Digitalization and privatization - in the process of preparing the digital transition, all planned activities are still delayed, which jeopardizes the sustainability of the foreseen date for analogue switch off; for the privatization of the media, beside the government that persistently fails to participate in solving this issue, there is no more interest even of investors, which significantly complicates the situation of those media that the local authorities no longer wish to retain in its possession.

The Conclusion of this Report indicates good, seemingly good and bad developments in the Serbian media sector in August 2010.

The Fourteenth Monitoring Report, like all the previous ones, was prepared by an expert team of the law office "Zivkovic&Samardzic", in cooperation with ANEM. The entire Report, or its parts, can be downloaded here, by clicking on the selected section below.

Section FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION here
Section MONITORING OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF EXISTING LAWS here
Section MONITORING OF ADOPTION OF NEW LAWS 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