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17. 01. 2013

FORTIETH MONITORING REPORT

Serbian media sector in December 2012, according to the findings of the monitoring team:

The most important developments have occurred in the area of adoption of new laws, which, although not the media laws, have serious implications for the media sector. Amendments to the Law on Copyright and Related Rights, as well as the Amendments to the Criminal Code will have a significant, both positive and negative, impact with their solutions to the position of the media and journalists. Law on Public Enterprises could seriously harm the development of the media sector with its solutions that were in direct opposition to the media laws and the Media Strategy, however, the government have given up on them at the last minute under the pressure from the media community. During this period, a public debate was led on Amendments to the Law on Local Self-Government, while an initiative was launched for amending the Law on Capital City and for the adoption of the new Advertising Law. All relevant media organizations actively participated in all these events, achieving significant successes with their joined action and creating the basis with their initiatives for future changes in this domain, in the interest of the media sector;

Freedom of expression - a list of unsuitable media, made by a right-wing organization and its call for shutting down of these media, as well as two cases of discrimination against the media, indicating that the treatment of media at the local level has not improved at all, have been the subject of analysis in the section of the Report on pressure and threats; in the part dealing with court proceedings, the authors analyze the initiative of ANEM media association upon which the Constitutional Court decided to launch the proceedings of reviewing the constitutionality of the provisions of the Law on the Protection of Rights and Freedoms of National Minorities, which allow the state to establish radio and TV stations that would broadcast programs in the languages of national minorities;

Implementation of existing laws - through the analysis of the Report of the RBA on meeting legal and programming obligations of Radio Television Serbia in 2011, the authors illustrate how the provisions of the Broadcasting Law have been applied;

The work of the competent authorities - the authors analyze activities of regulatory bodies, state bodies and collective organizations, the most important being: regarding the decision of the RBA Council to adopt the financial plan for 2013, the authors address the issue of financing of this regulatory body; Assistant Minister of Culture and Media declared that the Media Strategy would not be implemented selectively, that all terms stipulated in the Strategy would be respected and that the Ministry was preparing five media laws - the authors analyze this announcement, as well as specific suggestions of ANEM regarding the laws on electronic media and public service broadcasting;

Process of digitalization - the authors deal with the warranty trademark and its importance in the process of implementing the digital transition;

Process of privatization of media - the authors analyze the statement of the Secretary of the Culture and Media Ministry's working group for the creation of media laws, regarding the question of privatization of the media, which indicates the attitude of the new government towards this issue;

The Conclusion of the Report contains the authors' assessment of good and bad developments in the media sector in this period.

The Fortieth Monitoring Report was done by the expert team of ANEM Legal Department, law office "Zivkovic&Samardzic", in cooperation with ANEM. Here you can download it, in whole or in part, by clicking on the selected section below.