29. 05. 2013

FORTY-THIRD ANEM MONITORING REPORT

APRIL 2013, SERBIAN MEDIA SCENE:

April has been marked, in a negative way, with the delay in media reforms and open competition called for another national commercial analogue television, as the authors elaborate in detail in the Conclusion of the Report.

Regarding the freedom of expression, the authors treated the cases of pressures and threats against media and journalists that point to its possible violation. Two cases are a continuation of previously initiated occurrences - continued campaign of SNP NASI to ban certain media and non-governmental organizations, labeled by this organization as "foreign agents" and "anti-Serb", as well as continued turmoil in the TV Jedinstvo from Novi Pazar, dismissals of 14 employees by the "new director" of the TV station; these cases show weakness and ineffectiveness of the institutions and the shortcomings of the legal framework for the work of media. The remaining two cases - threats to editor of Nis-based portal "Juzne vesti" over the articles about abuses of employment procedures in Public Utility Company "Gradske toplane Nis" by giving privileges to SNS party members, and the case in Cacak - an open declaration of the local official of the SNS and member of the Commission for allocation of funds for public information that while deciding on how the funds would be allocated, they would see that the media critical in their reporting of the work of local SNS authority officials or employees would receive less funding through the competitions, or even no funding at all; both cases represent legally prohibited pressure on the media and journalists. In the part of the Report dealing with the court proceedings, the authors address the judgment of the Higher Court in Belgrade, ordering the Internet portal "E-novine and its chief editor Petar Lukovic to pay compensation to Emir Kusturica for damages made to his honor and reputation in media, by publishing the text "A Little Analysis from Sarajevo" taken over from another web portal. This judgment shows that, compared to the practice of the European Court of Human Rights, the Serbian courts continue to differently treat the value judgments that may be offensive, which is not good.

The part of the Report dealing with the implementation of existing laws, the authors analyzed the application of the Broadcasting Law. In the situation of some sort of a "settlement" between the RBA and TV Pink, within the previously initiated process of pronouncing measures of the regulator to this media, which agreed to have one of the problematic shows removed from the program, and not to air the other before the late evening hours, the authors analyze the application of the provisions of this Law pertaining to the protection of minors and respect of human dignity in radio and TV programs. In addition, the authors also deal with the possible application of the regulation for electronic media sector to traditional print media and their online editions, regarding the cooperation agreement reached between the Press Council and the RBA, which was initiated due to the observation that parts of reality programs, which were excluded from the TV program due to stricter regulation, were largely promoted in the printed editions and particularly on Internet websites of newspapers.

The expected adoption of new laws relevant to the media has not occurred even in this period. The authors analyze the delay in the process of media reforms, as well as the beginning of the process of drafting a new Draft Advertising Law.

The work of the competent authorities - the regulatory bodies: both regulators responsible for broadcasting have dealt in this period with the issue of frequencies that have remained vacant after revocation of broadcasting license of TV Avala, but in the entirely different way - in this period, the RBA Council announced a public call for issuance of license for (analog) television program broadcasting with national coverage on those frequencies, while RATEL, with its Draft Amendment to the Rulebook on Laying down the Plan for the Allocation of Frequencies/Locations for Terrestrial Analog FM and TV Broadcasting Stations for the Territory of the Republic of Serbia, of which the public consultation have been completed, has foreseen the same frequencies to be used for the expansion of the initial network for testing digital TV signal. The authors analyze the grounds for the decision of the RBA to call the public tender procedure, as well as unclear legal situation with regard to further proceedings of adoption of the amendments to the above RATEL's Rulebook and the "fate" of those frequencies; state authorities: in this period the Ombudsman dealt with violations of the Advertising Law prohibiting the use of face, voice or personal attribute of an official in advertising activities and measures of state authorities relevant for the citizens, and issued a statement on the occasion of which the authors of the Report analyze the relevant provisions of law.

The process of digitalization - regarding the foregoing call for issuance of license for broadcasting of TV programs with national coverage, the authors analyze the consequences this decision may have on the process of digitalization, and the financial implications and the indirect damage that the Republic of Serbia may suffer due to a slowdown of the digitalization process.

The process of privatization - in this part of the Report, the authors deal with the consequences of the delay in the adoption of new media laws, especially the Law on Public Information and Media, in terms of deadlines for privatization of media and implementation of project financing model, which are crucial to reform the media system.

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

http://serbia.nlembassy.org/

The content of this Report is the sole responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The content of this Report is the sole responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Open Society Foundation, Serbia.

Section FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION here
Section MONITORING OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF EXISTING REGULATIONS 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 PROCESS here
Section MONITORING OF THE PRIVATIZATION PROCESS here
Section OVERALL CONCLUSION here
The COMPLETE REPORT can be downloaded here