29. 11. 2013
49th ANEM MONITORING REPORT
THE SERBIAN MEDIA SCENE IN OCTOBER 2013
The month of October was marked by personal changes in the Ministry of Culture and Media: the appointment of a new Assistant Minister in charge of the Media, which represents the recognition of the current government of everything that media community have accomplished so far for the promotion of media reforms in Serbia, while everything else remained unchanged, including the attitude of the government towards media reforms, in other words paying lip service without doing anything concrete. This is how the authors have judged the situation in the media sector in this period in the Conclusion of the Report.
Freedom of expression - Threats and Pressures - The authors have analyzed three cases: threats, dismissal and discrimination, the victim being the correspondent of "Blic" from Aleksandrovac, for reporting about embezzlement of the local government in Zupa; questionable statements by the Deputy Prime Minister and President of the SNS about the alleged bias in the program and reporting of the Vojvodina PSB during pre-election campaign for local elections in Vrbas; the legal actions the Mayor of Smederevo announced against the journalists and media in that town for reporting about the epidemic during the "Smederevska jesen" festival. In each of these cases, the authors pointed to the specific violations of rights and freedoms of journalists and media. In the part about Legal proceedings, the authors treated the proceedings before the Higher Court in Zrenjanin for damages, initiated by the Vice-Speaker of the Vojvodina Parliament Milivoje Vrebalov against the journalist and editor-in-chief of "Novobecejski informator" Nevena Subotic, over her text about revenues of Vrebalov; one of the topics was also the verdict of the Appellate Court in Belgrade in the criminal proceedings against the supporters of the Partizan football club, for threats against the security of journalist and editor of "Insider" Brankica Stankovic made during the match between Partizan and Shakhtyor in 2009.
In the part of the Report - Monitoring of the Implementation of Existing Laws - the authors have analyzed the Broadcasting Law and elaborated on the material shortcomings and procedural violations in the procedure of calling a new RBA's open competition for the issuance of a national broadcasting television license.
In the part of the Report - Monitoring of the Process of Adoption of New Laws - the topic is the controversy caused by the Draft Law on Public Service Broadcasters and the Draft Law on Electronic Media and the public debate about these draft laws. The authors have also explained the reasons why it is important to have the Law on Public Information and Media passed by the end of the year.
Monitoring of the Work of Competent Bodies - Work of regulatory bodies - The authors have analyzed the RBA's Report "Protection of Children and Youth and Labeling of Programming Content by National Broadcasters", as well as the measures for remedying the identified shortcomings in this field - they have pointed to the risk of over-regulation and confusion that some of these measures could cause in practice. They also analyse two interesting cases reviewed by the Complaints Commission of the Press Council, concerning the issue of privacy rights of public figures/holders of public office and the violations of these rights in media reporting. Work of state bodies - The authors treat the personal changes in the Media Sector of the Ministry and Culture and Media as well as tasks and challenges that new Assistant Minister in charge of the Media faces with; the authors also treat the work of the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection regarding its reaction to the memo of the Ministry of Interior in which all information and data on explanatory screening for negotiating chapter 24 were declared an "official secret" for the next year, meaning that, as such, they shall not be made available to media and third parties, justifying all that by an alleged request of the European Commission.
The Digitalization Process - The authors analyse the adopted Rules on Laying Down the Plan on the Allocation of Radio Frequencies/Locations, the reasons and the consequences of the delay in passing that Plan, as well as the importance of the Plan on Allocation for speeding up the digitalization process, but also deal with other criteria that must be met in order for that process to be completed in the term set.
The Privatization Process - The authors point out the causes and serious consequences of further postponing the privatization process for the survival of local and regional media.
The 49th Monitoring Report was complited by the expert team of ANEM's legal department, the „Živković&Samardžić" law office, in collaboration with ANEM. You can download it here, as a whole or in parts, by clicking on the proper section below.
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 THE PROCESS OF ADOPTION OF NEW LAWS here
Section MONITORING OF THE WORK OF REGULATORY BODIES, STATE AUTHORITIES AND COLLECTIVE ORGANIZATIONS FOR THE PROTECTION OF COPYRIGHT AND RELATED RIGHTS 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
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