31. 07. 2014
53rd ANEM MONITORING REPORT
SERBIAN MEDIA SCENE IN JUNE 2014
In June 2014, media and journalists in Serbia were exposed to various pressures and attacks. In the section of the Report on freedom of expression, the monitoring team analysed 5 selected cases - the hacking attack on the website "Pescanik" after it published an article on the contentious doctoral thesis of the Minister of Interior; the assault on the sports journalist Andjus, allegedly committed by a high-ranking politician Nebojsa Covic because of the journalist's statements about Covic and his son during a TV program; discrimination of media and restricting access to specific newsrooms (the case of the website Nasa Grocka Info) and journalists to public sessions of local government bodies or even to local government buildings (journalist from Zajecar, Vuksan Cvetanovic); prevention of dissemination of newspapers (of the local monthly "Zupska rec" by the President of the Aleksandrovac municipality); summoning a journalist for interrogation in the police (journalists of the RTV Mladenovac) because of citing a comment on Facebook. In the Report section on court proceedings, the authors analyse two verdicts - the verdict of the Higher Court in Belgrade obliging the editor, journalist and publisher of the magazine "Svedok" to pay damages to Mica Jovanovic, rector of the Megatrend University, for tarnished reputation and honour, caused by the text analysing Jovanovic's official biography and mocking certain dubious international acknowledgments and obscure honorary titles he has obtained; the verdict of the the Basic Court in Nis acquitting the former Director of the Municipal Heating Plant in Nis, his associate and body guard from the allegations that they had threatened journalist and editor of "Juzne Vesti" thus undermining his personal security - according to the Court's opinion, the statements the defendants addressed to the plaintiff do not constitute a threat.
Implementation of existing laws - The Broadcasting Law - regarding the RBA Council decision to call another open competition, this time for the issuance of local and regional radio broadcasting licenses, the authors comment the unsolved issue of the vacant national frequency for broadcasting of TV program.
Monitoring of the process of adoption of new laws - the Report authors conclude that there have not not been moves forward in the process of adopting new media laws in the period covered by the report and they deal with the adopted amendments to the Law on Electronic Communications - those of importance for the media sector, that pertain to the access to withheld data and that precisely define the institute of "must carry" obligation.
The work of competent bodies - the Report analyzes the work of the regulatory body - the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RBA) - 1. Amendments to the Broadcasters Code of Conduct which pertain to imparting of information about crime and the course of criminal proceedings, as well as to dealing with religion and religious programs; the authors analyse the changes the amendments bring to broadcasters; 2. Compliance reports for public service broadcasters - along with the analysis of the reports - which programmatic and legal obligations the PSBs comply with, and which they do not, the authors provide a conclusion on the results of the reports and the assessment of the reports; 3. Compliance report for commercial broadcasters - in the report analysis the authors provide an overview of the compliance of national commercial TV broadcasters with certain programmatic and legal obligations stipulated by the Law on Broadcasting and the Law on Advertising and they provide the report assessment; 4. The Report on gender equality and gender stereotypes on the RTS 1 program and the Report about the availability of programmes to disabled persons, the frequency and manner of presentation of disabled persons in the programmes of both PSBs and commercial broadcasters - this is the first time these reports are done, so the monitoring team analyses them and summarizes their results; the work of the Press Council, the self-regulatory body for print media, was also analysed, namely the direct and indirect result of two procedures regarding the complaints lodged by the President of the Republic against the daily newspapers "Blic" and "Alo"; the authors also deal with the work of the collective organization for the protection of musical copyrights (Sokoj), namely the control of records of broadcasted musical works that broadcasters submit to Sokoj, conducted by the Sokoj Commission, the control results and measures taken after the control.
The digitalization process - the authors deal with the way in which the amendments to the Law on Electronic Communications regulate the state assistance in purchasing devices for receiving digital TV signal (set-top-box) and they point to the shortcomings of these legal solutions due to which it could happen that those most in need of the assistance are left without the possibility to receive any TV signal after digital switchover.
The privatization process - the authors note that amendments to the Law on Privatization may present an additional problem for media privatization and they state what steps should be taken to prevent the problem.
In the Conclusion of the Report the authors summarize their findings on the most important developments in the media sector in the period covered by the report and they point out the necessity to build institutional framework, equally important, if not more, for media freedoms, than the legal framework.
53rd Monitoring Report was produced by the expert team of the ANEM legal department, Law Office "Živković&Samardžić", in cooperation with ANEM.
The Summary and Conclusion of the Report in English is available for download here below.
The full report and its sections in Serbian are available for download here.
The contents of this Report are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Civil Rights Defenders.
The contents of this Report are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Open Society Foundation, Serbia.
The Summary and Conclusion of the ANEM 53rd Monitoring Report
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