29. 08. 2014
54th ANEM MONITORING REPORT
SERBIAN MEDIA SCENE IN JULY 2014
Central event for the media sector in July was the start of the adoption process of three media bills - on public information and media, on electronic media, and on public service broadcasters. At the end of July the Government adopted the said bills and submitted them to the Parliament suggesting their adoption in an urgent procedure. The Report authors write about this in the section Monitoring of the process of adoption of new laws.
Threats and attacks against journalists and media, which continued to happen in July unabated, are covered in the Report section Freedom of expression. The month of July started with a brutal assault on the FoNet news agency editor Davor Pasalic. In this case there is a basis for suspicion that is was a targeted attack on the journalist because of the work he does. Additionally, the Report analyses three cases of threats to journalists - the editor and owner of the Informative Internet portal Ruma was harshly threatened by a local businessman because of articles written about connecting of his building to the city sewage system, although the journalist claimed that he was not the author of these articles; journalist of the Beta news agency in Gornji Milanovac, Zivko Perisic, was threatened by a local community official in Zagradje because of carrying information that the official is accused of stealing electricity; a journalist of the "Smederevske novine" web portal and correspondents of numerous Belgrade daily newspapers from Smederevo received threatening messages via Facebook by a city official on whose detention by police they reported - all the three cases of threats were analysed in the context of Article 138 of the Criminal Code that regulates criminal offence endangerment of safety. There was also a case of alleged blackmail by media in July - a baker from Belgrade accused the daily newspaper "Kurir" that it tried to extort a sizeable montly sum of money from him in order to stop publishing articles that were not in favor of his bakery; the manner in which this case was solved speaks about the extent to which institutions of the system are compromised. The Report section on court proceedings provides an analysis of the verdict of the Higher Court in Belgrade rejecting the claim of businessman Milan Beko for compensation of damages against B92 and three editors and journalists of this media outlet because of the interview with Stanko Subotic, broadcasted on this TV station in December 2010, in which Subotic, among other things, talked about Beko; in the verdict, the Court cites on several occasions the practice of the European Court for Human Rights in the application of the Article 10 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
The implementation of existing laws - the implementation of the Law on Public Information was covered in the Report section on Freedom of expression, and the implementation of the Broadcasting Law - in the section on the Monitoring of the work of regulatory bodies.
The work of competent authorities - the Report analysed the work of regulatory bodies: RBA - on the occasion of the RBA's notice to broadcasters on the supervision over electronic records of broadcasting and re-broadcasting copyright-protected works, the authors analyse the competencies of the agency in conducting the supervision; RATEL - the authors analyse the merger of RATEL and RAPUS and point out to potential risk of the regulators' convergence; the Report also analyses the RATEL's conclusion regarding the collection of fees for using radio frequencies and its possible negative consequenes for media sector; the work of state bodies: competent ministries for media and telecommunications - the authors summarize the discussion of the Bilateral screening for Chapter 10 - Information society and media, and they point out to the importance of this event both for the media sector and the accession of Serbia to the EU; Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection - the authors analyse the first results of the Commissioner's supervision over Internet service providers regarding protection of privacy and confidentiality of communications, as well as the Commissioner's efforts in advocating measures needed to make information on public authorities accessible to citizens; the Committee of the National Parliament for Culture and Information - due to frequent requests of theater, film and television artists and performers to regulate the issue of collective fulfilment of their copyright and related rights, on which topic the Committee organized the first public hearing, the Report authors deal with the announced mode of solution of the issue, which is disputable as it can put TV broadcasters in an unfavorable position; Collective organizations for the protection of copyright and related rights (OFPS and PI) - the authors write about negotiations on unified tariff of fees which these organizations are conducting with cable operators and public service broadcasters (RTV and RTS) and they point out to legal provisions regulating this issue.
The digitalization process - regarding the publication of the RBA's list of regional TV broadcasters which are to enter the Initial network, the authors emphasize the uneven position of local TV stations in the preparation process for digital switchover.
The privatization process - the authors write on how the issue of media privatization is solved by the Bill on public information and media.
In the Conclusion of the Report the authors summarize the Report and point out to the importance of media laws, but also their adequate implementation, for the media to fulfil their function in a democratic society.
54th 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 54th Monitoring Report
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