31. 01. 2016

THE SIXTY - SEVENTH MONITORING REPORT OF ANEM

SERBIAN MEDIA SCENE IN DECEMBER 2015

Freedom of expression - This Report analyzed: the sexist scandal of the Defense Minister, the assessment of international organizations about the situation of media freedoms in Serbia and the report of the Anti-Corruption Council about the potential influence of public sector institutions on the media through payments of advertising and marketing services.

Implementation of the Law - Law on Public Information and Media: the Report analyzes the procedure of allocation of funds on the open competition for the co-financing of media projects production in the City of Belgrade and the related ways to address the problems in the area of project co-financing; the Report also delves into the issue of minority language media, the regulative shortcomings and the ways how to successfully tackle this matter. Law on Electronic Media: the Report deals with the problem that has compromised and delayed the election of two candidates for a position in the RBEM Council, which candidates were supposed to be elected by associations engaged in the protection of children and freedom of expression; a topic of the Report were also the Draft Proposal of the Strategy for the Development of Media Services and the Draft Instructions concerning the time of broadcast of forced environment reality programs.

In the part of the Report concerning the adoption of new laws, the authors analyzed, from a legal standpoint, the proposed Amendments to the Law on Public Service Broadcasters and the Draft of the Law on the Temporary Regulation of the Collection of the Fee for the Public Service Broadcaster, pointing out to the problems that might arise with the adoption thereof.

Work of competent bodies, authorities and organizations - the Ombudsman: the subject of analysis were the irregular actions of the Communal Police of the city of Belgrade towards the reporters of the web portal Istinomer, which the Ombudsman identified in a controlling procedure, as well as the recommendations issued by the same to the Communal Police. The Commissioner for Information of Public Interest and Personal Data Protection: the Report analyzed the result of the controlling procedure conducted by the Commissioner in the psychiatric clinic "Laza Lazarevic" in relation to the unauthorized disclosure of data from that clinic on the air, on TV Pink.

The digitalization process - Regarding the decision of RBEM to cease broadcasting the provincial PSB from the Avala allotment, the Report points out to the problems such a decision may cause in practice.

The privatization process - the process of liquidation of the state-owned Tanjug news agency and the status of the licenses of the media outlets that haven't been privatized by October 31, 2015.

The conclusion of the Report contains the most important findings about the media situation in Serbia in December 2015, as well as a conclusion as to the identified key problems in media sector.

The Sixty-seventh Monitoring Report was prepared by the ANEM expert monitoring team from the law office „Živković&Samardžić", in cooperation with ANEM.

The Summary and Conclusion of the Report in English are available for download at the end of this page.

The full Report and its sections in Serbian are available for download here.

The creation of this Report is supported by the Swiss Cooperation Office Serbia within the Small Projects Fund, but the views presented in this Report are the sole responsibility of its authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Swiss Cooperation Office Serbia.   

The Summary and Conclusion of the ANEM 67th Monitoring Report