30. 06. 2009

ANEM CALLS FOR URGENT IMPLEMENTATION OF GOVERNMENT’S REGULATORY MEASURES FOR MEDIA ASSISTANCE AND CONTINUATION OF WORK ON IMPROVING POSITIONS OF BROADCASTERS

Belgrade, June 30, 2009 – The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) welcomes the Government's regulatory measures to help the media in economic crisis, as well as the demonstrated willingness of regulatory agencies and collective societies for the decrease of fees that the broadcasters pay. At the same time, ANEM urges all relevant bodies to ensure the immediate implementation of the adopted measures and the reduction of fees, and thus show a true willingness to protect the media and prevent their decay due to damaging effects of financial crisis.

Alarmed by the inputs from its stations on their extremely difficult financial situation, which threatens their existence, ANEM, since the beginning of this year, made great efforts to draw attention of the media public and relevant government bodies to a difficult position of the media, and the necessity for urgent measures for the survival of the media. As a result of these ANEM activities and requests of other media associations, work groups have been formed within the Ministry of Culture, on whose initiative the Government of the Republic of Serbia adopted the measures for media assistance in the economic crisis by its Conclusion. Parallel with that, ANEM conducted negotiations with regulatory agencies and collective societies on the reduction of fees and stimulating measures for improving the position of the electronic media. Thus ANEM, on 26th and 28th of May this year, organized two round tables, where the broadcasters discussed the reduction of fees with the representatives of the Republican Broadcasting Agency (RBA) and the Republican Agency for Telecommunications (RATEL), and debated with representatives SOKOJ and OFPS for more realistic, lower tariffs that broadcasters pay. These round tables, which were, beside ANEM, also attended by representatives of IJAS, as well as the officials of all relevant ministries, the Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Society, Ministry of Science and Technological Development, along with the representatives of the Intellectual Property Office, and representatives of international organizations, USAID, IREX, the OSCE Mission to Serbia and the Council of Europe Office in Belgrade, demonstrated the willingness of all interested parties to find solutions aiming to achieve more favorable environment for the functioning of the media in the time of crisis.

At yesterday's press conference, ANEM, together with representatives of regulatory agencies and collective society, OFPS, informed the public about the results of negotiations, led in the past two months, on reduction of fees and other stimulating measures to help broadcasters. Managing Board of OFPS has, by a set of stimulating measures, met the requirements of broadcasters, and accepted further discussions about the fees decrease, thus showing that they correctly understood the current situation of electronic media. The Republican Broadcasting Agency, by amending its Rule book, enables the decrease of broadcasting fees for the majority of broadcasters. The Republican Agency for Telecommunication has announced certain stimulating measures and the amendment of its Rule book, which should result in decrease of fees.

ANEM supports the announced reduction of fees by RBA and asks for its quick implementation, with the continuation of work on the systematic solution of this issue. ANEM urges RATEL to decrease the fees for broadcasters, as it announced, without further delay. ANEM will continue it’s advocating for reduction of the regulatory fees on the level necessary to ensure financial independence of the regulatory agencies and to cover the costs of regulation, which would thus create more favorable environment for the work of the media.

ANEM also supports the stimulating measures of the OFPS, but at the same time, urges both collective societies on a prompt resolving the issues of level of their fees, through the agreement with broadcasters.

ANEM also stresses that the reduction of fees is just the first step in preservation of the media system, which is seriously damaged by the effects of financial crisis and demands from the Government and all authorities to work together on further measures that will be true support for the media and which will contribute to the improvement of their position. ANEM will continue its efforts to redefine the media policy in the country, having in mind the importance of media for the development of democratic society. With its specific proposals, ANEM will actively participate in further systemic changes of the legal framework which will guarantee freedom, professionalism and independence of broadcast media, rational use of frequency spectrum and endorsement of media pluralism.

ANEM President, Sasa Mirkovic