09. 07. 2009

ANOTHER ATTACK ON THE INDEPENDENCE OF MEDIA

Belgrade, July 9, 2009 – Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) protests against the decision of the Government of the Republic of Serbia to adopt the Bill on national councils of national minorities, created by the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights, and notes that the adoption of the proposed text in the Parliament would, further damage the legal framework for media in Serbia.

The Bill on national councils of national minorities, in direct contradiction with the provisions of the Public Information Act and Broadcast Act, suggests that the national councils of national minorities establish institutions and companies for publishing and broadcasting activities and exercise the rights and obligations of the founders of public media. The bill also provides that the Republic, the province or local government may transfer the founding rights of existing public media to the national councils, with the guarantee of the continuation of budget financing.

ANEM once again stresses that it cannot accept the thesis that the achieved level of minority rights, and in particular the right to information in minority languages, can only be preserved by maintaining the state ownership, thus also the state control over the minority media.

ANEM will continue to insist on the application of the provisions of the current Public Information Act, in accordance with which the state and territorial autonomy, as well as legal entities that are mainly part of the state or in whole or in part financed mainly from public revenue, cannot be the founders of public media, except in the case of the public broadcast service. ANEM will continue to insist on the privatization of the remaining local public media, such as those that air the program in Serbian language, as well as minority media, and also on providing non-discriminatory mechanisms of state support to media in minority languages, in a way that will not affect their independence and autonomy.

President of ANEM, Sasa Mirkovic