02. 04. 2012

IJAS (NUNS), JAS (UNS), ANEM, IJAV (NDNV) and Local Press reaction to Government’s grant a loan to Tanjug

Belgrade, April 2, 2012 - Media coalition - IJAS (NUNS), JAS (UNS), ANEM, IJAV (NDNV) and Local Press - protests over the decision of the Government of Serbia to grant interest-free loan to Tanjug News Agency for the reporting on pre-election campaign. With such decision, the Government has violated the basic rules of market competition since such loans were not available to other two news agencies in Serbia that also operated in the market.

The loan amounts to 17.5 million RSD, while more than 216 million dinars was already allocated to Tanjug from last year's state budget funds. It is quite a large sum, which the state uses to violate systematically the equality of participants in the media market.

Granting interest-free loans from the state budget to a state-owned agency opens the way for even greater influence of the state over the editorial policy, which is contrary to the principles of the Media Strategy, namely the document adopted by the Serbian Government last year. This thus creates grounds for continuing systematic suppression of the media not owned by the state, with the aim to establish a monopoly in the media sphere.

This way, the Government is drastically violating promises made to media associations, that it will undertake a genuine reform of the media sector. The media coalition is deeply concerned over the fact that, when adopting strategic documents, the ruling circles say one thing, while in practice they systematically undermine the policy they had opted for. The media coalition will inform international organizations and institutions about this, including the European Union, which also insists on the reform of the media sector.

The fact that this interest-free loan will be used for reporting on pre-election campaign, does not however clear away the genuine doubts in possible influence on the editorial policy. Moreover, this opens a space for the state, i.e. the parties comprising the ruling block, to influence the course of election campaign, by using state budget money, namely the money paid by all citizens of Serbia.

The media coalition would keep the same position in case the loan is not intended for monitoring of the campaign but for financing of special events, such as the so-called election night. Election night has been organized in the Media Center for years, so it is inappropriate that the state "relocate" this event to the agency in its ownership by using the taxpayers' money.

Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia - NUNS

Journalists' Association of Serbia - UNS

Association of Independent Electronic Media - ANEM

Independent Journalists' Association of Vojvodina - NDNV

Association of Local Publishers Local Press