08. 11. 2012

THE MEDIA COALITION REQUESTS URGENT ENFORCEMENT OF RULES ON PROJECT-BASED MEDIA FINANCING AND STATE AID CONTROL

Belgrade, November 8, 2012 - The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), the Journalists' Association of Serbia (UNS), the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS), the Independent Journalists' Association of Vojvodina (NDNV) and the business association Local Press, which together form the Media Coalition, have requested the competent authorities to provide for the urgent implementation of the Media Strategy in the part pertaining to project-based media financing and state aid control.

The Media Coalition pointed to yet another humiliating example demonstrating how the state and local governments, in a non-transparent and arbitrary manner, not guided by public interest, but for their own petty political ends and spending taxpayers' money, influence the media market to the extent they are practically determining the fate of the media. Namely, less than a week ago, after 18 years of existence, the Nis-based, top-rated regional media company "RTV 5" had to shut down its transmitters and stop broadcasting due to financial difficulties that ultimately resulted in their license being revoked over unpaid feeds to the RBA. On that same day, the City Council of the City of Nis gave 2.5 million dinars to the publisher of the daily "Narodne novine" for the co-financing of the project "U susret Konstantinu", which is to be realized by the newspaper in the following period.

At that, "Narodne novine" have already entered with the City into an agreement on the making of the "Daily newsletter on the work of the city administration in Nis", which was signed in early March by the previous Mayor Milos Simonovic and is worth 13 million dinars. Similar contracts were signed with the same publisher in 2009, 2010 and 2011. Additional funds were approved in a special procedure, only a week before the expiration of the term for submitting projects under the open competition of the Education, Culture and Sports Office, for which the media were eligible.

The Media Coalition hereby asks why the City Council failed to advise "Narodne novine" to apply for the already called, regular competition of the Education, Culture and Sports Office, where their project would have been evaluated along with projects of other media and ultimately receive funds in a competitive procedure, if the quality of the project warrants it. The Media Coalition reminds that, precisely in order to avoid non-transparent financing of media with public funds, the Media Strategy prescribes that the Republic of Serbia will provide - fully in keeping with the regulations governing the control of state aid - for the co-financing of the public interest in the media sector, under a single methodology, under equal and non-discriminatory conditions, on public competitions, where the decisions to award funds will be passed by independent commissions.

The Media Coalition stresses that any additional delays in the implementation of the Media Strategy will enable further abuse of public funds with the aim to exert unacceptable influence over the media market and the shutting down of critical voices in the public arena.

The Media Coalition requests from the Government of the Republic of Serbia to refrain from redefining the Media Strategy and promptly move with its implementation, at least in the parts thereof that are unquestionable and constitute an obligation of Serbia, not only under the Strategy, but also (which is undisputed in the case of state aid control) under the Stabilization and Association Agreement and the Interim Trade Agreement with the European Union.

The Media Coalition expresses its solidarity and full support to all media in Nis and beyond, throughout Serbia, which face serious financial problems and unfair market competition due to the absence of state aid, namely due to arbitrary and opaque expenditures of public money for helping only "chosen" media and ignoring all public and measurable criteria and procedures.

ANEM, NUNS, UNS, NDNV and Local Press