01. 12. 2012

Media Coalition: 'Shocking statement by the president of Becej Municipality'

Belgrade, December 1, 2012 - The Media Coalition strongly condemns the statement made by the president of the Municipality of Becej, Vuk Radojevic, who announced that the local self-government of Becej would probably found "its own media outlets in the beginning of the next year". This announcement is completely contradictory to the current Media Strategy, adopted by the Government of Serbia in last September, and to the statements issued by the Ministry of Culture and Media, which said that the state intended to withdraw from media ownership as soon as possible. We remind that the Strategy stipulates that media outlets cannot be founded, directly or indirectly, by the state, territorial autonomy, local self-governments, or by any other company or legal person that is entirely or partially owned by the state or financed from the public budget, either wholly or predominantly.

We hope that the words of the president of the Municipality of Becej indicate only his ignorance and incompetence, instead of a new "media policy" to be accepted by local self-governments. State bodies, the media community and international organizations, including the public, have worked together long and hard on preparation of the Media Strategy, and it is unclear why Mr. Radojevic and his associates lack even the basic knowledge of this field.

The Media Coalition has been warning for years that the state ownership over the media has worsened the position of most of the media outlets in Serbia. The local media which function as publicly-owned companies not only constitute unfair competition to other media outlets, but their privileged position also jeopardizes the freedom of the media.

The research about financing of local media outlets conducted mid-year by the Media Coalition shows that the media which function as publicly-owned companies - i.e. the media which have been founded by the local self-government - are absolutely privileged when it comes to financing from the local budgets. This kind of behavior threatens the survival of other media outlets in the local market. The research shows that local self-governments usually spend the public funds arbitrarily and non-transparently, which results in serious financial difficulties in "incorrect" media outlets and unfair competition in the marketplace.

The Media Coalition is comprised of the Association of Independent Electronic Media, the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS), the Journalists' Association of Serbia (UNS), the Independent Journalists' Association of Vojvodina (NDNV) and Local Press.