27. 12. 2012

MEDIA COALITION DEMANDS AMENDMENTS TO THE LAW ON CAPITAL CITY AND THE LAW ON LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT

Belgrade, December 27, 2012 - The Media Coalition has submitted to the competent Ministry of Regional Development and Local Self-Government today a request for amending the Law on Capital City, in the part regulating the authority of the City of Belgrade to establish media.

In its request, the Media Coalition points out that point 5, paragraph 2 of the Article 8 of the Law, which stipulates that the City of Belgrade is allowed to establish television and radio stations, newspapers and other media, is directly contrary to the current media laws and the Media Strategy, as well as the strategic commitment of the state to withdraw from ownership in media, and demands that this part of the Law be amended i.e. that this provision be deleted.

The Media Coalition emphasizes its recent participation in the public discussion on the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Local Self-Government, when it demanded additional amendments to the current law, otherwise not foreseen in the Draft Law by the competent ministry. Aside from demanding that the Law should define the obligation of local self-governments - to take care of the public information at the local level and ensure that public information in languages used in the territory of the municipality - be met in accordance with regulations pertaining to the public information and state aid control, the Coalition also requested deletion of the provisions, which allowed local self-governments to establish media in languages of national minorities, as they were in direct contradiction to the media laws and the Media Strategy.

Namely, media laws and the Strategy stipulate that media cannot be founded, directly or indirectly, by the state, territorial autonomy, local self-government, or by institution, company or legal entity that is entirely or partially owned by the state, or wholly or predominantly financed from the public sources. Apart from this, they also stipulate the compulsory privatization of existing public companies in the field of information, namely the withdrawal of the state from ownership in media.

In its letter, the Media Coalition points out the importance of establishing functional media market for the development of the media system, which requires creation of equal conditions for all its participants. However, the parallel functioning of both private and non-privatized media in unequal position, at the expense of private media, prevents this from happening. The Media Coalition also notes that all issues related to the functioning of the media should be regulated by media laws, because the practice has shown that dispersion of legal provisions related to the media in many contradictory laws is detrimental and that it violates the principle of consistent legal order and jeopardizes the position of the media.

Taking all these facts into account, the Media Coalition demands that the proposed amendments to the Law on Capital City be adopted, and expects that the competent Ministry will accept this initiative and launch proceedings for amending the said Law, as well as that it will also accept is recommendations for amendments to the Law on Local Self-Government provided during the public discussion on the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law, as this is deemed essential for further development of the media sector.

The Ministry of Culture and Media has also been informed about this initiative.

The Media Coalition consists of media and journalists' associations - The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS), the Journalists' Association of Serbia (UNS), the Independent Journalists' Association of Vojvodina (NDNV) and Local Press.