10. 02. 2015

LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENTS SHOULD COMPLY WITH MEDIA LAWS

Belgrade, 10.2.2015 - The coalition of journalists' and media associations (the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia - NUNS, the Journalists' Association of Serbia - UNS, the Independent Journalists' Association of Vojvodina - NDNV, the Association of Local Independent Media ‘Local Press' and the Association of Independent Electronic Media - ANEM) demands from local self-governments to comply strictly with the law and by-laws in issuing and implementing public competitions for co-financing of projects for realising public interest in the public information sector, and to make this process as transparent as possible.

The coalition of journalists' and media associations also calls on local self-governments to ensure that the allocated funds for the public competitions are not symbolic, but adequate to their citizens' need to be informed.

We point out that the practice of local self-governments in the implementation of new media laws is versatile: some municipalities and cities have taken their legal obligations very seriously, while others employ various mechanisms to avoid them and make use legal loopholes. Unfortunately, there are cases of drastic violation of the Law on Public Information and Media and the Rulebook on Co-Financing Projects for Realising Public Interest in the Public Information Sector.

We stress that the Article 24 of the Law on Public Information and Media envisages that the majority of the expert panel members (who assess submitted project proposals) shall be appointed at the recommendation of journalists' and media associations and that the Rulebook defines that the right to propose panel members is held by associations registered at least three years before the date of issuing a call for project proposals.

Also, the Rulebook envisages that the body issuing a public competition "by means of a public call for participation in the competition informs journalists' and media associations, as well as media experts interested to work in the panel, to submit proposals for panel members, separately for each individual competition".

It is unacceptable that some local self-governments fulfill their obligations arbitrarily and in a non-transparent manner, attempting to continue with the old practice of arbitrary allocation of funds to the media. The opaqueness of this process and the attempt to bypass relevant journalists' and media associations indicates the wish to bypass the essential novelty of the media laws - transparent, non-discriminatory funding of public interest in the public information sector through the work of independent expert panels.

It should also be said that errors in this process need not indicate bad intentions as a rule, but they may indicate poor management of some local self-government in the new legal environment. The coalition of journalists' and media associations is prepared to offer any form of expert help to the municipalities and cities in need of it.

The coalition of journalists' and media associations will monitor the process of the implementation of laws during this year and will propose, based on its analyses, certain changes to laws and by-laws aimed at rectifying identified deficiencies.

NUNS, UNS, NDNV, Local Press and ANEM