23. 12. 2005

GOVERNMENT PRE-EMPTS BROADCAST COUNCIL WITH FREQUENCY PLEDGE

ANEM reminds the Serbian Government that the issue of broadcast licences lies solely within the jurisdiction of the Republic Broadcast Agency. The government’s interference in the procedure for issuing licences damages the agency’s credibility, rides roughshod over the law, contributes to Serbia’s drift away from European standards and, as far as media freedom goes, plunges the country back a decade and a half by reintroducing principles used in Slobodan Milosevic’s 1991 legislation on the state media. Just a few months ago the government stood behind Radio Television Serbia, criticizing ANEM for its position that the state media should not be funded by public subscription until its transformation into a public service is complete. These same defenders of the state media are now planning to break the company up and sell parts of it off, thus illegally reducing the funding allocated by law explicitly for the establishment and operation of public services. The government’s pre-empting of jurisdiction over frequency allocation also obstructs the work of the Telecommunications Agency, the other independent body given jurisdiction in this area by the Telecommunications Act. Regulatory bodies are of essential importance to the freedom of the media. This attempt by the Serbian Government to meddle in the jurisdiction of independent agencies rides roughshod over their independence and is an open attack on the agencies themselves as well as on professional and independent media and freedom of expression in this country. ANEM urges the government to respect the legislation in force, to avoid taking any action which would prejudice the long-awaited public competition for broadcast frequency licences and to refrain from offering preferential terms to potential bidders in that competition. Slobodan Stojsic, Chairman of ANEM Managing Board