05. 09. 2004

ANEM, NUNS AND THE MEDIA CENTRE ON AMENDMENTS TO THE BROADCAST ACT

The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), the Independent Association of Serbian Journalists (NUNS) and the Media Centre take serious exception to the manner in which the Serbian Government, in drafting legislation on amendments to the Broadcast Act, and the Serbian Parliament, in adopting this proposal, are attempting to solve the problem created by violations of the law in the process of electing members to the Broadcast Council.

The amendments to the Act now adopted enable a new Broadcast Council to be elected, with the mandates of council members elected in 2003 expiring when the new council is appointed. At the same time, in the process of electing new council members, the provision of the Act which stipulates that a member cannot be elected in two consecutive elections will not apply. Thus any of the council members elected in 2003 may again be nominated and elected. The definition of those authorised to nominate members to the council has been changed in such a way that candidates for three posts in the council are now nominated by the appropriate committee of the Serbian Parliament, in fact the Culture and Information Committee, rather than by the Serbian Parliament itself, the Serbian Government and the Executive Council of the autonomous province of Vojvodina as stipulated in the original Act. Also dropped from the Act is a provision stipulating that a qualified majority of parliament members is needed to pass a decision to dismiss a council member. Thus the parliament will be able to dismiss council members by a simple majority of MPs present at a sitting, on the proposal of the council or at least twenty members of the parliament.

ANEM, NUNS and the Media Centre note that there existed a way to solve the problem of those council members whose appointment was disputed and to unblock the body’s operations without making any changes to the legislation. This could have been done under the regulations already in force and in such a way that the council’s independence would not be jeopardised. These organisations submitted proposals for this to the authorities but they were, unfortunately, rejected. The amendments to the Broadcast Act which have now been adopted set a dangerous precedent under which the mandate of the elected council members, including those who were elected in full conformity with the law, now expire in a way that was not envisaged as possible at the time they were elected.

Once the government’s draft amendments to the Broadcast Act were published, the way in which the authorities had opted to resolve the problem with the council became apparent. ANEM, NUNS and the Media Centre also offered an alternative draft amendment which sought to re-establish the balance among different categories of authorised nominating bodies. This balance was originally established in the draft legislation prepared by a working group from NUNS and the Media Centre, but subsequently destroyed by changes to the draft made immediately before its adoption by the former parliament in July 2002. Unfortunately, this proposal was never debated in the parliament.

ANEM, NUNS and the Media Centre regard it as regrettable that valuable time and energy have been wasted without establishing any certainty that Serbia will have a truly independent and credible Broadcast Council.

However, despite these serious objections, these organisations are prepared to take part once again in the process of forming the Broadcast Council in the belief that, as representatives of the interests of a large number of broadcasters, they must be involved in efforts to bring order to the media situation in the country and actively represent those interests. ANEM, NUNS and the Media Centre emphasise that it is of vital importance to consider the credibility of each individual member in the process of electing the council because this is the only way in which this body will finally be enabled to embark, in a responsible manner, on the serious job it is required to undertake.

Slobodan Stojsic
Chairman of ANEM Managing Board

Nebojsa Bugarinovic
President of the Independent Association of Serbian Journalists

Nebojsa Spaic
Executive director of the Belgrade Media Centre