11. 09. 2010

STATE TO WITHDRAW FROM OWNERSHIP IN MEDIA

Belgrade, September 11, 2010 (Danas) - While working on the Media Study, we have realized that local, emotional and personal conflicts still exist here. It came as a surprise to us, as we have not expected it to happen in times when the democratization process has been long underway - said Andrej Zmecek, member of the expert group drafting the Media Study in Serbia.

The expert group was formed by the Ministry of Culture, OSCE Mission to Serbia and other international institutions, and entrusted with the task to, after thorough discussions with representatives of media, prepare the Study on the media strategy of the country.

"The first step for the country needs to deal with is the withdrawal of the state from ownership over all media, which should then be privatized and transformed into public, non-governmental, non-profit and independent media. Political elite should support the entire process, and such act should represent the first gesture of positive state's will - to support the media that are the minority on the market", said Zmecek.

The expert from Slovakia also noted that solving the problem of concentration in print media was very difficult, but the main point was to be proactive and, in situation where there was a dominant player on the market, to help other less dominant media. However, all of this is expected to be discussed on round tables, to be held during September, where the opinion of the competent ministry would be heard about the possibility of withdrawal of the state from ownership over media as well as the assistance to less dominant media in the strive to annihilate such a big gap and inequality on the media market.