24. 11. 2010

POLITICAL INTERESTS OBSTRUCT THE STRATEGY

Presenting of the Draft Media Strategy postponed for the second time

Belgrade, November 24, 2010. (Danas) - Presenting of the pompously announced Draft Media Strategy has been postponed for the second time although it is due by the end of the year. At the moment, it is not known when the Draft will be open for public discussion or when its final version will be adopted. The Ministry of Culture said that the reason for the postponing was the still awaited financial analysis of the market and that the Ministry did not want to "bid" on the new date when this document could be presented.

The media associations agree that this should not be done too fast, but that it is necessary to bring a strategy which will reform the media sector in a qualitative way. However, the associations' representatives are surprised that presenting the document has been postponed until further notice, because when they had previously asked for postponing of the public discussion, the Ministry's answer was that "there is no time". According to them, there are no indications that developing of this document will be given up, but there is a fear that political interests will have the final say. However, it is presumed that there are at least two to three months until the Draft Media Strategy is brought.

Natasa Vuckovic-Lesendric, Assistant Culture Minister in charge of media says that a part of the Strategy has already been written, namely the part which relates to Serbia's obligations on its EU path in this field. According to her, the document needs "yet to include" the specifics on the real situation on the market as well as what must be done in order to fulfill already defined obligations.

"After the completion of round tables, the material was summarized and we noticed the content was insufficient, as well as the exact data and arguments which could help us in the Strategy's development. We are in the phase of collecting data on funds going to the media and their sources in order to find a final model for the state's withdrawal from media ownership. The data collection will last for a while, and most problems are connected with local self-governments", Vuckovic-Lesendric pointed out.

She explained that the way the transparency of the media ownership would be enabled was being currently developed. One of the current tasks, as she said, was finding a model for the public service's financing, because the model proposed in the Media Study was not sufficiently efficient.

"We are also considering a possibility of establishing a media fund as proposed, but at this moment there is no sufficient data on which basis we could know how this fund may function. Anyhow, it would not be fair that we come out with a Strategy which would contain generalities, because we want the document that is fully usable", Vuckovic-Lesendric stressed out.

President of the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS), Vukasin Obradovic said that postponing of the Strategy's presentation represented "divided interests on the political and the media scene".

"I believe that this time again the most important battles take place far from public eye and I am afraid of the solution to be offered in the end. Journalists' association will not give up their proposals", Obradovic pointed out.

As for this issue, NUNS President does not exclude the possibility that one of the main factors is related to the fact that 2011 is a pre-election year and that "the key is in the political will, which currently does not exit".

Ljiljana Smajlovic, president of the Journalists' Association of Serbia (UNS), said that the associations were not satisfied with these postponements, but that nothing should have been done in haste and without a thorough discussion.

"We are receiving contradictory signals from the Ministry - at one moment that developing the Strategy is urgent and at some other moment that it could not be done too fast. Our goal is that nothing shall be done against journalists' will. In this Strategy, all of us see the chance for regulating the media scene", Smajlovic stressed out.

Sasa Mirkovic, president of the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), said he was disappointed with the Ministry's gesture, because in the previous period there was "sufficient time for completing the work related to the Strategy".

"I support the opinion that job should be adequately and systematically done in order to have a good Strategy. I believe that someone's incompetence, hindrance or the lack of the political consensus is hidden behind. The Strategy is needed, but the initiator has started it thoughtlessly", Mirkovic explained.

Goran Karadzic, vice president of the Serbia's Republic Broadcasting Agency (RBA), said that the basis for the Media Strategy had many failures and that he was not surprised that work was late. He believed that there should have been no rush with something that could have ill-effect on the media and society.

Among other things, the Media Strategy envisages the introducing of the regional public services, solution for the privatization and support to the media as well as transforming of the Tanjug news agency. Recommendations were done by the European experts and several round tables were held as a part of the public discussion.

Professor of the Faculty of Political Science, Miroljub Radojkovic, said for Danas that hitherto public discussion on the European experts' recommendations had served for "testing of certain political consequences of those recommendations". He believes that the discussion was led "in a strange way" and that it is not clear why journalists were not allowed to report on these discussions. According to him, there is a great possibility that the work on the Media Strategy will be left "for someone else, for the time after the elections".