11. 06. 2011

Korhec: We will annul the Media Strategy

Novi Sad, June 11, 2011 (Danas) - The leader of the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (SVM), Istvan Pastor and the President of the Hungarian National Council Tamas Korhec contested the idea that the media in the languages ​​of national minorities in Serbia should be privatized.

Tamas Korhec said for the daily Magyar Szo that if the objections of the National Council were not to be adopted during the drafting of the Media Strategy, they would indirectly try to nullify the Strategy with the assistance of republican MPs representing SVM and other minorities. He estimated that the Draft Media Strategy, which was recently posted on the website of the Ministry of Culture, Media and Information Society, was dealing with the topic of the media in minority languages ​​at the level of "generality, inarticulate language and contempt".

The thesis in the Strategy that all media should be privatized is an unacceptable for the National Council of Hungarians, he added.

Korhec has refused the claims that the privatization of media was an obligation under the European legacy and estimated that the authors of the Draft Strategy thereby were "proving their ignorance".

Istvan Pastor also said that it was not true that the European practice advocated for privatization of the media. He estimated that it was important to local electronic media to remain in the public ownership because it was proven in the practice that privatization was a bad solution for them.

"So I do not understand why we should continue with a bad solution", said Pastor.

According to him, when it comes to media founded by the national minority councils, there should not be fear of privatization, because the law provides that the national councils could be the founders of the media.