27. 06. 2011

Privatization a stumbling stone

The Draft Media Strategy presented at the debate to journalists

The document foresees the withdrawal of the state share from the media and only two public service broadcasters - RTS and RTV

Nis, June 27, 2011 (Pregled) - If the Government adopts the Draft Media Strategy next month, all media outlets in Serbia, except RTS and RTV, will have to be privatized in a period of 18 months. The Draft Media Strategy, which was done by expert working group on behalf of the Ministry of Culture, envisages the withdrawal of the state share from the media and the existence of only two public service broadcasters, with no space for the regional public services. These provisions of the Draft caused the noisiest debate at a public debate held on last Friday in Nis.

Media representatives from Nis, Aleksinac, Vranje, Pirot and other places in this part of Serbia mainly pointed out that the Strategy should have left the space open for regional public services, saying that only two public service broadcasters could not adequately cover events in all regions in Serbia. Having in mind that, since 2002, when privatization was introduced as legal obligation for the media, 1000 journalists have lost their jobs and hundreds of media outlets have been closed, the assessments that further privatization would be detrimental to the Serbian media scene were heard in the debate. The chief editor of Niska TV Dragan Miljkovic said that those who were deciding on the status of this television ought to have taken into account that the petition for survival of this television as a regional public service broadcaster was signed by 35.000 citizens of Nis. "We understand that the main obstacle for the idea of ​​forming regional public service is the financing. We have several proposals to secure funding, but we think it is best to establish, by the law, the obligation of the city to allocate a certain amount for regional public service from the city budget. Everything else in the poor South would be impossible, like, for instance, the introduction of the fee for regional public services", he said.

Editor of TV Kragujevac Verica Kragus wondered why the total privatization of the media was advocated when the consequences of previous media privatization in Serbia were more than apparent. "Practice has shown that there is no privatized media that puts the public interest before everything else", she said.

The idea of regional public services was also supported by the representatives of local authorities in Nis. The President of City Municipality Mediana Dragoslav Cirkovic said that the creators of the Media Strategy had to respect the will of Nis citizens to have a TV station where they would be able to get information about all affairs in their town.

President of the Journalists' Association of Nis Dragana Kocic said that the real question was to what extent the implementation of the Media Strategy would be possible, given the objective circumstances in the Serbian media scene. "It is good to insist on withdrawal of the state from the media in order to achieve objective informing. However, my long experience says that this will create the space for some people whose work is not related to the media to deal with the media. There is always a possibility that people with money would take advantage of the situation, in which the media would be stranded after the state's withdrawal, to attempt to promote their views and interests through media", she stressed out.

Slobodan Kremenjak, ANEM lawyer and a member of the working group that wrote the Draft of the Strategy said that there were no conditions for the existence of a large number of regional public services in our country.

Lawyer Danilo Nikolic said that the Strategy had set out the basis for different kind of journalism in Serbia. "Our goal is to preserve freedom of media as the safeguard of democracy through the adoption of new laws and regulations. In order to preserve the independence of the media, it is envisaged that, within 18 months, the state withdraw from ownership in all newspapers and televisions. However, aware that it is harder to find a place under the economic sun, we have proposed measures that the state should take, in order to enable the survival of the media", he said.

It was also emphasized at the public debate that the Strategy referred to the development of media until 2016. The new thing in this Strategy that has not been provided for by any legislation is the proposal to reassign shares of non-privatized media within the foreseen deadline of 18 months to public ownership and then to transfer them to citizens. The definition of public interest and project-based funding of media by the state is also envisaged. The fee would remain the main source of funding. The Draft Strategy is insisting on transparent ownership and if this document is adopted, each media will have to publicly announce its owners, the main financiers and the amount of money it gets from the state through various projects.

What about journalists? 

According to Dragana Cabarkapa, president of the Serbian Journalists' Trade Union, the main shortcoming of the proposed Media Strategy is that it does not deal with the status of employees. "Media Strategy must provide for the dialogue between employees and employers, otherwise, everything else is doomed to failure. The collective agreement must be brought as the only form of protection of professional and working rights of the employees. Employers do not want to discuss things with employees now and thereby they are violating the European standards", she said, adding that the Strategy should have also provided the institution of the fund from which journalists who were fired against the legal provisions could receive help.