28. 06. 2011

Media Strategy in September

Belgrade, June 27, 2011 (Danas) - Public debate on the Draft Media Strategy will be extended to July 15, after which the procedure of writing of the final text would ensue. The final text would enter the parliamentary procedure in August. The adoption of the Strategy by the Serbian Government is expected in the beginning of September, State Secretary in the Ministry of Culture, Media and Information Society, Dragana Milicevic Milutinovic said yesterday.

At the round table held in Belgrade, Milicevic-Milutinovic said that 90 percent of disagreements during the hitherto public debate were related to the absolute withdrawal of the state from the media ownership.

The European Commission expert Sandra Basic Hrvatin said that, apart from the interest of journalists' profession, "interests of all citizens must be secured" during the work on the Media Strategy. She also said the Draft Strategy should be based on the detailed analysis of the conditions on the Serbian media scene, according to which corresponding solution for these problems would be proposed.

As the problems in this field, she listed unsuccessful privatization, lack of the laws on ownership transparency and illegal media concentration, as well as inconsistency of laws. According to her, the Draft Strategy has left out a part related to the work of cable broadcasters.

The President of the Trade Union of Serbian Journalists Dragana Cabarkapa said that the action plan should envisage the establishment of a representative employers' organization, that social dialogue should be built and that deadline for signing of collective contract should be defined. She added that the Union requested the establishments of a fund aimed at helping people who were left jobless, as well as the urgent passing of the law on the ownership transparency.