20. 06. 2011

State ownership in media a bad solution

Novi Pazar, June 20, 2011 (B92, Beta) - State ownership in certain media directly enables political manipulation, stated Zoran Sekulic, a member of the working group for the development of the Serbian Media Strategy.

Sekulic said that the position of the working group was that citizens paid only those media products that were in public interest and not in the interest of the media industry.

"Due to unregulated media sphere, the Ministry of Culture decided to delegate the proposal of the Strategy to the expert community, including journalists' and media associations", Sekulic says.

"The state should sell its shares in media within 18 months from the date of the Strategy's adoption or to privatize the media outlets that it has founded. This relates to national, but also to regional and local media as well", Sekulic said.

He said that this document envisaged changes in media ownership and that the state was to withdraw from media ownership, except in the case of public service broadcaster.

Sekulic said that the working group was taking care of conciliating interests of journalists' profession, media and public.

"In spite of the fact that currently applicable Public Information Law provides that the state cannot be the founder of media, this provision has never been completely enforced. By this Strategy, this provision has been determined and confirmed and in that respect, the Strategy went even a step further", Sekulic said. He added that the last version of the document would be finalized by the Ministry of Culture.

He reminded that the adoption of the Media Strategy was an obligation Serbia had taken upon itself in the answers to the questionnaire of the European Commission.

The Chief of Novi Pazar Mayor Cabinet, Mirsad Jusufovic, said that the public interest of citizens would be seriously endangered unless public media in Serbia were privatized.

"You mention professionalism as a basic postulate that should rule in the media, but professionalism is not possible without money. The results of hitherto privatization are devastating. After the privatization, most of the media collapse", Jusufovic said.

He emphasized that he pleaded for lowering the influence of politicians on media and that it would be best such interest did not exist at all.

"If you believe that it is possible, you are wrong. Even in Europe and USA, there are no media that are not under political influence. You should think well what would happen with the privatization of media: they will be bought by some rich businessmen who are again connected to politics. Such political influence would be then realized through these rich tycoons and there would be influences in one or another way", Jusufovic said.

The next public debate is scheduled for June 23, in Novi Sad.

The Draft Strategy for the Development of the Public Information System in Serbia until 2016 has been created by a seven-member working group: five representatives of media associations and two representatives elected at the Ministry's proposal.

There were several observers participating in the work of the working group, namely the representatives of OSCE and an EU expert with the support of the Embassy of Great Britain, as well as a representative of the Ministry.