13. 08. 2011

URS for keeping municipalities’ media

Ownership: Is the state withdrawing from the media?

Belgrade, August 13, 2011. (Press) - Representatives of the United Regions of Serbia (URS) still claim that there is no will of the state to withdraw from the media ownership. At the same time, they say that, as for URS, there would not be a problem if the state was left without any share in media ownership.

According to the Draft Media Strategy, prepared by the working group composed of representatives of media and journalists' associations, the state cannot be a media owner - neither it could a local self-government, autonomous authority, institution, namely any legal entity owned by the state and financed from the public budget, with the exception of the public service broadcasting institutions at the national and province level. 

The final version of the text is provided by the Ministry of Culture, Media and Information Society, led by Predrag Markovic from G17 Plus/URS, who said that the final version of the Strategy would be considerably different from the Draft and added that there was no political will of the state to withdraw from the media ownership.

The Vice-president of DS Jelena Trivan says that this party supports the principle of the state's withdrawal from media ownership.

- As for DS, state's withdrawal is absolutely indisputable. It represents a European standard which we strive to achieve and we do not have a problem with that - she said.

Having been asked how she explained the Markovic's claim that there was no political will, she answers:

- I don't know where this impression came from. None of the parties have seen the final version of the text because the work on Strategy is still ongoing.

A member of the URS presidency, Suzana Grubjesic, estimates that this issue would probably not be solved until the next government is formed.

- I doubt that now, in the year before the election, there is someone who is eager to seriously deal with this. The government is consisted of representatives of parties with various interests or, as Markovic said - there is no political will - she says.

However, she says that URS is not one of the parties who object the state's withdrawal from the media ownership, but she does not answer which parties do:

- I don't know, I did not ask the others. I don't even know who Markovic pointed to. That famous phrase "political will" is usually used when someone's interests are to be hidden.

The President of UNS Ljiljana Smajlovic says that by claiming that there is no political will, Markovic tried to dissociate himself and to represent it as "the position of the coalition" and she continues:

- I presume that this ministry is actually a reservoir of sympathy toward the appetites of local governments who attempt to keep control over the local media. This is completely consistent with the political plans of URS.

She reminds that the Ministry's representatives said that the biggest remark to the Draft Strategy is related to the state's withdrawal from the ownership in the local media.

- I would therefore not exclude the possibility that the Ministry would change the text of the Strategy by stating that the state should withdraw from the national media, but that the local media could be owned by local self-governments.

Press asked Markovic yesterday who is against the state's withdrawal from the media, which changes the Strategy would undergo and if withdrawing from national and keeping local media in state ownership would be among these changes. However, we have not received the answer.