12. 08. 2011

The public divided, political decision needed

Belgrade, August 12, 2011 (Danas) - In Serbia there is no unique opinion and the way to solve the issue regarding the state ownership in media, because of which a political decision is needed. I am afraid that at the end the status quo would be kept when it comes to the ownership in the media, transparency of ownership and unlawful media concentration. Therefore, someone has to decide, said Surculija (Belgrade Faculty of Political Sciences), coordinator of the Working Group that developed the Draft Media Strategy.

Surculija, who conducted for ANEM an analysis of the published comments of the participants in the public debate on the Draft Media Strategy, noted that the main topic during the public debate was related to the issue of state withdrawal from ownership in the media. To recall, the working group hold the opinion that the state must withdraw from ownership in the media, with the exception of public service broadcasters.

- Two more stands on ownership in the media appeared during public debate and in written comments and suggestions. One is that local media should not be privatized but transformed in regional public services that will be financed from the fee, marketing income and contracts with local self-governments. Another suggestion is that there should be no more privatizations because it turned out to be unsuccessful. Within this stand, there was also opinion that media in minority languages should be protected - Surculija explained.

The majority of the minority national councils consider that the media in minority languages must remain in public ownership and to be excluded from the privatization i.e. national councils should be their founders. According to Surculija, the final text of the Media Strategy must find adequate mechanisms to protect this media; one of the solutions would be determining quotas for broadcasting in minority languages in the process of granting broadcasting licenses.

As for the unlawful media concentration, she emphasized that although there have been many attempts to solve this issue, there is still no agreement on basic postulates such as the definition of the unlawful media concentration, which the Association of the Media gave its remark on.

According to her, what should be included in drafting of the Media Strategy are the suggestions of the Anti-corruption Council on the necessity of providing the transparent data on the owners of the media, "especially in the cases where the final owners are in the offshore zone, limiting the budget for the advertising and promotion to state institutions, setting up the government department for video recording and press clipping within the Office for cooperation with the media, etc".

Professional and general public expects from the Ministry to continue to apply the hitherto principle of transparency and to present the final version of the Strategy before submitting it to the Government for adoption so that the public would have access to the solutions proposed by the Ministry. It would be useful also that the Ministry explains the reasons for acceptance or rejection of individual complaints, suggestions and proposals - said Surculija.

She adds that the hard work is before the relevant ministry and the government and that the adoption of this document is only the first step while it implementation is true indicator of the readiness of the state to conduct serious reform of the media sector.

On state ownership in the media

Predrag Markovic, Minister of Culture, Media and information Society: Obviously, there is no political will on various levels and with different motives to withdraw the state from ownership in the media.

Suzana Grubjesic, official of the Presidency of the United Regions of Serbia: Solution of the issue of the state's share in the media will probably not be before the next Serbian Government is formed.

Jelena Trivan, vice-president of the Democratic Party: DP supports the principle of state withdrawal from ownership in the media because it is a European standard.

Vukasin Obradovic, president of Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia: Giving up the principle of the state's withdrawal from ownership in the media would be a step back in achieving the freedom of expression.

Ljiljana Smajlovic, president of the Journalists' Association of Serbia: Whether the state would withdraw from ownership in the media, depends on the Serbian Government because they create political will.