11. 12. 2013

Tanjug will be privatized

Belgrade, December 11, 2013 (Danas) - News agency Tanjug will not become the Governments' Communications Bureau, but it will be privatized, Danas finds out.

Tanjug will not be transformed, as the previous State secretary in the Ministry of culture and media Dragan Kolarevic announced few months ago, but it will have to be privatized just like any other state media until December 31 of next year.

According to Danas sources, the Ministry of finance projected funds for Tanjug operations for the first six months of the following year. If this agency is not privatized earlier, the Government will have to secure funds for the second part of the year as well.

According to the announcement from the Ministry of culture, Law on public information should be sent to the Government for adoption until the end of this year, but in the current Draft Law text published on the website, there is no part referring to Tanjug.

Currently, other ministries are putting final changes to the law, after which it will be sent to Brussels in order to obtain opinion by European institutions on the degree of its alignment to European standards.    

When asked on the future of Tanjug news agency, in August 2013, the former State secretary in the Ministry of culture and media Dragan Kolarevic said that Tanjug would go through the ownership transformation"  

"That is obligation our Government took upon" Kolarevic said. He added that Tanjug should be transformed in the Government's Communications Bureau according to the German model.   

As to his words, that part of Tanjug would do activities of direct significance to the Government - collection of information from around the world and from Serbia necessary for the Government, as well as broadcasting information of the Government's interest to the outside world. "In that sense, Tanjug will be transformed and probably the unemployed benefits program will be made for redundant staff. Once these laws are passed, we will start working on it" Kolarevic said few months ago.