31. 03. 2008

SUBOTICA: ROUND TABLE ON MINORITY MEDIA

Subotica, March 31, 2008 (Danas) – The reform of the media scene in Serbia was  stopped or at least hindered after the failure to privatize several media outlets, including some electronic media like Radio Subotica, said Nino Brajovic, the president of the Journalists' Association of Serbia, while speaking at the round table on minority media issues.

He pointed out that such regulation of the media sphere is detrimental to the media, explaining that the second attempt to privatize these media outlets would not be possible before June, perhaps even later. Joza Laslo, the president of the Hungarian National Council, said that the Serbian Law on Media Privatization was badly designed with regard to minority media, since already established rights in the media field were being revoked, which was against the Constitution.

- There was a failure to find a suitable way to make another step – to keep the minority media alive, as well as their rights, and to implement new media laws prepared in accordance with European standards. It seems as if our legal system could not recognize the existence of minority media. We have demanded that the media with minority language content be excluded from the privatization process, but the only thing we have achieved was the prolongation of privatization deadlines. We are of the opinion that the law must be changed, said Joza Laslo.

Nikola Babic, the president of the National Council of the Bunjevac Ethnic Minority, pointed out that minority media would be endangered if their private ownership was allowed, adding that founding rights should remain with local self-government institutions.

The director of Radio Subotica, Antal Bijaci, emphasized the role of the local media in providing access to information to citizens of local communities, especially the national minorities. He was of the opinion that the privatization of these media outlets was mostly supported not by those who work in them, but by those who are members of "certain associations or in some way related to European institutions".

Zlatko Romic, journalist of the weekly magazine Suboticke, said that the Republic Broadcasting Agency acted unfairly in the process of privatization of Radio Subotica, which will result in diminishing of already established rights of minority media.
He estimated that most of the minority media in Vojvodina, excluding the Hungarian Language media, have predominantly failed to fulfil their duty to inform minorities, focusing mostly on themselves.