24. 03. 2008

RTV STUDIO B REPORTS – MEDIA PRIVATIZATION TO CONTINUE ONLY AFTER THE ELECTIONS

Belgrade, March 24, 2008 (RTV Studio B) – Suspension of media privatization in the beginning of 2008 has created a new chaos in the media system, but this situation cannot be solved before the formation of a new parliament and adoption of legal changes to the laws in this area, it was estimated today at the round table organized by the Ministry of Culture.

Dragan Janjic, assistant minister of culture for the media, said today that the Law on Local Self-Government and the Law on the Capital City, adopted in December 2007, specify that municipalities may establish media outlets broadcasting in minority languages, and that Belgrade may own electronic and print media.

These two laws are contradictory to the Broadcasting Law and the Law on Public Information and this conflict cannot be solved before the constitution of a new parliament, he said, adding that local government institutions are exploiting this situation to stop privatization.

"This has led to great difficulties. We have tried to find a solution, but it was not possible", he said, pointing out that the Ministry of Culture insisted that media outlets broadcasting in minority languages shouldn't be funded from the budget, and that specific projects should be financed instead.

Janjic believes that a new media concept should be created, because the existing concept was abandoned after the municipalities were again allowed to establish media outlets.

In his words, minority communities claimed that there were no guaranties that after the privatization their already established right to have access to information in their own language would be protected. Because of that, the Government of Serbia has adopted a directive in December to postpone the privatization of the media with minority language broadcasting.

Biljana Zivkovic, the representative of the Privatization Agency, emphasized that, on the basis of the government's conclusion, a directive was adopted to suspend privatization for seven media outlets, but was later interpreted more widely, and after the requests from local self-government institutions it resulted in the suspension of privatization of 26 outlets.

She added that auctions of electronic media outlets which were not exempted from the privatization process on the basis of government's directive have also been cancelled.
Zivkovic points out that the suspension of privatization, which came into effect in the beginning of January, cannot last more than six months. After that period, if no changes to the laws were adopted, the Privatization Agency will send requests to relevant ministries and demand appropriate steps to be taken.

Goran Karadzic, a member of the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RBA), is of the opinion that it is impossible to find "a legal solution to an illegal situation", since it is necessary to wait for the formation of new parliament in order to change the laws.
Karadzic added that the privatization of electronic media must continue, at least in cases which were not exempted from the process by the government's directive, and that pirate broadcasters may appear, in which case the RBA will not have authority to shut them down.

The president of the Journalists' Association of Serbia, Nino Brajovic, said that the current situation was caused by different political interests, creating chaos in which certain media outlets are disadvantaged because some of them are already privatized, while others are still funded from the budget.

Describing a possible solution, he mentioned the possibility to continue media privatization using a principle of tender sales, selling media outlets to those who make the best offer and not to those who offer the biggest price.

Rade Veljanovski, media expert and a member of the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia, believes that the problem can be solved only after achieving consensus on future standards in the media scene and that such solution depends on the government.

He said that nobody questions the right of minorities to access information in the own languages, but stressed that such things could not be solved by adopting the Law on Local Self-Government and the Law on the Capital City which allow the state to own such media.

Veljanovski also points out that international conventions regarding the rights of minorities do not call for state ownership of media outlets to preserve the identity of national minorities.

"The suspension of privatization means the complete failure of the reform of the media scene", said Veljanovski.