09. 09. 2008

WORKGROUP FOR THE MEDIA FORMALLY TO BE FORMED THIS WEEK

Belgrade, September 9, 2008 (Politika) – Deputy Minister of Culture in charge of the media, Dragan Janjić, announced yesterday that the workgroup for amending the media laws was being formed and that the Minister of Culture should sign the decision on that during the week.

In his interview to TV B92, Janjić said that the workgroup should comprise three professors from the Belgrade University, one professor from the University in Novi Sad, a representative of the Supreme Court of Serbia and the deputies to the Minister of Telecommunications and that of Culture, since that is also their responsibility.

He stated that the Ministry which had proposed the laws had the right to form a workgroup “as it saw fit”, as well as that neither RTV Serbia, nor the Radio-Diffusion Agency were allowed to define it.

As he asserted, one of the short-term plans of the group would be to change the Law on Radio Diffusion in order to ensure a legal framework for the digitalization of frequencies and define an independent position of regulatory bodies in the radio-diffusion sphere.

Janjić claimed that the workgroup ought to finish its work on proposing the amendments to the Law in the second half of October.

According to him, before allowing a public debate on the Law, the workgroup will first interview the representatives of the Radio-Diffusion Agency, public services, and other interested parties.

He announced that the Draft Law on the Law on Media Ownership Concentration would be discussed at a public debate next week, and that one of his aims would be to introduce media registers, which should make media ownership more transparent.