22. 04. 2003

Council Appointments “Damaging” to Broadcast Watchdog

BELGRADE, April 22, 2003 -- A fierce debate has developed about the legality of procedures in appointing two members of the Serbian Broadcast Agency Council on April 11. Three major Serbian media associations, the Independent Association of Serbian Journalists, the Association of independent Electronic Media and the Spektar association of Serbian broadcasters, have demanded the dismissal of the two councillors. In a submission to the Serbian Parliament the associations describe the appointment procedure as being in breach of Serbia’s Broadcast Act and also warn of a potential conflict of interests. Ian Willem Blankert, the European Commission delegate to Serbia-Montenegro, said that the objections gave cause for concern. “We have been informed that three respected media associations have appealed to the parliament against the procedure in which some members of the Council were nominated. We are concerned that, from the outset, there could be reasons to call into question the legitimacy of a body charged with extremely important and responsible duties”. Ivan Andric, the chairman of the Serbian Parliament’s Committee for Culture and Information, said on April 17 that the decision would stand for the moment, although the committee would honour any proceedings demanded of it. He went on to announce that the next session of the Serbian Parliament would debate the Telecommunications Bill and that the Access to Information Bill would also be tabled in the near future. Andric said that these two bills would complete Serbia’s media legislation and that there would be no further need for changes. Milica Lucic-Cavic, the president of the Independent Association of Serbian Journalists described the Broadcast Act and the Council as being long overdue. “The deadline for the establishment of the Council was exceeded by six months. Having had to wait so long, we could have survived another month for the sake of having the members elected in accordance with the law. A beginning where a member is appointed without regard to the law is a bad beginning and we urge that the matter be brought into line with the law”. Dejan Milenkovic, one of the media legislation’s architects and an associate of the Yugoslav Lawyer’s Committee for Human Rights, described the appointments as adding to legal insecurity. “If the law is breached by the parliament which passed it, it is doubtful that the public and broadcasters will respect it; given that this council will rule on broadcasting licences, why should those who are refused licences honour its decisions?” Richard Zink, the director of the European Agency for Reconstruction said on April 17 that he was aware of the claims and criticism, adding that they should be addressed to the parliament. “The legal sectors of the government and the parliament should consider the grounds for these accusations and the ways in which to respond to them”. On April 17 the European Agency for Reconstruction signed a memorandum of understanding with the Serbian Government and the OSCE Mission in Serbia-Montenegro which regulates the support to be provided by these two international organisations for the establishment of the Broadcast Agency. Maurizio Massari, the OSCE ambassador in Belgrade, told B92 on April 22: “We are aware of certain criticism regarding appointments to the Council and we know that the 30-day provision in the Law on setting up the Council was not, in this case observed. “Respect for the legal procedures needs to be regarded - as the rule of law in any democratic country - including of course Serbia is paramount. “In this specific case, however, we believe that the Serbian parliament tried in good faith and with the consensus of different political forces, to speed up procedures in order to break the deadlock, which has created a serious obstacle to the implementation of the law. “If some provisions of the law have not been fully observed, the competent authorities may try to redress the situation, amending some of their decisions, in order to seek the largest possible consensus, without in any way endangering the whole process.” Vojin Dimitrijevic, the director of the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights and an expert in international law, had said earlier that he was interested in procedures, not personalities, adding that it was important not to repeat the situation which occurred with the nomination of long-time Milosevic Socialist Zoran Petrovic, who collaborated in the purge of the universities and the beating of students in 1999 and 2000. In this case, said Dimitrijevic, the government admitted it had erred. He emphasised that the regulation concerning advance publication of nominations was in the legislation for a reason. “I am disappointed that the OSCE’s Belgrade media office sees the parliament as having the right to flout the law in the name of broad public interest. “How can a parliament which has passed a law fail to respect that same law? If we adopt the logic that public interest justifies flouting the law and return to the Stalinist era, then who defines what the public interest is?” Verena Taylor, the special envoy to Serbia-Montenegro of the secretary-general of the Council of Europe: “I can understand that in the interest of pragmatism and to get things going – because we have been waiting for a very long time for this Broadcast Agency and there is no doubt that it is important for it to start working. I can understand that one can be of the opinion that it is not so important perhaps that the law has not been fully respected in this case, but the fact remains that it has not been fully respected. I met last week with the minister for human rights and minorities, Mr Ljajic, for other purposes originally, but I used the opportunity to share with him our concerns about this situation” Dusan Radulovic, editor-in-chief of Radio Belgrade’s First Program and a long time associate of weekly Vreme, said that the legal procedure must be honoured in any case. “I don’t think that the principle guiding the nominations was good and I cannot believe that there were no other people in Serbia who could have been elected”.