23. 07. 2003

Re-elect the Broadcast Council

Paris, 23 July, 2003 -- Reporters Without Borders today joined calls for the re-election of Serbia's Broadcast Agency Council after a Milosevic-era coalition helped confirm the appointment of three councillors whose original election was flawed. An RSF statement said the organisation deplored the fact that, following parliamentary confirmation, Agency chairman Nenad Cekic and member Vladimir Cvetkovic launched virulent personal attacks against Veran Matic, who had said their election violated the broadcasting law adopted last year. In a letter addressed to Serbian Parliament Speaker and Acting Serbian President Natasa Micic, Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Menard insisted: "The creation of the broadcasting Council is a major step for press freedom after the end of the Milosevic regime and it is essential that its legitimacy and independence cannot be questioned". "The only way to restore such credibility to the Council would be to re-hold the election of its members while complying with procedures in the strictest fashion," Menard urged, adding that personal attacks on journalists were inappropriate and "incompatible with the council's duty to be impartial." Media companies not considered loyal to the former Milosevic regime are still without licences, while those favoured during the Milosevic era maintain their privileges. The nine-member Broadcast Agency Council, already down to seven members following two resignations, is tasked with ensuring national broadcast frequencies are distributed in a regular and impartial manner. The appointments of Cekic and Cvetkovic drew criticism for not being carried out in accordance with the law on the body's formation, which calls for biographies to be published 30 days prior to any election in the name of transparency. Goran Radenovic, the member for Kosovo, has also been criticised for not living and working in the province, but rather in the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica, where he has lived since fleeing the troubled province in 1999.