24. 03. 2006

JOURNALISTS TO PARTICIPATE IN PRIVATISATION

BELGRADE, March 24, 2006. – Chairman of the Association of Independent Local Media Local Press Managing Board Vukasin Obradovic said that this association would do everything to help journalists to participate in the process of privatization of local media in which they had been working for years. Speaking at the celebration of the tenth anniversary of this association, Obradovic warned of the risk of the privatization – closure of certain media, drastic changes in editorial policy and tabloidization. Obradovic said that the political pressure on media was more subtle than before October 5, 2000 and added that so far there were 40 criminal procedures against members of this association, mainly due to their different perception of reality during Milosevic’s tyranny. He also noted that even after October 5, 2000, journalists had been pressured to “serve certain political causes”. The Association currently gathers 28 media houses, that is, 27 media from Serbia and one from Montenegro. The ownership structure holds 14 private print media, 12 public companies and 2 state companies. The association “Local Press” has, for the first time, awarded journalist Zoran Misic with the “Pavle Cirovic” journalists’ award for the article “Sumadija threatened with eco-bomb”, published in the Kragujevac-based weekly “Svetlost”. The award carries the name of the first chairman of the Association and director of “Svetlost”, Pavle Cirovic, who, according to writer Saban Sarenkapic, was “punished and among those punished” for his profession and search for the truth so many times.