22. 05. 2006

ALONE AGAINST THE WORLD

BELGRADE, May 22, 2006 – TV BK’s program was interrupted again, after only a few hours of broadcasting, by the decision of the Broadcast Agency Council. “Acting in line with the counts of the verdict of the Serbian Supreme court from May 19, 2006, which revoked the decision to temporarily withdraw the broadcasting license to TV BK,” the Broadcast Council adopted new decision to revoke the license to this broadcaster, this time leaving it without any right to broadcast the program. Legal representative of the BK TV announced the initiation of the administrative proceedings before the Supreme Court against such decision of the Broadcast Agency, as well as the criminal complaint against all those who disrespected the Supreme Court’s decision. The Broadcast Agency Council rejected the complaints of televisions TV 5, RTL and BK against the decision to award national frequencies and re-confirmed the allocation of frequencies to B92, Pink, Avala, Fox and Kosava-Happy TV. Former member of the Broadcast Council Vladimir Vodinelic said that the decisions of this regulatory body on frequency allocation and revocation of BK TV’s broadcasting license were indeed illegal and without legal criteria. However, Professor Rade Veljanovski, who participated in drafting of the media legislation, noted earlier that the decision of the Council to revoke the license to TV BK was entirely legitimate. General Manager and Chief Editor of TV 5 from Nis Slavica Nikolic-Corbic said last weekend that the latest decision of the Broadcast Council to reject the complaints filed by other competitors and extend the ban for program broadcasting of TV BK “questions the right functioning of the state”. She noted that the Council of this regulatory body was not at all independent, the fact reflected in the haste meeting called right after the final ruling of the Serbian Supreme Court which revoked the council’s decision to withdraw the broadcast license to TV BK. “The Council thus demonstrated the panic and fear of not fulfilling the orders of higher authorities that stand behind all this. The decision made in such a hurry only shows that the Broadcast Agency’s decisions and operations are vindictive and not entirely legal”, said Nikolic-Corbic.