01. 08. 2006

BROADCASTING COUNCIL SLAMS JOURNALIST GUILD

BELGRADE, August 1, 2006 (Beta) - The Broadcast Agency Council said that the recent remarks of the IJAS can be construed as threats. The Independent Journalists Association of Serbia’s administration threatened that it would dismiss five members of the Council from its organisation, which the Broadcast Agency Council sees as an illegal method of putting pressure on the work of the body. According to a statement from the Council, its President Nenad Cekić was never a member of IJAS, and Vladimir Cvetković and Aleksandar Vasić have not paid their memberships in two years and can no longer be considered members of the journalists’ association either. “Now it is clear to everyone that this is part of a formulated campaign that is aggressively trying to lobby for broadcasting licences for television programs outside of the regulations of the law, for those who did not receive licences during the public competition,” according to the statement which was signed by Nenad Cekić, Aleksandar Vasić, Vladimir Cvetković and Slobodan Đorić. “The threats by the IJAS administration are proof of the narrow-mindedness and lack of democratic principles of the executives of IJAS.” On July 21, IJAS called on Nenad Cekić to contact the organisation in reference to the freezing of his membership. The request was forwarded to Aleksandar Vasić, Slobodan Đorić, Goran Karadžić and Vladimir Cvetković as well.