News

The Committee of the National Assembly of Serbia for Culture and Information agrees with the Opinion of the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications regarding the application of the provisions of the Law on Electronic Media in the process of proposing candidates for members of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM). This was decided today at the Committee meeting without the presence of opposition MPs.

Opposition MPs assessed today, at a meeting of the Serbian Assembly's Committee for Culture and Information, that the process for selecting members of the REM (Regulatory Body for Electronic Media) Council has "failed," stating that representatives of the government are trying to impose rules that are contrary to the law - as they are only interested in having media control.

The outcome could have been completely different. The government could have nominated associations and candidates who meet the precisely written legal requirements for the election of members of the REM Council. With the majority they hold in the parliamentary Culture and Information Committee, and subsequently in the National Assembly of Serbia, they could have selected a new Council, in which they would also have a majority of a total of nine members. Under pressure from students, the public, and even the European Union, they could have "allowed" a few independent candidates and thus concluded a process that has been delayed for months and which already experienced a debacle earlier this year due to its illegality. They could have, but they did not.

At today's meeting of the Parliamentary Committee for Culture and Information, the opinions of the relevant ministries regarding the implementation of the legal provisions in the process of proposing candidates for members of the Council of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media were discussed, as well as a proposal to postpone the Public Hearing on the topic "Discussion with Candidates for Members of the Council of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media," the Committee stated in a press release.

Journalist Jelka Jovanović says that one should not be naïve and believe that the previous call for members of the REM Council was withdrawn due to students and the blockade of Radio-Television of Serbia, and that this was merely an excuse. For her, the solution lies in withdrawing the current call and announcing a new one.

The representative of the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), Saša Mirković, stated that "no one has taken responsibility" for the first process of electing members of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM), which "failed."

In the last two days, with regard to the media, two news items have marked the landscape, closely connected by the consequences they may produce on the media environment in Serbia. One is the withdrawal of candidacies from 16 candidates by 78 authorized proposers from the further procedure of elections for the REM Council, and the other is the initiative to establish the Association of Journalists of Serbia.

"I have withdrawn my candidacy for a member of the REM Council due to numerous irregularities in the election process, due to violations of laws and legal regulations," says actress Gorica Popović for Danas.

Members of the Assembly Committee for Culture and Information, along with authorized proposers who did not withdraw from the process, agreed on Friday, June 13, on ten candidates for members of the REM Council in five categories.