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The Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) platform today once again expresses concern over the undemocratic process by which the National Assembly conducted the latest election of members to the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM), a key media regulator in Serbia.

"From this perspective, it is completely clear that we will not have a new composition of the REM Council in the foreseeable future," stated Saša Mirković, a representative of ANEM and a previous candidate for a member of the REM Council in the first process, to Mašina.

Four out of eight members of the REM Council, who were elected this week in the Assembly of Serbia, have submitted their resignations. We are publishing the statement in its entirety:

The Committee for Culture and Information of the National Assembly of Serbia today adopted a Decision to initiate a renewed procedure for proposing a candidate for a member of the Council of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM) at the proposal of the authorized proposer, the national councils of national minorities, after no candidate in that category received a majority of votes in Parliament for election and thus the ninth member of that body was not elected.

The members of the Assembly of Serbia voted today to approve a new but incomplete composition of the Council of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM), selecting eight out of nine members from 18 candidates for this body.

Telekom Srbija has launched a new media outlet, TS Media Live, which currently features two shows by Milomir Marić – "Dan na dan" and "Ćirilica." Although TS Media Live has its place on the Move and Iris platforms, the channel does not have a license from the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM). Telekom claims that it is not a television channel, but rather a "temporary technical solution" that allows for live broadcasts within the Video Club. Former REM Council member Judita Popović states that the law does not recognize such "solutions."

The political decision for the ruling majority not to elect a candidate in any area would represent a nullification of everything achieved so far in the process of electing members of the Council of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM), as well as a complete denial of the efforts of all involved actors to carry out the process in accordance with minimal legal standards, states a letter from 12 candidates for the REM Council.

Vice President of the Assembly of Serbia Elvira Kovač called on the SNS and SPS to vote for 8 candidates for the REM Council, while boycotting the candidates in the category of national minority councils because the Hungarian candidate Bodžoni did not pass. Opponents of this proposal believe that this would sabotage the entire process, which has been unsuccessfully ongoing for a year.

It has been a year since the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) was left without a Council, and television stations without oversight. It’s not as if they were regulated before, since the REM Council served to protect the interests of the authorities and media tycoons, but this past year will still be remembered as a time of the most brutal propaganda, sowing of hatred, promotion of violence, and persecution of government critics, unlike anything seen since the 1990s.