Antonela Riha: Flagrant Violation of the Law During the Elections for the REM Council

Journalist Antonela Riha, one of the candidates who withdrew from the election process, tells “Vreme” that the reason for her decision is that the candidates do not agree to the illegality of the election of members of the REM Council.

“Throughout the course of its work, the parliamentary Committee for Culture and Information has shown that it does not adhere to the law, and for that reason, from the very beginning, we did not want to participate in something that violates the law,” says Riha.

She notes that the National Assembly of Serbia has not actually fulfilled the demand of the students who blocked Radio-Television Serbia by announcing a new competition for the selection of REM members.

“They actually did this under pressure from the European Union, since the election of REM Council members is one of the conditions from Cluster 3. However, it has been shown that the way they operate is purely a brazen violation of the law, and in this way, it is impossible to establish an independent institution, which REM should be,” warns Riha.

“Let them play by themselves”

She emphasizes that the government had the opportunity to demonstrate respect for democratic processes and procedures through the election of the REM Council, but that did not happen.

“It will be interesting to see how the government will explain such actions to the EU, as well as to citizens and students. In any case, if the REM Council is elected now, it will be illegitimate and absolutely will not protect human rights such as freedom of expression and will not prevent hate speech. So far, we have seen that REM has not reacted not only to omissions but also to serious violations of the Journalists’ Code and the law, which are primarily perpetrated by pro-regime media, and this will only continue,” assesses Riha.

She adds that “the authoritarian government of Aleksandar Vučić has a need to keep everything under control” and that the media is one of the key levers of power.

“It is clear that they do not want to let this slip from their hands at any cost. If 78 proposers have come forward so far and there are 16 of us candidates, and there may be more, without such a number of participants in the process, you cannot have a legitimate REM Council. The government has shown that it is incapable of creating an institution that aligns with normality and democratic principles, so let them play by themselves now,” concludes Riha.