Letter from ANEM to the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications regarding media laws

Dear Ms. Tomašević,

We are addressing you in accordance with your email that followed the meeting held on Monday, May 19, 2025, at the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications, which was attended by Saša Mirković on behalf of the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), who presented our views on that occasion.

We consider it incorrect, unprofessional, and uncollegial that you did not present to the participants of the mentioned meeting the essential information that the Government of Serbia had already adopted amendments to the Law on Electronic Media three days earlier (May 16, 2025), which were sent for parliamentary procedure.

This approach by representatives of the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications does not contribute to strengthening mutual trust, transparency, and inclusiveness in the process of amending the media laws and builds upon the fact that amendments to the Law on Public Information and Media and the Law on Electronic Media are being adopted without a public debate.

Considering that ANEM has already publicly commented on the proposed amendments, this time we will focus on the most drastic examples that we believe will undermine the achieved standards of freedom of expression in this field in our country.

In particular, we refer to the proposed amendments to Articles 84 and 85 of the Law on Public Information and Media, which restrict freedom of expression. ANEM believes that the proposed limitations are set too broadly and are inconsistent with the standards for limiting freedom of expression developed in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights, the standards of which are part of the legal order of the Republic of Serbia.

We also believe that the proposed amendments and supplements to the Law on Public Information and Media regarding public procurement encourage government authorities that have already directed a significant portion of the budget for project co-financing for these purposes. Further abuse of the Law on Public Information and Media will continue and increase financial support for tabloid media that daily violate the Code of Journalists of Serbia, the observance of which is overseen by the Press Council.

We are of the opinion that the proposed amendments and supplements to the provisions of the Law on Public Information and Media concerning media publishers, who are directly or indirectly state-owned, do not provide sufficient guarantees or hope for concrete improvements that would contribute to media pluralism and freedom of expression.

ANEM believes that the amendments and supplements to the Law on Electronic Media relating to the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media should have been adopted well before the announced Public Call for the selection of members of the REM Council, which is currently underway. The Ministry of Information and Telecommunications should take responsibility for the delays that raise justified doubts about the good intentions of the law’s proponent, who presented them to the narrower professional public after they had already been adopted by the Government and sent for parliamentary procedure.

We believe that the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications cannot evade responsibility for the current situation, which is the result of a fundamental disregard for the provisions of the Media Strategy, which is valid until the end of 2025, and for which an Action Plan for the implementation of the strategic media document has not yet been adopted.

We believe that work on amendments to the Law on Public Information and Media and subordinate legislation must begin as soon as possible, which would involve fundamental changes to the provisions regulating project co-financing of media. This institute has been rendered meaningless in recent months due to non-transparent amendments to regulations, changes in criteria, and unreasonable scoring policies that have deprived genuine experts of membership in competition committees, while professional media have been left without financial resources to support proposed projects.

In this respect, we emphasize that the unjustified delays by the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications have resulted in a missed opportunity to transpose into domestic legislation the necessary provisions of the European Media Freedom Act, which define additional rules for the protection of media pluralism and independence.

We hope that the mentioned intensive communication between the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications and the European Commission will contribute to the prompt rectification of the deficiencies we pointed out in the meeting and in this letter. The alignment of the draft you mention in your letter cannot be an excuse for diminishing the achieved standards.

Finally, we believe that after 18 months of delays and the mandates of three ministers (Mihailo Jovanović, Dejan Ristić, and Boris Bratina), it is inappropriate to imply in your letter that ANEM and other relevant and representative journalistic associations and media associations could even theoretically bear any responsibility for slowing down the process of European integration of the Republic of Serbia.

Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM)

Chairman of the Board

Veran Matić