Supplement to the criminal complaint regarding the irregularities in the selection of members of the REM Council.
The Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation, the Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia (NUNS), the Independent Journalists' Association of Vojvodina (NDNV), and CRTA have submitted an amendment to the criminal complaint to the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime against the Secretary of the Committee for Culture and Information of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, Dana Gak, due to reasonable suspicion that she abused her official position to influence the outcome of the procedure for the election of new members of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM).
These organizations filed a criminal complaint in November 2024 against the chairperson of the same committee, Nevena Đurić, for obstructing the implementation of the amended Law on Electronic Media and for failing to publish a public call for the selection of new members of the REM Council within the legally stipulated timeframe.
In May 2025, they supplemented the criminal complaint to include the committee secretary, Dana Gak, due to numerous violations of the Law on Electronic Media during the unsuccessful election process for the REM Council, which resulted in the withdrawal of their candidacies in January of this year.
The latest amendment to the complaint followed after committee secretary Dana Gak allowed unauthorized participants to take part in a crucial part of the process when the national councils of national minorities were determining a joint candidate proposal for a member of the REM Council.
According to the allegations in the complaint, Gak prepared and delivered ballots to representatives of nine national councils of national minorities who were not authorized proposers in this process, and subsequently recognized their votes as valid. This directly influenced the outcome of the voting and the selection of candidates to be proposed to the National Assembly, thereby violating the provisions of the Law on Electronic Media.
The organizations remind that the REM is a body of crucial importance for the independence and legality of the media system, and that members of the Council must be elected exclusively in accordance with the law and without political influence. "Such conduct shows that the parliamentary committee, instead of guaranteeing legality and transparency, actively engaged in manipulating the process, thereby seriously undermining public trust in the institutions," the complaint states.
The complaint states that Dana Gak "abused the state apparatus, severely violated the rights of others, and caused harm to the public interest in the Republic of Serbia," as well as that she directly influenced the "non-recognition of the will of authorized proposers who were legitimized to participate in the candidate nomination process."
The Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation, NUNS, NDNV, and CRTA expect the Organized Crime Prosecutor's Office to act urgently on the complaint, ascertain responsibility, and take all legally prescribed measures.
The text of the amendment to the criminal complaint is available at this link.
