NUNS submitted objections regarding the selection of members of the REM Council.

In the objections related to associations, NUNS states that none of them meet the conditions to be authorized proposers of candidates for members of the REM Council, primarily because they have not provided appropriate evidence of having 300 members who have paid at least 300 membership fees.

“The submitted copy of the financial report indicates that the income from membership fees is 544,000.00 dinars, while the certified statement mentions that the membership fee amount is 2,000.00 dinars. If 300 members paid their membership fee for the observed year, the income from membership fees should be at least 600,000.00 dinars. This indicates that the required number of journalists did not pay their membership fees,” reads the objection concerning the Journalists' Association of Vojvodina.

Additionally, the attached financial report of the Journalists' Association of Niš states that the income from membership fees is 1,044,000.00 dinars, and that this is the total income for 2024. However, in the previous year, the association received a project grant from the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications amounting to 1,000,000.00 dinars, which was either not mentioned in the report, which NUNS notes is a serious violation, or it indicates that the income from membership fees was inaccurately reported.

The objections further state that the associations lack data from their membership databases, and the data provided is “completely unclear, presented in a vague and imprecise manner and lacks clear information about actual members.”

NUNS also observes that there are no reports or information about the regular meetings of the assemblies on the associations’ websites, where attendance and the number of members can be determined, and the activities related to membership are not visible either.

Due to the aforementioned issues, NUNS requests a detailed verification of all registered membership fees by reviewing the databases, which should contain such data, and that minutes from the regular assembly meetings be obtained during the verification process to determine the number of present members.

NUNS has called on the Committee for Culture and Information to perform the same review of the NUNS membership database.

In the objection concerning candidate Nada Vujović, NUNS emphasizes that Article 10 of the Law on Electronic Media explicitly states that members of the REM Council are elected from among distinguished experts in fields relevant to the performance of tasks within the jurisdiction of the Regulator, and that journalists and editors must have at least ten years of experience in content production and editing or management in electronic media, radio, and television.

NUNS notes that candidate Nada Vujović, according to the submitted information, does not have work experience in the sector related to radio and television, but rather has gained work experience in the field of electronic publications, which are not under the jurisdiction of the REM.