First day of candidate alignment for the REM Council: Former favorites of the authorities, as well as several independents.

The alignment of candidates for the Council of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM) in all nine categories began yesterday morning in the National Assembly. Authorized proposers selected two candidates in each category. Among them, the Assembly will ultimately choose one to enter the Council.

Representatives of independent institutions agreed that the candidates will be Stevica Smederevac and Gordana Predić.

In the category for which the proposers are churches and religious communities, an agreement was reached that their candidates will be Snežana Miljković and Mevljud Dudić.

Authorized proposers in the category of electronic media publishers sent Miloš Garić and Jovana Vitez to the Assembly for voting.

The remaining two categories were concluded through voting. Representatives of proposers from the associations for the protection of children predominantly voted for Dušan Aleksić and Dubravka Valić Nedeljković, while journalistic associations voted mostly in favor of Đorđe Vlajić and Mileva Malešić.

Today, candidates from the remaining four groups of proposers will also be selected: universities, associations dealing with the protection of freedom of expression, councils of national minorities, and associations of composers and film, stage, and drama artists.

HOW CANDIDATES ARE SELECTED

According to the Law on Electronic Media, authorized proposers must jointly agree on the final proposal of two candidates for Council members. If this is not possible, the final proposal of two candidates from the category is determined by voting.

The election of the Council is placed on the agenda of the first subsequent session of the National Assembly after holding a public discussion with the proposed candidates.

INDEPENDENT INSTITUTIONS: Stevica Smederevac and Gordana Predić

The Protector of Citizens, the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance, and the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality selected from Stevica Smederevac, Žarko Simović, and Gordana Predić, after the Committee determined that Jelka Jovanović did not meet the legally prescribed conditions.

They quickly agreed that the candidates are Stevica Smederevac and Gordana Predić.

Stevica Smederevac

He was proposed by the Protector of Citizens and the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance. He has been employed at REM since 2012, which has led to many objections from independent candidates and proposers.

Representatives of the authorities, however, praised him as an exceptional candidate, so he is considered a favorite in this category.

He is a lawyer and holds a Master's degree in management in culture and media, stating in his biography that he worked at RTV Vojvodina and RTS (formerly TV Belgrade) from 1990 to 2012.

At REM, he served for 12 years as the head of the Department for Supervision and Analysis, after which he was appointed Assistant Director of REM for Supervision and Analysis.

Following the mass shootings in May 2023, REM presented a report on the supervision of national television stations Pink, Hepi, Prva, and B92, focusing on reporting on violence at the request of the parliament.

Smederevac responded to criticisms that these televisions do not comply with laws and program elaborations, which are conditions for holding broadcasting licenses with national coverage, stating that these media take their licenses and elaborations seriously and mostly meet all legal conditions, which is “good news and a great relief.”

Smederevac applied for membership in the REM Council in the previous process in 2024; however, the Committee for Culture and Information annulled the decision on the selection of members of the REM Council.

Gordana Predić

Gordana Predić was proposed by the Commissioner for the Protection of Equality. She was the State Secretary for Information and Media, as well as the State Secretary for International Cooperation and European Integration in the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technological Development. She is responsible for aligning legislation with EU standards.

Before that, she worked at RTV Politika, in the newspapers Politika, Bazar, RTV Revija, Horizont, and Sat, as well as at Radio-Television Vojvodina.

She was among the 16 candidates who wanted to withdraw from the REM Council selection in June due to irregularities in the process.

PUBLISHERS OF ELECTRONIC MEDIA: Jovana Vitez and Miloš Garić

The authorized proposers in the category of associations of electronic media publishers agreed that the candidates for the REM Council will be Jovana Vitez and Miloš Garić.

In addition to them, Tatjana Jordović Nikolić was also proposed but did not make it to the shortlist.

Miloš Garić

A candidate who, during the second process of selecting members of the REM Council, was among those who received the most criticism from independent proposers and candidates.

He served as State Secretary from August 2024 until the election of the new Government of Serbia in April 2025 when he became an advisor for information to the new Minister of Information and Telecommunications, Boris Bratina. During his candidacy, he was an advisor to the Minister of Information.

In January 2025, he signed a “petition supporting the right to life of President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić,” initiated by the Institute for Political Networking, “warning of the growing dehumanization and threats directed at the president and the office he holds.”

Miloš Garić has spent over 5,000 minutes appearing on television channels (Informer, Pink, Hepi, Prva, B92) known for continuously violating media professional standards.

These are data that, according to his critics, speak sufficiently that REM cannot be an independent institution with him.

In addition, several irregularities in Miloš Garić's candidacy were noted. He is the owner of the company Garnets, registered for the production of television content—an activity that is incompatible with membership in the REM Council according to the Law on Electronic Media.

Garić attempted to dissolve the company on May 21, 2025, but the Agency for Business Registers (APR) rejected the request due to incomplete documentation.

The day before, on May 20, 2025, Garić signed a statement—under full criminal and material responsibility—in which he claims that there are no legal obstacles to his candidacy. This indicates that the statement contained false information at the time of signing, as the company was still active and in his ownership at that moment.

However, these were not sufficient reasons for him to be rejected as a candidate.

Garić also played a key role in the contentious amendments to media laws, which were criticized for their lack of transparency and absence of public debate, prompting protests from the Coalition for Media Freedom.

Jovana Vitez

Vitez began her career in electronic media, according to her official biography, in 1997 at Radio Akademac. Since then, she has been a journalist, presenter, and editor in various media. Since 2008, she has been working as an editor in the media group Maxim Media Plus.

A candidate of ADEM, Comnet, and the Association of Media and Media Workers.

Her application has also been criticized for violating Article 15 of the Law on Electronic Media, which states that a Council member cannot be “an employee, a contracted person, or a person with an interest in legal entities engaged in the production, distribution, or broadcasting of radio and television programs or related activities.”

Her current employer is Maxim Media Plus, a media organization that is connected through ownership structure with Studio B and radio stations Jat, 5, TDI, Lola, Karolina, Seven Niš, and HIT FM, through the company New Agency.

PROTECTION OF CHILDREN: Dušan Aleksić and Dubravka Valić Nedeljković

The meeting of authorized proposers from associations dealing with the protection of children lasted much longer than the alignments of other categories. The associations needed to agree on two candidates among Dušan Aleksić, Dubravka Valić Nedeljković, Miloš Radunović, and Tanja Janković.

However, this time there was no consensus, so voting took place. Dušan Aleksić and Dubravka Valić Nedeljković, candidates who withdrew from the selection process for Council members in June, claiming that the election method was illegal and both legally and politically compromised, received the majority of votes.

Attorney Marija Petrović, a collaborator from the Network of Organizations for Children of Serbia, stated for Cenzolovka that Aleksić and Valić Nedeljković received support from 37 organizations, while candidates Janković and Radulović received support from 31 organizations.

“Our group of proposers is quite large, and actually in the first phase of selection, when the lists of proposers were formed, there were many irregularities,” says Petrović. The irregularities, she notes, concerned the fact that it was uncertain whether a large number of small municipal associations were even active, meaning that later in the selection process it turned out that they did not meet the legal criteria.

Although the group of organizations proposing candidates Aleksić and Valić Nedeljković knew that they had the majority before today's meeting, they were particularly cautious.

“We knew before the meeting that the second group of organizations would practically be represented by one person and believed that this was not in line with the spirit of the law,” says attorney Petrović. She mentions that while it is in accordance with the Law on General Administrative Procedure, the purpose of today’s meeting should have been to align opinions and propose a joint candidate.

Our interlocutor notes that Igor Jurić represented his and 29 other organizations, from which he received written authorizations. He emphasizes that this is not a good practice.

“We automatically entered the phase of voting, bypassing what the purpose of this phase is, which is to potentially discuss the proposed candidates so that the two best candidates could go to the parliamentary plenary for voting,” explains Petrović.

The associations proposed that the practice of one person representing 30 organizations at such meetings should change, as other organizations should also actively participate in such processes.

PETROVIĆ: OSCE DID NOT ALLOW INTERPRETATION OF THE LAW IN ACCORDANCE WITH POLITICAL NEEDS

Petrović states that representatives of the OSCE were present at all meetings today and sees their contribution in the fact that the OSCE did not allow “parliamentary bodies to interpret the law according to their daily political needs,” but that the same laws apply to all proposers and candidates.

“The most important thing for us is that the entire process is as legal as possible because only in this way can we ensure that the composition of the REM Council is legitimate, and that we can rely on the integrity of the people in it for such an important task as the regulation of electronic media,” concludes the interlocutor from Cenzolovka.

Dušan Aleksić

PhD in Communication Studies. He has been working at the Department of Communication and Journalism at the Faculty of Philosophy in Niš since 2013, where he became an assistant professor in 2021. As of October 2023, he is the director of the Center for Media Research at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Niš.

From 2012 to 2014, he was a journalist at Niš Television.

He applied for membership in the Council of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media in the previous annulled process. He was on the list of candidates who withdrew their candidacy in the current process.

Dubravka Valić Nedeljković

She was a full professor at the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad in the Department of Media Studies from 2005 to 2018.

Before that, she was employed as a journalist and editor in the news and political department at Radio-Television Vojvodina and Radio Novi Sad. She has received numerous journalistic awards for informative radio programs and radio reports.

She has published eight books and over 300 academic papers on journalism and media.

She is one of the founders of the Novi Sad School of Journalism and the Association “Women’s Studies and Research.”

JOURNALISTIC ASSOCIATIONS: Đorđe Vlajić and Mileva Malešić

The Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia and the Journalists' Association of Serbia proposed Đorđe Vlajić and Mileva Malešić, while the Professional Journalists' Association of Serbia PROUNS supported Maja Mišković Marković.

NUNS and UNS received the majority of votes, as the Committee previously determined that the Journalists' Association of Vojvodina and the Journalists' Association of Niš did not meet the legal criteria, nor did their and PROUNS's candidate Nada Vujović.

BODROŽIĆ: THE AUTHORITIES WILL NOT ALLOW REM TO BE OUT OF CONTROL

Željko Bodrožić, the president of NUNS, tells Cenzolovka that there was no possibility for alignment, as in his opinion, PROUNS is also an illegitimate proposer.

He states that this result gives hope that independent candidates have a chance to be in the REM Council.

He says that the authorities have given up on undermining the process, but believes they will not remain defensive until the end of the process, as the authorities will not allow REM to be beyond their control.

“Our goal is to have two good candidates in each area so that there is no other choice in the parliamentary plenary and thus no harm will be done,” says Bodrožić.

This is the second category in which both candidates were proposed by non-governmental organizations that pointed out irregularities during the process of the new election of candidates for members of the REM Council.

Đorđe Vlajić

Retired journalist with over 47 years of journalistic and editorial experience in public services. He works for Foneta.

At Radio Belgrade, he was editor and host of the main news programs, but after the change of management in 1991, he resigned from the editorial position due to disagreement with the change in editorial policy. He was dismissed in 1993.

Vlajić was a correspondent for the BBC from 1993 to 2010, then he returned to Radio Belgrade until 2015. He briefly served as president of NUNS in 2010.

He was a member of the working group for drafting media laws concerning electronic media and public services.

Mileva Malešić

Activist and retired journalist. She worked at the local weekly "Polimje" and at Radio Polimje as a journalist, editor, and director from 1979 to 2008. She was the director and chief and responsible editor of TV Forum until 2024.

TV Forum is the first and only television station in the civil sector founded by women to produce specialized programming that promotes women's rights and gender equality.

She has received many journalistic awards. Although the vice president of the Information Committee, Sanja Jefić Branković, tried to contest Mileva Malešić's candidacy because she is the “owner of TV Forum,” NUNS emphasized that Malešić could never be a co-owner of this television, as its publisher is an association of citizens.

“Documentation regarding the change of editors (in November 2024, when Malešić retired, editor's note) was timely submitted to the APR and REM. However, the data on the REM website have not been changed since there is no REM Council to confirm this change.

CHURCH AND RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES: After the repeated agreement – Snežana Miljković and Mevljud Dudić

In the category "Church and Religious Communities," the candidates were Sanja Lubardić Anđelković, Snežana Miljković, Mevljud Dudić, and Sumeja Smailagić. After the representatives of the authorized proposers quickly left the room, it was announced to the Cenzolovka journalist that they had reached an agreement and that the candidates were Sanja Lubardić Anđelković and Mevljud Dudić.

However, after that, the proposers' representatives, including the Serbian Orthodox Church, requested to repeat the meeting, “because they made a mistake.” This was agreed upon by the representative of the Islamic Community's Mešihat in Serbia as well. At the repeated meeting, it was agreed that instead of Sanja Lubardić Anđelković, the candidate would be Snežana Miljković.

Snežana Miljković

She has been employed at the Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade since 2018 as the head of protocol/coordinator.

She graduated from the Faculty of Management, University UNION – Nikola Tesla, and became a graduate economist, and at the Higher Business School in Sremski Karlovci, she acquired the title of operational manager.

She was an English teacher at the Primary School “Mića Stojanović” in Umčari and at the Secondary Economic School in Grocka. She also worked for 17 years as the head of protocol in the City Municipality of Grocka.

She worked in the editorial office of the magazine. She was a journalist – collaborator for TV Hram of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Radio Puls from Grocka, deputy chief and responsible editor of the parish magazine of the Church of Saint Sava – Svetosavac; author and coordinator of the project Oduhovljenje; author of children's books "Saints and Animals," "God's Garden," and "Snow Prayer." She has written lyrics for numerous songs, as stated in her biography, where it is also highlighted that she is one of the authors of the monograph of the Church of Saint Sava.

She applied for membership in the REM Council in the previous process in 2024; however, the Committee for Culture and Information annulled the decision on the selection of members of the REM Council.

Mevljud Dudić

He holds a doctorate in Islamic sciences. Since the founding of the magazine Glas Islama in 1996, he has been a member of the editorial board and a columnist. He is a professor of communication studies at the University of Novi Pazar.

The Royal Islamic Center for Strategic Studies in Amman ranked him among the 500 most influential Muslims in the world.

He was appointed dean of the Faculty of Islamic Studies in 2006, and in 2008 became the rector of the International University in Novi Pazar, where he served two terms until 2014.

At the beginning of that year, he was elected president of the Mešihat of the Islamic Community in Serbia, writes Istinomer.

Source: Cenzolovka