The Assembly Committee for Culture, without opposition representatives, adopted the proposal for candidates for members of the REM Council.
After the debate between the ruling party and the opposition at the meeting of the Culture and Information Committee of the Assembly of Serbia, the report on the list of candidates and nominators for members of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM) was adopted, without the opposition members. June 5 was set as the deadline for the 11 candidates and seven organizations to complete their documentation.
A session of the Committee for Culture and Information of the National Assembly of Serbia was held, during which proposals for candidates for members of the REM Council were discussed. This was the only item on the agenda for the session. There were 15 members present.
The Committee adopted, without opposition members, the report on the list of candidates and proposers for members of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media. It set June 5 as the deadline for the 11 candidates and seven organizations to complete their documentation.
Prior to the vote, opposition party members left the session, and the report was adopted with 11 votes.
The chairwoman of the Committee, Sanja Branković Jefić, explained earlier that candidate Jelka Jovanović submitted additional documentation on May 29.
Committee member from the Green-Left Front, Radomir Lazović, asked for clarification on how it is possible during the voting for the body to express its opinion on disputed candidates, to which Branković Jefić asked him - "who are the disputed candidates."
“Last time you requested individual voting, and now I do not have a legal basis to allow individual voting as the agenda has been adopted,” the chairwoman stated.
Opposition party members decided to leave the session before the vote, so the ruling party members voted for the report and the deadline for submitting additional documentation.
The list of candidates is expected to be published on the parliament's website.
A session of the Committee for Culture and Information of the National Assembly of Serbia has commenced, during which proposals for candidates for members of the REM Council will be discussed. This will be the only item on the agenda. There are 15 members present.
During the discussion, Committee member from the People's Movement of Serbia, Ivana Rokvić, assessed that the new process for electing members of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) is worse than it was last time.
“If we were to receive REM tomorrow at 12 o'clock, all nine people as the law states, within 24 hours we would have RTS operating according to the Law on Public Services, and all these TV stations that allow the speech that colleague Zoran Lutovac tried to present would be shut down,” Rokvić noted during the committee session.
She called on government members not to allow this process to be contaminated, trivialized, and to avoid a "third chance."
Rokvić highlighted as particularly problematic the claims that pressure has been exerted on organizations dealing with the protection of children's rights from certain ministries, or suggestions on how to propose candidates for the REM Council.
The head of the Parliamentary Group of the Green-Left Front and member of the Committee for Information, Radomir Lazović, stated today that the new competition for the selection of members of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) is proceeding with similar procedural problems and demonstrates the government’s intention for REM not to be an independent institution, but a collaborator in media control.
Lazović assessed during the committee session that there is still a possibility for the process to be normalized if the request from several opposition members to postpone the decision on the candidates for a week is adopted.
According to Lazović, a large number of organizations should not be proposers, and thus their candidates cannot participate in this process.
He identified Stevica Smederevac and Žarko Simović as individuals in a conflict of interest because they are long-time employees of REM, and then for the candidate from the university, Bojan Bilbija, stated that he does not have 10 years of experience in electronic media but in printed media, adding that he is a person who has threatened members of the ZLF.
Lazović spoke about Milan Petković as a person proposed by a "phantom GONGO" organization, while according to him, perhaps the most problematic candidacy is that of Miloš Garić.
"He is a former state secretary in the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications, now he is an advisor to the minister, but he is also the owner of a company engaged in TV production, and he is aware that he is violating procedures, so he attempted to shut down that company," Lazović stated, emphasizing that what he has said so far, regarding only half of the candidates and proposers he disputes, is enough to show that this process is not heading in a good direction.
Committee member of the National Assembly for Culture and Information from the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), Nebojša Bakarec, called on opposition parties not to obstruct the opening of Cluster 3 and not to sabotage the election of members of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media.
"Be Europeans and let’s celebrate the opening of Cluster 3 together at the end of July," Bakarec said at the committee session where 49 candidacies for the REM Council are being considered.
Bakarec emphasized that the law does not restrict any candidate from participating in the election, stating that the law says, "a member of the REM Council cannot be..., but not a candidate for member."
He also noted that nowhere in the law does it state that employees of REM cannot be in the REM Council, because when someone is elected to that body, they must certainly be employed at REM.
According to your criteria, Bakarec said addressing Green-Left Front member Radomir Lazović, only babies have no biography, have done nothing, and are not in a conflict of interest, owners, or co-owners anywhere.
Bakarec noted again that nowhere in the law does it state that employees of REM cannot be in the REM Council, because when someone is elected to that body, they must certainly be employed at REM.
Committee member of the National Assembly for Culture and Information from the Democratic Party, Zoran Lutovac, stated that from the way candidates for the new Council of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) have been proposed, it is clear that the government wants its REM, not an independent regulatory body.
The fact that the former president of the REM Council is now serving as a spokesperson indicates that she might be doing the same job, just formally from a different position, Lutovac said about Olivera Zekić.
Lutovac quoted sentences that were said on the television to which REM granted national frequency regarding the rector of the University of Belgrade, Vladan Đokić.
As he quoted what was said about Đokić this morning, although he previously apologized to the committee members for what he was about to say, the chairwoman of the Committee turned off his microphone.
"A member of the National Assembly of Serbia was silenced due to comments on the frequency granted by REM, and the government wants continuity of such REM," Lutovac emphasized.
For the election of nine members of the REM Council, 177 organizations sent the names of 49 candidates, and as previously stated by the President of the National Assembly of Serbia, Ana Brnabić, a plenary session is expected in July where the final list will be considered.
Out of 49 candidates, 18 will be selected, and finally, based on additional criteria, nine members of the REM Council will be elected.
REM is an independent body, and its members must be media professionals with experience and authority.
Among others, the proposed candidates for the REM Council include advisor to the Minister of Information Miloš Garić, journalist Bojan Bilbija, Dr. Milan Petković, Jovan Vitez, Stevica Smederevac, Žarko Simović, Gordana Predić, Jelka Jovanović. Among the proposed candidates is also the former commissioner for information of public importance Rodoljub Šabić, journalist Antonela Riha, Željko Hubač, Ivan Lalić, Gorica Popović, Đorđe Vlajić, Mileva Malešić...
The public call for proposing candidates for the election of members of the REM Council was published on May 8, and concluded on May 25.
The Committee for Culture and Information of the National Assembly of Serbia made a decision on April 28 to initiate a new procedure for proposing candidates for the election of members of the REM Council, after previously annulling the decision on the previous procedure from November 25.
The announcement for a new competition for members of the REM Council was requested by opposition members of the Committee for Culture and Information, and previously by students.
Source: RTS
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