Snježana Milivojević on REM: The greatest conflict is centered around the media; the authorities will not easily relinquish control.

Professor Milivojević stated that she does not want to diminish the students' victory and their contribution to the overall democratization, and that she fully agrees that Serbia needs a quality REM. However, she notes that it seems to her that in the last cycle, specifically last autumn, there may have been more chances for that process to yield a quality body.

"In the meantime, the government has consolidated a bit, and I think that this time it will not happen. I would say that in Serbia not all roads lead to Rome, but rather to Andrićev Venac, and as we see these blockades persist month after month and this final phase of the local crisis continues, we observe that in this type of autocracy, new autocracies that do not rely solely on brute force but on media manipulation, the media is the area around which the greatest conflict is fought. This battlefield will not be easily surrendered. REM allows for the media system to be reorganized to function for a democratic society, and I think that will not happen," said Professor Snježana Milivojević on the Newsnight program.

The professor explained that REM members are not elected by a parliamentary majority to embed their political preferences or will into it. She emphasizes that it is a professional, not a political body.

"And that call made today by the President of the Assembly, to not let this (election of members) turn into a political question, actually indicates how fundamentally it is a political issue, as it ensures that the media is removed from political control by the state and allows a professional, competent body of nine members to regulate that area. When I say it is not political, this solution with the election in the Assembly is actually more to give it the authority and significance of a body that has consensual support in a country that has a Democratic Assembly, which is not the case with us," the professor noted.

She also mentioned that there is an impression that the President of the Parliament has backed this process with her legitimacy.

"REM does not have a political mandate, but politics has heavily interfered in its selection. I must also say that here a chain of irresponsibility has already burdened that body. So, I will just remind you that the law was changed in 2023 and that for a year, the period during which conditions should have been prepared to select a new REM was actually a period of amnesty for the former REM from irresponsibility and the chaos it produced through its inaction or poor decisions in regulating the media. Then we have the failure, the debacle with the last election of the REM Council members, for which no one is responsible. That election ended in a dead end, wasting our time and a great deal of energy," the interlocutor told N1.

She believes that a chain of irresponsibility is woven into the whole process and that this does not guarantee that the next one will be better.

"We receive an implicit message that everything is fine with our media, that they will continue with the same regulatory regime and that, I remind you, the last decision of that REM was the allocation of a local, or regional frequency to the Informer television station, which in no way deserves that. So, there is no discussion about that former way of working, and what the President of the Assembly did is to say that such a compromised past will continue into the future. She stated that the parliamentary majority will advocate for continuity, which is also evidenced by the selection of some of the individuals proposed as candidates this time," Professor Milivojević believes.

She also highlights the fact that the former President of REM remains in the organization as a spokesperson, meaning she is employed at REM, which indicates that continuity will be defended at all costs.

"Given this irresponsibility for the previous behavior of REM and the projection of the same kind of behavior, the chances are slim that we can expect anything from this new body. I think this time there is a firmer resolve to bring the process to completion. I have heard several announcements that REM will be elected in June, in early July. And this explanation of the process, insisting on that preliminary discrediting of any future criticism of REM, because the President of the Assembly also set the stage for it, where some dissatisfied individuals, those who are not part of them, are preparing to undermine or question the process again. It was initiated when all circumstances were prepared to bring it to an end this time. The government will not risk, I assume, another failed conclusion," the professor explained.

**Source: N1**