UNS presented the Agreement on Media Cooperation regarding the Acquisition of Texts.
“The Agreement on Media Cooperation regarding the acquisition of texts is a sign that there is a willingness to collaborate in this area, which is a positive step forward, as it is often overlooked that journalism is an authorship profession,” said Nino Brajović, the General Secretary of the Association of Journalists of Serbia (UNS), at today’s conference “I am a Journalist, I am an Author,” held at the UNS Press Center.
It is important, as stated, that journalists protect their moral rights and that the media protects their property rights related to authorship.
According to the Agreement drafted by UNS in collaboration with around 40 media representatives, as explained by Brajović, it is necessary to seek consent from media houses for the transfer of texts, and once consent is obtained, it is essential to cite the source and the author of the text, along with a link to the original content when transferring.
He added that consent is not required when publishing texts in the form of teasers, that is, when transferring the title and one sentence or announcement of the text, along with a link to the original portal.
This conference and the drafting of the Agreement were preceded by two meetings at UNS and one round table in Novi Pazar.
Attorney Dušan Popović noted that there are very few cases in judicial practice concerning disputes over the protection of journalists' copyright and encouraged journalists to defend their authorship in court when it comes to analytical, literary, and all other forms that require a creative journalistic stamp.
Judges, therefore, do not know how to decide whether something is a work of authorship or not if a dispute arises, as they lack previous experiences.
He stated that journalists do not have the right to authorship concerning the information itself, but that the arrangement of information and their analysis create an original work of authorship.
Besides information, a work of authorship is not a citation either, as quoting is permitted by law as prescribed.
“This means that a part of the journalistic text can be extracted, which can be used in its unchanged form, provided that the author and source of the text are indicated,” said Popović.
It is therefore important to strengthen cooperation and respect within the media community, as this can contribute to the overall quality of media content, Popović stated.
He added that this Agreement is neither a law nor a contract and that it is signed voluntarily, with the aim of encouraging examples of good practice.
Source: UNS
