Veran Matić: There has never been any genuine desire from the authorities for a functional REM Council.
The Chairman of the Board of the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), Veran Matić, stated for NIN that the association has publicly declared that it will not respond to the Public Call of the Committee for Culture and Information and will not propose a candidate for a member of the REM Council.
“We have clearly expressed our position regarding all the events related to the compromised process of electing the Council of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM). I believe that after the statements made by Assembly President Ana Brnabić and President Aleksandar Vučić, absolutely no one should have any doubts about the correctness of the decision by the four elected members to resign, as well as the civil sector's decision to no longer participate in that circus. I would particularly emphasize the President's statements regarding the alleged plan by the elected independent members to shut down TV Informer, which has not been supported by any relevant evidence to date,” states Matić.
According to him, it should also be noted the “incredible interpretations” by the authorities regarding the refusal of the parliamentary majority to elect the legally proposed candidates from the ranks of the national councils of national minorities, which was the key reason for the resignations of the independent candidates.
“Such unacceptable rhetoric from the authorities and the unpunished rampage in the programming of TV Informer clearly indicates what the daily life of the independent members of the REM Council would look like had they not resigned. This only reassures me that there has never been any real opportunity or desire from the authorities for a functional REM Council, and that their idea was to undermine everything and blame the independent proposers and candidates for it. The authorities have clearly failed in that regard, which is why we see such nonsensical statements from the highest levels and media campaigns that reveal that the main goal of the authorities was to keep everything in the electronic media the same, for Serbia to open Cluster 3 and access EU funds from the Growth Fund. And that is no longer feasible even with Brussels,” concludes Matić.
The full text can be found on the NIN website.
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