26. 12. 2008

ANEM AND NUNS SENT AN OPEN PUBLIC CALL FOR CLOSURE OF PIRATE STATIONS

At the joint ANEM (Association of Independent Electronic Media) and NUNS (Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia) conference held on Friday, December 26, 2008 at the Belgrade Media Center, raising the issues of the problems that pirate stations create to licensed broadcasters and the measures authorities would take against them. All the participants of the conference unanimously condemned illegal broadcasters and expressed their opinion that an efficient action of authorities was necessary in order to close pirate RTV stations.

Sasa Mirkovic, the president of the ANEM Managing Board announced, as a clear sign of support to legal broadcasters, that following the licensing process ANEM would not approve in its membership stations without legal permits. He declared that ANEM was disappointed by the fact that at the end of 2008 broadcasting piracy should still be an issue in Serbia, especially when monthly broadcasting fees paid by ANEM members and other legal broadcasters were well known. On the other hand, the same stations are unable to ensure high quality broadcasting of their programs due to the disturbances by illegal broadcasters.

Slobodan Kremenjak, the ANEM lawyer and a member of the work group for the media legislation reform, reminded the public that the illegal RTV broadcasters were causing multilateral damage. The state cannot charge legal broadcasting fees and taxes, the reputation of regulatory bodies is undermined, and legal stations have financial losses due to illegal broadcasters, who do not pay the fees for licenses, frequencies and royalties (mandatory for legal stations), thus “dumping” the prices of advertising space, which is how they destroy legal broadcasters. Still, the freedom of speech suffers the most, because high quality broadcasting is disabled. The ANEM lawyer suggests that a number of regulations of the Law on Telecommunications ought to be changed, and that RATEL (Republic Telecommunication Agency) should have greater authorities in order to close down pirate stations.

The president of NUNS, Nadezda Gace, also expressed her dissatisfaction with the presence of illegal broadcasters, stressing that pirates were profiting from those who paid the fees. The slow functioning of RRA (The Republic Broadcasting Agency) and RATEL is often taken as the message that the law does not have to be observed. Thus, it is necessary that legal broadcasters should have greater support of regulatory bodies. Also, the process of media privatization should be finalized, which would create the conditions for the loyal competition of all legal broadcasters in the market.

Slobodan Krajnovic, the editor-in-chief of radio “021” from Novi Sad (an ANEM member), stated the practical problems of local legal broadcasters. He claims that approximately 30 stations in Novi Sad function illegally, especially in the period from October to December. Many had stopped working for a while, and then, seeing that nothing was being done with the stations that had not ceased broadcasting, started working again. The income from advertising, the main financial source of private stations, are lower anyway, because companies have been reducing their marketing budgets due to the financial crisis, and additionally so, because illegal broadcasters have been offering their services at much lower, “dumped” prices. Moreover,the local municipal stations, i.e. public companies that do not operate according to market principles, cause the disloyal competition to private broadcasters. Hence, the unfinished privatization presents a great problem for the financial survival of private broadcasters.

RRA and RATEL representatives admitted that the closure of pirate stations was taking long. The reason for that are the legal procedure and various obstructions. Still, they pointed out that the closing down of pirate RTV stations would be conducted consistently and according to law!

Deputy president of the RRA Council, Goran Karadzic, announced that on Monday, December 29, 2008, the process of allocating the last local and regional licenses for broadcasting radio and TV programs would be finalized and that from then onwards piracy would not be tolerated. The Law would be consistently enforced and all the stations that broadcast their program illegally would be closed, without exceptions! He reminded the public that August 31 was the last day to tolerate unlicensed broadcasters, and that the monitoring commenced on September 1. He claimed that since then 95 broadcasters have been officially closed: 86 radio and 9 TV stations. 56 RTV stations voluntarily ceased broadcasting, although in the meantime legal proceedings were initiated, while 39 of them continued broadcasting their program. Out of those, 24 stations were closed, and 15 are still in the procedure of being closed (it is expected that the process will be finished in January 2009). As for the remaining illegal broadcasters, the data are being actively collected. In two cases, people were sued for breaking the official stamp, upon the closure of broadcasting equipment.

Dusan Jankovic, the RATEL representative, said that that regulatory body had two centers for monitoring and control in Nis and Belgrade, as well as two mobile teams which continuously monitored frequencies. Up to now, 32 locations have been covered and 250 reports issued, on the basis of which RRA measures have been suggested. RATEL’s practice shows that urban areas contain most illegal broadcasters. Jokanovic suggests that, with the aim of fighting illegal broadcasters more efficiently, we should consider adjusting the Law, which would enable regulatory bodies to confiscate equipment.

Zoran Mihajlovic, the president of the Managing Board of APRES, also stated his experience with illegal broadcasters, appealing to regulatory organs to do their job more efficiently.