The results of legal monitoring of the Serbian media scene, conducted in December 2011:

Although the Media Strategy, which should be the basis for the regulation of the media system, was finally adopted in September 2011, after two years of painstaking process of its drafting, it had not contributed to positive changes of media situation in Serbia by the end of the year. In fact, many events occurring in December indicated that the government, despite of the Media Strategy being adopted, has no real regard to it. Instead of extensively working on its implementation, the adoption of another law, the Law on Cinematography, which is in direct collision with the Strategy and the media system regulations, creates new problems and can lead to serious disorder in the functioning of the media system. In the part of the Report on the monitoring of the adoption of new laws, the monitoring team gives an expert analysis of the disputed provisions of this Law and their implications for the media sector.

Implementation of the Media Strategy was particularly analyzed in the part of the Report referring to the implementation of existing regulations. In addition to above Law on Cinematography, two more cases are treated: the information on alleged purchase of VAC's shares in dailies Politika, Vecernje novosti and Novi Sad-based Dnevnik by one private media, and proposal of national budget for 2012, which provides for direct funding of certain state-owned media in the total amount of 368 million RSD. In the opinion of the monitoring team, these cases indicate that the Strategy is not being implemented, which should be started with as soon as possible. In addition to the part of the report regarding freedom of expression, two more cases have been used to illustrate the implementation of the Public Information Law.  One of them shows that holders of public office do not comply with the provisions of this law that regulates their obligation to make information on their work available to the public under equal conditions for all journalists and all media.  The other however indicates that there are cases when the media, in their reporting, fail in applying this law. Implementation of the Broadcasting Law is analyzed through the case of the strike of journalists of TV Avala; the analysis points out the shortcomings of this law to regulate such cases.

As for the part of the Report dealing with the monitoring of work of competent authorities, we point out the analysis of work of the Commission for Copyright and Related Rights in the process of determining the tariff of SOKOJ. Through this analysis, the implementation of the Law on Copyright and Related Rights, in the part relevant to the media, is also treated.

Freedom of expression was violated in various ways in this period - either by external threats made especially to local media and their journalists or by threats and pressures on journalists inflicted by their managers. Analyzing court proceedings in this period, the authors of the Report point to shortcomings in court practice in media cases which greatly contribute to the sense of insecurity of journalists and continuation of jeopardizing their rights and freedoms.

Changes in the digitalization process have been the subject to a special analysis of the monitoring team. It treates the positive developments in this area, but also the concerning disagreement of regulators with the competent Ministry regarding the way in which this process should be led. Dealing with the issue of privatization of the media, the Report's authors point to the existing legal basis for its implementation, and also analyze the provisions of the Media Strategy related to this issue.

The Conclusion of the Report contains a professional assessment of the monitoring team on what marked the media scene in the last month of 2011.

The Twenty-ninth Monitoring Report was prepared by the expert team from the law office "Zivkovic&Samardzic" in cooperation with ANEM. You can download the report or any of its sections here.

Month: November 2011

Results of legal monitoring of the Serbian media scene:

a) Freedom of expression - Examined cases in this period, characterized by the exposure of journalists and members of their teams to threats, insults, physical attacks and pressure, indicate that many individuals and groups in Serbia still believe that they have a right to limit the information to the public about occurrences of public importance, and to limit the practical realization of the freedom of the media. Two verdicts by the Appellate Court in cases of attacks on journalists, which have resulted in the higher penalties for attackers on journalists, indicate a possible change in the Serbian court practice. As a rule, the courts used to pass verdicts at the legal minimum, and often even below it.

b) Implementation of existing laws - Cases examined in the Report show that provisions of the Law on Public Information are being violated in practice, not only in the previously described manner, but also due to the fact that sometimes journalists/the media do not know how to properly exercise their rights and freedoms. On the occasion of the adoption of the Media Strategy for the Media in Hungarian Language by the National Council of Hungarians, the authors of the Report have analyzed the results of the last year implementation of the provisions of the Law that are relevant to the media.

c) Monitoring of adoption of new laws - The authors of the Report again point out that the amendments to the Law on Copyright and Related Rights, which have been waiting for adoption by the Parliament for several months, are in some segments relevant to the media.

d) Monitoring of activities of the authorities - The Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA) is preparing to begin monitoring the broadcasters during the election campaign and in relation to reporting on the elections; the Agency has also reacted to the Report on pressure and control over the media in Serbia prepared by the Anti-Corruption Council. The Republic Agency for Telecommunication (RATEL) was active in preparations for test broadcasting of digital television program. However, the Agency was also engaged in unprincipled attempts to find a solution for the debt for usage of radio frequencies incurred by Radio-Television Serbia (RTS). The Ministry of Culture, Media and Information Society has launched public contests for co-financing of projects in the area of public information, while the Committee for Protection of Competition performed additional control in a case of allocation of state aid to the media in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, which could serve as an example for future allocations of state budget funds to the media.

e) Digitalization and privatization - Expert analysis of the monitoring team examines all the changes in the transition to digital broadcasting of TV program as compared to the Digitalization Strategy, and points out the things that will not change for the better in the process of privatization because of bad solutions adopted by the Media Strategy.

f) Conclusion of the Report - Attacks and pressures on journalists and the media, on the one hand, and the possible change in the court practice in cases of attacks on the media, on the other hand, were the most important events in the media scene of Serbia in November 2011, in the opinion of the monitoring team.

The 28^th Monitoring Report was prepared by the expert team from the law office "Zivkovic&Samardzic" in cooperation with ANEM. You can download the report or any of its sections here.

The twenty-seventh Monitoring Report contains the results of the legal monitoring of the media scene in Serbia in October 2011.

According to the findings and assessment of the monitoring team, the most important event in the media sector is the adoption of the Media Strategy after two years of work on this document. As it was officially published in October, the authors analyze its solutions in the Report, while suggesting possible problems in its implementation and their causes in the Conclusion.

The fact that the Media Strategy was adopted did not have an effect to the improvement of the media situation in Serbia. Its implementation is still pending, whereas long-standing problems in the media sector were still present in this period.

Physical attacks on journalists, threats and a request for disclosure of sources of information, stoning of media premises and destroying of vehicles, indictment without investigation, endless court proceedings in cases in which journalists were exposed to attacks - these were just some of the examples of violation of freedom of expression, dealt by the authors of the Report. According to the monitoring team, some of these cases are just the evidence that pressures on the media and attempts of their execution are increasingly stronger in anticipation of calling the parliamentary and local elections, while some again point to a serious problem that the media and journalists have with the court practice in the media cases.

Cases of violation of freedom of expression analyzed in this Report, as in all previous ones, show that, there is a significant problem with the implementation of the Public Information Law, not because of its ill solutions, rather due of a lack of will of the competent authorities to implement it consistently. Not even the Broadcasting Law has been implemented in part related to the financing of public service from TV fees. To what extent the solutions provided in the Media Strategy, related to this question in particular, symbolize an improvement compared to the current situation and what is good in this document that relates to the financing of public services - can be found in the Report, in the part dealing with the monitoring of implementation of existing laws. Broadcasting Law and its implementation was also analyzed by the expert team in some other cases - broadcasting "piracy" and political advertising in the media. The authors dealt with the implementation of the Law on National Councils of National Minorities too, which again demonstrated its shortcomings in practice, particularly in those provisions relevant to the media.

In this period, there were no new laws of importance to the media.

Activities of the relevant regulatory bodies in the broadcasting sector in this period have not significantly affected the improvement of the media situation, while the Press Council, a self-regulatory body of the print media, has shown concrete results in its work - the first two decisions of the Appeal Commission brought in cases of appeals made to the work of certain media. The achievement of the desired goal - to reduce the number of lawsuits against print media and their journalists - will depend on the way in which the decisions of the Commission will be treated by the courts in their proceedings, the authors suggest. In the part of the Report dealing with monitoring of the work of competent authorities, particularly interesting is the analysis of the rules on state aid control, which are very important to the media sector and whose application has been proclaimed by the Media Strategy, but which no one in the competent ministry has even started to deal with.

The process of digitalization - This part of the Report provides information about the changes that are now more likely to happen and what are the reasons for that.

The privatization process - Monitoring the situation and analyzing ill-effects of the latest developments in the "Novosti" case, the monitoring team indicates the fact that the state will continue to not only participate in the ownership of media, but practically manage the media company, contrary to the imperative provision of the Public Information Law, which casts a shadow on the sincerity and commitment of the Strategy's preference regarding the withdrawal of the state from the media.

The Twenty-seventh Monitoring Report was prepared by the expert team of the law office "Zivkovic&Samardzic", in cooperation with ANEM. Here you can download the Report in whole or in part, by clicking on the selected section below.

Aiming to present its printed edition of ANEM Fifth Publication "Legal Monitoring of the Media Scene in Serbia", on November 28, 2011, ANEM organized a round table in the Belgrade Media Centre, where various issues that had markied the Serbian media scene in 2011 were also discussed. In addition to the authors of the texts in the Publication, the round table was attended by the representatives of the Ministry of Culture, Media and Information Society, relevant state bodies and institutions (Ombudsman, Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, Intellectual Property Office, the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia - its Culture and Information Committee), regulators (RATEL), media associations (ANEM, NUNS, UNS), news agencies (Beta, FoNet, Tanjug), NGOs (BIRN, Belgrade Centre for Human Rights, Helsinki Committee for Human Rights), academia (University of Political Sciences), media, international organizations and donor community (IREX, ​​the Netherlands' Embassy, the Fund for an Open Society), and other interested parties.

In the first part of the event, the Publication was presented by the authors of texts on topics that had marked the media sector in 2011, which sparked a discussion that took place after the presentation.

You can see the V Monitoring Publication here.

What characterized the Serbian media scene in September 2011, what was good or bad, whether and how the media situation differed in that period from that in August 2011? Answers to these questions are provided by the monitoring team in its Twenty-sixth Monitoring Report for September 2011.

According to the findings of the monitoring team, in the field of freedom of expression, the situation has not been changed from the one in August. Journalists (and often cameramen with them) were the targets of threats, pressures and physical attacks, so the authors of the Report dealt with cases for each of these types of violations of freedom of expression, indicating that this practice had continued, primarily due to the absence or inadequate reactions of the competent authorities. Examples of practice of the courts in media cases show that there has been no improvements either in this field. The practice of sentencing perpetrators of attacks on journalists, on the very limit of the legal minimum, or even below it, has continued, as well as endless proceedings that make the point of penalties senseless, questionable judgments that limit the rights or impose obligations to media and journalists greater than the law provides, while the processing of cases relating to responsibility for the content on social media are more and more frequent.

By delving deeper into the implementation of the Public Information Law, in the part of the Report relating to the monitoring of the implementation of laws, the authors point to the risky practice that legal obligation of institutions' openness to the public are observed and complied with depending on the individual interests of politicians in these institutions, rather than in the interest of the public. Following the implementationof the Broadcasting Law and Law on Electronic Communications, the authors analyze the problem of radio and TV program broadcasting without a license and a large number of illegal broadcasters, for which the authorities have not yet found an adequate answer, and which significantly makes the position of broadcastes with licenses difficult. Another case in the last few months, namely the dismissal of managers in the Hungarian media founded or co-founded by the Hungarian National Council, has served the authors of the Report to analyze not only the implementation of the Law on National Councils of National Minorities in the media field, but also the consequences of lacking legal mechanisms for protection of management and the staff of such media from the influence of their (co)founders on their editorial policy.

In September 2011, two new laws were adopted, which are not media law, but with implications for the media sector - the new Civil Procedure Law and Criminal Procedure Code, which will be enforced in 2012 and 2013 respectively, and according to which legal proceedings relating to the protection of the rights to freedom of expression will be conducted. The long-awaited Media strategy was finally adopted at the telephone session of the Serbian Government, on September 28, 2011.

Part of the Report relating to the monitoring of the work of competent authorities reveals the following: the problems of independent regulatory body - RRA - that have derived from misunderstanding that certain politicians and political parties have about its independence, but also from their ambitions to take positions in this regulatory body; the other independent regulatory body in the media field - RATEL, has submitted its annual activity report to the Parliament, and the monitoring team analyzes to what extent has the report met the expectations regarding to information that it should have contained; the work of the Commission for Complaints of the Press Council, the first independent self-regulatory body for print media in Serbia; the adoption of the Serbian Media Strategy and the occurrences in September 2011 that preceded its adoption; the Report of the Anti-Corruption Council on pressures and control over the media in Serbia, presented to public in late September.

Process of digitalization - Agency for Electronic Media and Electronic Communications and Postal Activity Agency of Montenegro organized the first technical meeting and the meeting of the Executive Board of the SEE Digi.TV Project, on September 27 and 28 in Budva, in which the RBA was involved as Serbia's representative. Find out in this Report to what extent this regional Project is important for Serbia and whether the engagement of only RBA is sufficient in order to achieve project goals. The process of privatization - authors treat several cases that point to ill-effects of hitherto lack of clear strategy of the state to solve the problem of media privatization.

In the Conclusion of the Report, the monitoring team assesses the main occurrences that have marked the media situation in Serbia in September 2011 and gives recommendation to media associations for future activities.

The Twenty-sixth Monitoring Report is created by the expert team of the law office "Zivkovic&Samardzic" in cooperation with ANEM, and it can be downloaded here, in whole or in parts, by clicking on the selected section below.

According to the findings of the legal monitoring team, the media scene in Serbia in August 2011 was marked by the media community's anticipation of adoption of the Media Strategy by the Government. However, the fact that the opinions of the government and those of the media and journalists' associations are divided even regarding the basic issues to that end, such as the state withdrawal from the media ownership as well as the resources of Serbia as a state to fund six new public service broadcasting, does not seem very promising.

Even in this period, journalists and media were not protected against various attacks, threats and pressures, while the practice of courts was also adversely affecting their position and work. Several selected examples of attacks and pressures on journalists and the media show again that preventive legal provisions prohibiting that, do not seem to have discouraged the perpetrators of these attacks, because they have not been accompanied by adequate penal policy in such cases, both in legislation and in judicial practice. All the more frequent is the situation where the practice of courts in media cases actually has a discouraging effect on journalists and media, demotivating them to practice investigative reporting. Of all analyzed cases, we draw attention to two judgments of the Appellate Court that raise doubts regarding their compliance with European standards, especially with the case-law of the European Court for Human Rights in the application of Article 10 of the European Convention, due to the restrictive interpretation of certain provisions of the Public Information Law.

In the part of the Report relating to the monitoring of the implementation of laws, the authors analyze the implementation of the Broadcasting Law - the mechanisms of the existing regulations for preventing media owners to abuse frequencies for their private matters; the issue of media concentration and vertical integration in the media sector. Dealing with the implementation of the Law on Electronic Communications, the authors draw attention to a new potential problem of the media sector, which would occur with adoption of the Draft Rule Book, in the existing text, on Technical Requirements governing the procedure of legal interception and withholding of data on electronic communications, as its provisions go beyond the scope prescribed by this Law and may threaten, among other things, the right to the protection of journalists' sources.

Although in August 2011 there was no adoption of any new legislation of interest to the media, the Government had proposed amendments to the Law on Copyright and Related Rights - the monitoring team analyzed them, particularly those that might have an impact on the media sector.

In the part of the Report relating to the monitoring of work of regulatory bodies, state authorities and collective organizations for protection of copyright and related rights, the authors pay particular attention to the final phase of adoption of the Media Strategy and more obvious lack of consensus between the media community and the government regarding the document's fundamental principles and solutions. Using the case of a broadcaster that has lost broadcasting license for not paying fees to the RBA, the monitoring team also deals with the issue of the said fee. In addition, the Report analyzes yet another fee, namely the base according to which the collective organizations are charging fees from users for the account of copyright holders.

The processes of digitalization and privatization: As for the digitalization, the authors deal with the announced modifications in the implementation process of the digital television transition, while in the area of privatization, they give a brief analysis of the hitherto privatization of media, state funding of the media and the method of allocation of these funds.

The Twenty-Fifth Monitoring Report was produced by the expert team of the law office "Zivkovic&Samardzic", in cooperation with ANEM. You can download the Report, in whole or in part, by clicking on the selected section below.

The fifth issue of ANEM Publication "Legal monitoring of the Serbian media scene" deals with media issues important to the media and journalists' situation.

The Publication contains:

Introduction (with summarized results of legal monitoring of the Serbian media scene in January-September 2011 and a short review of the Publication's contents),

4 expert authors' texts:

• Application of the European Court of Human Rights case-law before the Serbian courts - author: Slobodan Kremenjak, attorney at law (the author writes about the obligation of Serbian courts to apply the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights, the reasons for its non-application and importance of this case - law for the proper settlement of disputes in cases relating to the freedom of expression)

• Decriminalization of defamation and insult - author: Kruna Savovic, attorney at law (the author analyzes the extent to which the announced decriminalization of defamation and insult would actually contribute to the improvement of the position of media and journalists, as well as what else is needed so that these amendments to the Criminal Code take real effect in respect of exercising freedom of expression.)

• Challenges of the Digitalization Process - authors: Milena Jocic and Milos Stojkovic, advisors in the Ministry of Culture, Media and Information Society (the authors deal with the important transition process - digital TV transition, challenges in this process and announced modifications in its implementation giving answers to some of questions and concerns that have appeared in public in this regard)

• Some Controversies and Dilemmas in the Adoption of the Serbian Media Strategy - author: Doc Dejan Milenkovic, PhD (this text refers to the most important document of the media sector, the Media Strategy, which, apparently, will not symbolize the consensus of the media sector and the government, but the basis for new distrust and a source of new problematic solutions that will not contribute to the development of the media sector)

and the fifth text, the special addition:

• The European Court of Human Rights, case-law (excerpts from the Information Notes of the European Court of Human Rights, available on the website of the Court) - a brief overview of two judgments of this Court concerning the application of Article 10 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms: the first refers to the case of publishing the interview verbatim without prior authorization of the interviewee - the court found that the criminal sanctions imposed on the editor of this newspaper, based only on the fact that the article was published without authorization, without considering the truthfulness of the content of the published text and taking into account the attention that was being paid to providing the accuracy that was not called into question, were disproportionate and therefore presented the violation of Article 10 of the European Convention - the right to freedom of expression; the Court ruled that the applicant - the editor needed to be paid the appropriate amount of damages; the second refers to the case of civil liability of a newspaper for defamation made in reporting on court proceedings, namely the paper's committing to pay damages for publishing false information that were likely to harm the honor and reputation of others - the Court said that, in this case, the interference with the applicant's right to freedom of expression had not been necessary in a democratic society for the protection of the reputation of others, given that the said paper had taken all reasonable steps to verify the accuracy of reports on judicial proceedings, and that the journalist - a court reporter, was at all times acting in good faith and in accordance with her duty of responsible reporting, including publication of an apology; noting that in this case there had been a violation of Article 10 of the European Convention - the right to freedom of expression, the Court awarded the applicants with the appropriate amount of damages.

The results of the legal monitoring of the Serbian media scene in the first nine months of 2011 were used in selection of topics for this Publication. According to the findings of the monitoring team, the media in Serbia are still burdened with long-present and well-known problems, which did not see their solutions even in this period. Some of them are the following: case law in media cases, which generally negatively affects the position and rights of media and journalists; the impact of non-media laws on media and journalists in Serbia, which often positively or negatively, but surely significantly change conditions and environment for their work and functioning; the marginalization of important transition processes, the government's delaying the implementation of their legal obligations or their complete disregard of these obligations, with serious consequences for the media sector; lack of responsible public policy in the media sphere and inadequate media regulatory framework, missing the essential strategic document. Texts in this Publication are treating these important media issues.

This Publication was completed two days prior to the telephone session of the Serbian Government, at which the Media Strategy was adopted.

The expert legal team, on the basis of the July 2011 monitoring, has assessed two occurrences on the Serbian media scene in that period, regarding the media regulatory framework, especially worrying: one is related to the proposed text of the Draft Rulebook on Technical Requirements for Equipment and Program Support for Lawful Interception of Electronic Communications and Electronic Communications Data Retention, which could potentially violate fundamental human rights and also the right to the protection of journalists' sources; the other one, concerning the Media Strategy, namely the fact that, despite the  adopted Draft Strategy and the public debate on it, the media public is still not familiar with authentic intentions and plans of the Ministry in media sphere nor it is known what the final text of the Media Strategy would be, namely the text the future of the media sector depends on.

In the area of freedom of expression, according to the results of the monitoring, this period was marked by political pressures in the form of announced violation of independent position of institutions of public service broadcasting, worrying physical assaults on journalists during the riots in the northern Kosovo as well as hackers attacking on media websites in ethnically diverse communities or websites providing the content that attempts to overcome traditional divisions and ethnic intolerance in the Balkans. The Report analyzes the cases indicating these violations of freedom of expression and media freedom. In the part in which the Report deals with the monitoring of legal proceedings, along with the examples of old practices of ignoring assaults on journalists or disputable verdicts in cases when charges are pressed against journalists, the monitoring team notices a positive example of revoking a verdict, namely one of those that certainly contributed to the rise of self-censorship in the Serbian media, as a possible step forward of the Serbian Justice in terms of reaching desired standard under which politicians would not be protected from critical texts more than ordinary citizens.

In the part of the Report related to the monitoring of the implementation of laws, dealing with the Broadcasting Law and the Law on Electronic Communications enforcement, the authors analyze the problem of cable operators' discriminatory treatment of domestic TV channels, which are increasingly excluded from the cable offer, and in relation to that, RATEL Decision that provides for prior regulation of the retail market of the media content distribution. Furthermore, they analyze the announced passage of RATEL decision on introducing regulatory obligations to operators with major market strength. Estimating that these obligations would not solve the current problem of discrimination of certain media whose programs are excluded from the cable offer, the authors point out the way for its efficient solving which is foreseen by the Law on Electronic Communications. Dealing with the implementation of the Law on Electronic Communications further, the Report analyzes the Draft Rulebook on Technical Requirements and points out its problematic provisions and possible serious consequences of its adoption on fundamental human rights and media freedom.

Although no new law of relevance for the media was passed in July 2011, decriminalization of libel and slander through amendments to the Criminal code was announced. Authors analyze whether this would contribute to a genuine improvement of the position of the media and journalists or some additional changes in the area of civil responsibility for damage are needed, especially in the courts practice in civil litigation proceedings over publicly made statements.

In the part of the Report related to the Monitoring of the work of competent authorities you can read about the RBA decision to suspend the proceeding for revoking the license of Televizija Prva over the statements made in the talk show „Evening with Ivan Ivanovic" as well as on the epilogue of its prior decision to file a misdemeanor charge against Pink Televison in relation to the reality show "Moment of Truth" aired back in October 2009. The authors especially deal with the activities of the Ministry of Culture, Media and Information Society related to the adoption of the Media Strategy, analyzing what the Ministry's distance from the Draft Strategy could mean for the media sector as well as its avoiding to clearly define its position and stands toward the desired version of the final text of the Media Strategy. The Report also deals with the debate between the Organization of Phonogram Producers of Serbia (OFPS) and the Employers' Union of Serbia on the question if there is a legal basis for avoiding the obligation for paying fees to collective organizations by concluding individual contracts with representatives of rights holders.

Processes of digitalization and privatization - The Report analyzes the announcements of putting a test network for the broadcasting of digital signal into operation, change of date for the complete digital switchover and accompanying changes of the Digitalization Strategy, which all could substantially influence the whole digitalization process and televisions in Serbia. The Report again deals with the official statistics of the hitherto media privatization, indicating an absence of a serious analysis that would recognize the reasons that have led to the failure of a number of privatizations, as well as the development of the occurrences in the case of the privatization of „Novosti".

The Twenty-fourth Monitoring Report was prepared by the expert team of the Law office "Zivkovic&Samardzic", in cooperation with ANEM. It can be downloaded here, in whole or in part, by clicking on the selected section below.

According to the assessment of the monitoring team, the events on the media scene in June 2011 have reflected well known and long-standing problems of the sector and the ill-effects of unsuccessful public media policy in Serbia, which the government has shown no intention to change.

In the area of ​​freedom of expression, this period was, according to monitoring results, marked by political pressures on the media and their editorial policies, while the dismissals of chief editors of two newspapers, "Alo!" and "Magyar Szó", illustrate the intensity of political pressure on the media in Serbia and problems in implementation of the Public Information Law, which prohibits such pressure. As for the court decisions, the monitoring team has singled out two - one that points to the necessity of greater responsibility of the media for publishing content on their Internet portals, including readers' comments, which should correspond to the level of their journalists' responsibility for the content they deliver, and another, showing unchanged court practice in cases of attacks on journalists, particularly the unwillingness of the court to fully shed light on all relevant facts and investigate the background of the attack.

In the part of the Report relating to the monitoring of the implementation of laws, while dealing with application of the Law on Local Self-Government, the authors have analyzed the Recommendations regarding the allocation of budget funds intended for the system of public information, forwarded to local self-governments by the relevant ministries. According to the monitoring team, the Recommendations have not met expectations and the task to bring order into this area. You can find out why in the Report. Also in this part of the Report, the monitoring team indicates the assessment of the Commissioner for Free Access to Information of Public Importance that there are serious communication problems between authorities and citizens, as evidenced by a worrying increase in the number of complaints filed due to withholding of information on various forms of use of public money and public goods.

In June 2011, no new legislation of interest to the media was adopted.

Public debate on the Draft Media Strategy, done by a working group of the Ministry of Culture, Media and Information Society, had lasted from June 8 to July 15. As this document is deemed essential for the further development of the media sector, the authors of the Report analyzed the solutions proposed in the Draft. The team also provided opinion on the remarks heard during the public debate, pointing to a sober fear of jeopardizing the adoption of the Media Strategy, or at least hampering the possible changes stemming from its adoption. In the part of the Report concerning the monitoring of work of regulatory bodies, competent authorities and collective organizations for copyright and related rights, you can read about the issues being discussed and decided on at the three June sittings of the RBA Council, as well as about the progress in the process of determining tariffs of collective organizations, OFPS and SOKOJ, a very important issue for all broadcasters in Serbia.

The processes of digitalization and privatization - the Report notes as upsetting the fact that there have been no activities regarding digitalization recorded in this period, given the deadline for the transition to digital broadcasting of television programs. As for the privatization of the media, the monitoring team analyzed the case of privatization of "Novosti" and elements from the Report of the Anti-corruption Council on the privatization of this newspaper publishing company, sent to the Government, which compel the necessity to thoroughly investigate this case. Here you can read the opinion of the monitoring team on why the insisting of the Draft Media Strategy on finalization of the process of privatization and withdrawal of the state from media ownership had caused stern reactions of some local self-governments, political parties, national minority councils and media funded from municipal budgets.

Summarizing its findings in the Conclusion of this Report, the monitoring team reflects on recent research results of the Belgrade Faculty of Political Sciences, "Profession at the crossroads: journalism at the treshold of the information society" and gives arguments for its opinion that there has been no progress in the media sector Serbia in this period as well.

The Twenty-third Monitoring Report was prepared by the expert team from the Law office "Zivkovic&Samardzic", in cooperation with ANEM. It can be downloaded here, in whole or in part, by clicking on the selected section below.

The authors of the Twenty-second Monitoring Report, for May 2011, estimate that most of the problems the media scene in Serbia has faced for years have continued in this month as well.

In the area of ​​freedom of expression, the results of monitoring show that threats and attacks on journalists and media in this period were a common method of exerting pressure on them and the factor that significantly obstructed their work, while the provisions of the Public Information Law, which prohibited that, were clearly ineffective in practice. Besides, continued mild penal policies and the current practice of the courts in these cases did not seem to discourage attackers, so such attacks were becoming even more frequent. Arguments for this opinion could be found in the cases treated in this part of the Report.

In May 2011, the Constitutional Court brought a decision proclaiming the provisions of the Law Amending the Public Information Law from 2009, relating to the keeping of the Media Register and powers of the minister responsible for public information in this area, to be incompatible with the Constitution. With this decision, almost all provisions of this Law have been declared unconstitutional. The monitoring team is treating this decision in the part of the Report relating to the implementation of existing laws. In the same part, the team also analyzes the application of the Broadcasting Law, namely provisions relating to the election of members to the RBA Council, indicating that their non-compliance in practice challenges the functioning of regulatory bodies. The Commissioner Sabic and application of the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance have also found their important place in this part of the Report.

During May 2011, no new laws important for the media were brought.

As the authors of the Report say, political will to change the current situation is limited at the moment to the bringing of the Media Strategy, whose Draft was due to be written by the working group, formed under the Protocol on Cooperation between the Ministry of Culture, Media and Information Society and six media associations, as well as to be proposed to the Ministry by June 1. Except this step in a positive direction, the activities of the competent authorities have not contributed substantially to improving of the situation of media. Of particular concern is the slow work of the Commission for Copyright and Related Rights, which has resulted in the fact that media, even after a year and a half since the adoption of a new law, are paying to the collective organizations the fee for the use of subjects of their protection under the old tariffs. However, RATEL may help to solve another problem that media face: the problem with the cable operator SBB, which offers the same media content distribution services to a various media under different conditions. More details about this can be read in this part of the Report.

The processes of digitalization and privatization - in the opinion of the authors of this Report, it is almost certain at this point that Serbia will not entirely switch to digital terrestrial broadcasting of TV programs by April 4, 2012, despite the claims of the competent ministry that it would occur, with great support from the EU. As for the privatization of media, there is no announcement or any other activity that would indicate that competent authorities are willing to seriously and systemically commit to this issue. The media remain divided over whether the privatization, or on the contrary, incomplete privatization, is the cause of their many problems. The monitoring team provides its opinion on this issue in this part of the Report.

In Conclusion, the authors of this report elaborate on why there is still no progress in the Serbian media sector.

The Twenty-second Monitoring Report can be downloaded here, in whole or in part, by clicking on the selected section below. It was produced, like before, by the expert team of the law office "Zivkovic & Samardzic", in cooperation with ANEM.

According to the findings of the monitoring team, summarized in the Conclusion of their Twenty-first Report, in April 2011 the media scene in Serbia was predominantly marked with the signing of the Protocol of the cooperation between the Ministry of Culture, Information and Information Society and the major media organizations in drafting of the Media Strategy, as well as the appointment of the State Secretary for Information and Media at the Ministry. The continuation of work on the Media Strategy, the Ministry's agreeing to an absolute majority of experts, nominated by associations in the working group, as well as the appointment of an official of ranking higher than ever before to deal with the media, could be seen as announcement of positive changes in the media sector.

The Report, however, further shows that, apart from the above, there have been no other significant positive developments for the media scene in Serbia in April 2011.

There were no adoptions of laws relevant to the media in this period, although it is long obvious that the existing media regulatory framework is not good. This could unfortunately be good news as well, given the previous bad experiences of the media with adoption of extremely rigid and unfavorable legislations.

Monitoring of freedom of expression shows that pressure, threats and attacks on journalists and media still exist. There is also evident obstruction in identifying those who threaten journalists and attack them, as well as in determining their liability, as visible in the cases treated in this part of the Report. The authors also point to an absence of logic in penal policy in Serbia, both in legislation and in court practice, which directly affect the position of the media and journalists.

In the part of monitoring of implementation of existing laws, the authors for this Report single out the cases that show that the mere existence of the relevant laws is just not enough; whether and how they are applied is as equally important for the media in Serbia (charge of radio subscription fee for radio sets in vehicles - the Broadcasting Law; Law on Local Self-Government - using the example of Loznica, the authors emphasize the extent to which the issue of fulfilling legal obligation of local self-governments to take care and provide conditions for public information of local importance is essential for the local media).

In the part of the Report dealing with the monitoring of the work of competent authorities, the authors have treated: RBA activities related to the public service broadcasting  - the election of members of managing boards of RTS and RTV and review of the annual report for 2010 on meeting legal and programmatic obligations of RTS; RATEL activities - the analysis of nine markets proposed for the prior regulation - media content distribution market was one of them and the analysis showed that real competition was non-existent in that market, to the detriment of end users; the activities of the Serbian Parliament's Culture and Information Committee, important for the media; activities of the competent ministry for the media, which can significantly affect their position, which also applies to the activities of OFPS.

The processes of digitalization and privatization - the date set for the transition to digital broadcasting of TV programs is approaching, so the monitoring team has focused on the preparatory activities and pledges coming from the competent bodies that Serbia would meet the deadlines for digitalization in chorus with the EU and countries in the region. Privatization of media is still the subject only of the media reporting but not of the specific decisions coming from competent authorities that would lead to a responsible public policy in this field, thus causing the entire media sector to suffer the consequences.

The Twenty-first Monitoring Report was prepared by the expert team from the Law office "Zivkovic&Samardzic", in cooperation with ANEM. It can be downloaded here, in whole or in part, by clicking on the selected section below.

According to the monitoring team, in March 2011, the media scene in Serbia was not essentially much different from the previous period (January-February 2011), treated in the last report.

Here follows the brief summary of the twentieth Monitoring Report of the monitoring team:

a) Freedom of expression - In this period, public officials, but also political parties and right-wing organizations, each in its own way, affected the work of the media and journalists with pressures or threats, limiting or preventing them to freely do their job - B92 was the subject of boycott by one party, the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), as well as the protest of right-wing organization "Nasi 1389", while in the Kula, journalists and media, except  the journalists of two media, were once again unable to attend the municipal assembly session due to the unchanged municipal Rule Book. Court proceedings and decisions in this period have significantly affected or could potentially affect the exercise of freedom of expression, both negatively and positively, and the authors of the Report dealt specifically with the possible consequences of: criminal verdict against the daily "Cacanske novine" that had published the satire and critical editorial piece, in which the president of one political party recognized himself; another court proceeding initiated by the new lawsuit of the film director Emir Kusturica against Petar Lukovic for an article published on Lukovic internet portal "E - novine"; and the first instance verdict of the Primary Court in Sabac, in case of threats against personal safety to journalist Aleksandra Delic, which is still a rarity in our court practice;

b) Implementation of existing laws - the authors analyze the implementation of the Public Information Law through the case of Radisav Rodic; the Broadcasting Law through the new RBA Binding Instruction on the conduct of broadcasters regarding reality shows, and the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance and the Law on Personal Data Protection, through the Commissioner's reports on implementation of these two laws;

c) During this period, two laws of relevance for the media sector were adopted, namely - the Law on amendments to the Law on Ministries and the Law on the Amendments to the Law on the Government. In this Report, you can find out why and how they affect the media and the entire media sector, although they are not media laws;

d) Analyzing the work of competent authorities, the monitoring team dealt with the work of regulatory bodies, state authorities and collective organizations for the protection of copyright and related rights. We present you yet another RBA Binding instruction- on the conduct of broadcasters related to programming content that may harm the physical, mental and moral development of minors; tender and individual negotiations of the National Assembly with TV stations with national coverage about the live broadcasts of parliamentary sessions; statements of the new Minister of Culture, information and the information society on Media Strategy; commercial offence proceedings against the broadcasters because of their' failure to deliver lists of broadcast phonograms to OFPS.

e) Significant delays in implementing the Action Plan of the Strategy for the digital transition, as well as the complete absence of any activity of the Government to complete the privatization of the media, have resulted in both processes waiting for its resolution in the Media Strategy. In this Report, you can also read about the row between the VAC media group, the Government of Vojvodina and the management of "Dnevnik Holding", which suggested the necessity to systemically address the issue of state ownership in the media.

f) The Conclusion of the Report contains the monitoring team's assessment of the Serbian media situation in March 2011.

The Twentieth Monitoring Report was created by the expert team of the law office "Zivkovic&Samardzic", in cooperation with ANEM. You can download it here, in whole or in part, by clicking on the selected section below.

According to the findings of the monitoring team, presented in the Nineteenth Monitoring Report for the period January-February 2011, the first in this year, the media scene in Serbia is still in the status quo, characterized by the absence of positive change and the accumulation of unresolved problems, which the government still shows no apparent willingness to deal with. This is indicated by the following:

a) Various attacks and pressures on the media and journalists, as well as other forms of influence that had hampered them in their work, were evident during this period. This can be seen in cases treated in the part of the Report that deals with freedom of expression - physical attacks on journalists and cameramen of local and French televisions in the first instance sentence pronouncement for murder of French citizen Brice Taton; posters and obituaries for TV B92, plastered all across the town of Lazarevac on the occasion of airing of the new series cycle of the investigative program " Insider" that dealt with abuses in the mining basin "Kolubara"; aggressive exclusion of journalists from the Kula Municipality Town Hall for allegedly non-possessing valid accreditations to report from the parliamentary session. The authors of the Report also dealt with the return of hate speech in media, through the case of the representative of the civil society Aida Corovic, who was, because of her article published in "Danas" exposed in the said daily to one of the most dishonorable personal attacks known to the Serbian media scene in recent times, which, at the same time, is symbolizing a very drastic example of violation of freedom of expression. The epilogue of such events on the media scene is the increasing number of journalists and editors, but also representatives of the civil society, who have been placed under permanent police protection. Examples of court proceedings and decisions made in media cases treated in this Report are not encouraging at all. On the contrary, in the opinion of the monitoring team, they are only contributing to the increased personal, legal and economic insequrity of journalists and the media, their self-censorship and the preservation of unfavorable conditions for their work and achievement of their guaranteed freedom;

b) The part of the Report dealing with the implementation of existing laws, the authors further treat the Public Information Law, regarding the statement of the Serbian Public Prosecutor on the re-opening of the investigation into murder of journalist Dada Vujasinovic; the Broadcasting Law, analyzing the work of the RBA and the exercise of its legal powers, both supervisory and regulatory and regarding the escalation of verbal and physical violence in the reality shows, broadcast on two national televisions. The Report is also dealing with the competence of the Managing Boards of the Public Service Broadcasting Institutions (RTS and RTV), whose members are appointed by the RBA, in accordance with the above Law; the Law on Local Self-Government, through the analysis of the recommendations of media associations for financing of local media from the budget of local self-governments, as a possible way to overcome the problems in this area in accordance with existing regulations;

c) In this period, no new laws of importance for the media sector have been adopted;

d) The monitoring team was dealing with the work of competent authorities, namely the work of regulatory bodies RBA and RATEL, as well as with the ill-effects of calling the new competition for issuing licenses for radio/TV programs; the work of the National Parliament, which has called a competition for issuing the rights for live coverage of parliamentary sessions; the work of the Ministry of Culture and its activities pertaining to the media - competitions for co-financing of programs in the field of public information and Media Strategy development; the work of collective organizations for protection of copyright and related rights and consequences that the media suffer due to the lack of order in this area. During this period, none of these bodies/organizations have contributed in any way to the improvement of media situation or to resolving of problems in the media sector;

e) The process of digitalization is still not in the authorities' center of attention to the extent that it should be. All preparatory activities are delayed; however, in this period, although with at least 9 months of delay, the Rule Book on switchover from analogue to digital broadcasting of radio and TV programs and access to multiplex has been adopted, which has not fully met its task though. Analyzing its content, the authors of this Report have also pointed to the shortcomings of this document, as well as to the ways in which they could be overcome. In the area of ​​privatization of the media, no process has been recorded even in this period. By analyzing the case of Radio Sombor, which had been, after the cancellation of its privatization, run by the government for three years via a representative of the state capital, the authors of the Report indicate the absence of any concept and plan of action of the state in the media sector, particularly in relation to sustainable models of the state's withdrawal from the media ownership;

f) According to the opinion of the monitoring team, in the Conclusion of the Report, the beginning of 2011 was marked with the return of the hate speech in the Serbian media scene and the unwillingness of the authorities to, in cooperation with the media sector, create more favorable conditions and environment for the work of media, which only contributes to further deterioration of the Serbian media scene. 

The Nineteenth Monitoring Report was created by the expert team of the law office "Zivkovic&Samardzic", in cooperation with ANEM. You can download it here, in whole or in part, by clicking on the selected section below.

The Eighteenth Monitoring Report of the expert team shows that neither in December 2010 the Serbian media scene had seen much-needed change and progress. Here's why:

a) The Report shows that conditions for the unhindered operation of journalists in Serbia are still not secured, as visible in analyzed cases of violation of freedom of expression by physical attacks and threats against journalists, to which the authorities still fail to adequately respond. Also, inconsistent stands and court practices with regard to compensation for non-pecuniary damages by the media and journalists discourage investigative reporting, affect the further strengthening of self-censorship and cause additional anxiety of media professionals. The motion against the NUNS' Commissioner for Pcinja district by the director of TV Vranje, demonstrates the extent to which local public media suffer damage due to the political influence on media work.

b) The monitoring team also analyzes the implementation of existing laws: a) what has been assessed as unconstitutional and what not in the Law Amending the Law on Public Information, by the decision of the Constitutional Court from July 22, which was finally published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, as well as what are the legal consequences of this decision b) how has the Broadcasting Law been applied, through the case of calling yet another public tender by the RBA Council for issuing broadcasting licenses, as well as through announced coordinated action of the competent regulatory bodies and state authorities and a new model of combating illegal broadcast of radio and TV programs c) Law on Copyright and Related Rights - almost a year days after adoption of this law, the Serbian Government has finally appointed members of the Commission for Copyright and Related Rights, which created conditions for the final determination of tariff, after unsuccessful negotiations between collective societies and representative associations of users.

c) In this period, there has been no adoption of new laws important for the media sector.

d) Monitoring of the work of authorities has observed the activities of competent authorities, regulatory bodies and collective organizations for the protection of copyright and related rights. During this period, the RBA has adopted a List of events of national interest for the citizens of Serbia for 2011, while RATEL presented the feasibility study and preliminary plan of radio coverage with digital TV signal on the territory of Serbia, which provides an assessment of the high profitability and low risk of this project, but with insufficient data to justify that assessment. At one of the two sessions of the Parliament's Culture and Information Committee, held in this period, the proposal on the budget of the Ministry of Culture for 2011 was considered in general, together with the amounts of subsidies to the media. Despite the earlier announcement of the Ministry of Culture that the Draft Media Strategy would be launched by end of 2010, the Culture Minister Bradic disclosed a new date for its release (February 20, 2011), while further delays make the entire process of the adoption of the Strategy, as well as its possible effects, all uncertain. As for the collective organizations, the authors deal with amending the Business Cooperation Agreement, by which the organizations PI and OFPS regulated their competences and methods of collecting unique fees in line with the objections of the Intellectual Property Office.

e) In the area of digitalization, the Report for this period brings the analysis of some of the comments sent to the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Society during the public consultation on Draft Rule Book on the switchover from analog to digital television broadcasting and multiplex access to terrestrial digital broadcasting. In the area of privatization of media, there has been no progress even in this period when it comes to tackling the issue of privatization of the remaining state owned media. The Report also provides the assessment of the government's treatment of this issue.

f) In the Conclusion of the Report, the monitoring team reviews the previous year, stating that, although it was marked by a complex situation on the media scene and the unwillingness of the government to strategically deal with this situation, it also brings some optimism as a result of the fact that the most relevant media and journalists' associations have, for the first time, united around the basic principles upon which the most important media issues in Serbia should be addressed.

The Eighteenth Monitoring Report, created in cooperation of the expert team of the law office "Zivkovic & Samardzic" and ANEM, can be downloaded here, in whole or in part, by clicking on the selected section below.

In December 2010, ANEM posted on its website its fourth E-Publication entitled "Legal Monitoring of Serbian Media Scene", the second Publication in 2010. Its printed version was presented to the general public on ANEM round table held on December 23 in Belgrade Media Center, where the main developments on the Serbia media scene in 2010 were also discussed. About 40 representatives of ministries and relevant state authorities and institutions (Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Society, the Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Trade and Services, Ministry for Human and Minority Rights, the Ombudsman, Commissioner for Information of Public Interest and Personal Data Protection, the Public Company "Broadcasting Equipment and Communications") participated in the round table, as well those of regulatory bodies (RRA, RATEL), media associations (ANEM, NUNS, UNS), news agencies (BETA, FoNet, Tanjug), the non-government sector, the academic community, the media, international and donor organizations (IREX, the British Embassy, USAID, Medienhilfe), as well as other stakeholders.

In the first part of the round table, the Publication was presented by the authors of the texts contained therein on topics indicated by the monitoring team as important for the period July-November 2010. These presentations were followed by a discussion about the developments on the Serbian media scene in 2010. Two topics were distinguished as crucial: the current process of drafting the Media Strategy and the coming digitalization of media.

You can see the IV Monitoring Publication here.

In November 2010, the media scene was facing various problems. The ones that influenced the most the position of the media were treated in the Seventeenth Monitoring Report of the expert team.

a) New cases of physical attacks and threats to journalists, as well as new court decisions to sentence the perpetrators of attacks on journalists below the legal minimum, indicate that freedom of expression is still neither adequately respected nor protected in the Serbian society. You will find arguments for this assessment in the cases presented in this part of the Report.

b) The monitoring team has also analyzed the implementation of existing laws - the Public Information Law, where it was pointed, by using the information on the European Commission's report on Serbia's progress in 2010, to a bad example of the last year's restrictive amendments to this Law; also indicated was the opinion of journalists' associations regarding the need of self-regulatory body to start functioning as soon as possible, namely the Press Council; the Broadcasting Law, presenting the case of TV SOS channel, which had, discontented with the fact that it could not cover with quality signal the service area for which it had obtained the license, refused to pay broadcasting fee and due to which it had suffered serious legal consequences; and the Law on Copyright and Related Rights, which shows the obscurity of this law in accordance with which broadcasters operate, through the case of implementation of a legal obligation of broadcasters (to submit their lists of used objects of  protection).

c) In the part of the Report relating to the adoption of new legislation, the monitoring team deals with the new Draft Advertising Law, giving suggestions and fundamental objections to its content. This law is very important for broadcasters, especially commercial, as it regulates the acquisition of advertising revenue, as the most important source of their funds.

d) In this period, the competent authorities have not significantly improved the position of the media with their activities. The RBA has indeed made one positive decision, but it has, at the same time, showed the limits of its regulatory authority, namely, insufficient precision of the Broadcasting Law in this regard. In its new draft Regulation on fees for the use of radio frequencies, RATEL has altered the criteria for its determination in relation to the previous Regulation, which may affect the position of the broadcasters. The Ministry of Culture has neither published the Draft Media Strategy, as announced earlier, nor could it be said with certainty when it would, which creates additional problems to the media sector. Collective organizations for protection of copyright and related rights dealt in this period with the fulfillment of their legal obligations. The OFPS has, however, exercised its right by filing complaints against broadcasters to the RBA.

e) There were no significant developments in the field of digitalization in this period. In the part of the Report dealing with the privatization, the authors analyze the revived case of already completed process of privatization and share acquisition of "Novosti", that shows the ill effects of non-transparency of media ownership.

f) In the Conclusion of the Report, the monitoring team goes over the main points, noting that the media landscape in this period was predominantly marked by the postponement in the adoption of the Media Strategy, which has caused ill effects on the media sector, as well as the continuing threat to freedom of expression

The Seventeenth Monitoring Report, created in cooperation of the expert team of the law office "Zivkovic&Samardzic" and ANEM, can be downloaded here, in whole or in part, by clicking on the selected section below.

Read the fourth issue of the specialized ANEM Publication "Monitoring of the Media Scene in Serbia" that contains:

• The Introduction (with summarized results of legal monitoring of the media scene in Serbia during the period July-November 2010, and a short description of the Publication's contents),

4 expert authors' texts:

• Obstacles on the road towards a new regulatory framework for the media in Serbia - the author: Slobodan Kremenjak, attorney at law (the author writes about the drafting of regulations as one of the major obstacles for the progress of the media regulatory framework; citing the examples of the creation of several laws since 2008 to date, the author points out the unacceptable practice of the authorities to first establish expert working groups, only to ignore them later and write laws without their participation; the text gives answer to the question what are the consequences of such attitude of the authorities towards the media sector)

• Lost motivation for the transition to digital - the author: Nebojsa Samardzic, attorney at law (why the motivation of all stakeholders is important for a successful digital transition; what are the consequences of the loss of it; whose interests are wrongly recognized; whose and what needs have insufficiently been taken into account during the planning of the process that have a significant impact on its implementation; what is the solution for such situation; through these answers, the author analyzes the doubts that are slowing the path to digital transition)

• Strategy, Study, Summary - the author: Snjezana Milivojevic, PhD (through a retrospective of the work on the Media Strategy, the author points out the advantages and disadvantages of the process, and particularly explores the basic weaknesses, as well as values, of the Media Study; the role of the competent Ministry in this process and its capability to adequately respond to its task; how the media sector has coped with the challenges of the adoption of this strategic document; what is the fundamental gain of the creating process of Media Strategy)

• New media - new policies? - the author: Maja Rakovic, MA (the key international references for the Serbian media policy are media standards of the Council of Europe and the EU acquis in the field of media and information society; the author explains the differences and complementarities of their media policies, as well as the response of Europe to changes in the media environment - the debate on the topic: what kind of media policy is needed for digital media environment, and the new concept of the media; the author also proposes ways of how Serbia can join new processes, despite of uncompleted "old" transition reforms; this text provides important guidelines that can be useful for future work of the Serbian Media Strategy)

and the fifth text,

• MC Newsletter - contribution of the Media Centre Belgrade - 2 authors' texts published in the online editions of the Media Center Newsletter: the first, "Danish Royal frame for Serbian picture" by Jovanka Matic, Phd, is discussing the framework for Media Development Strategy set by the Media Study, as well as the need to reflect specifics of our system in this strategic document; in the second, "If you can't beat them, sue them", journalist Milos Vasic writes about the court practice in media cases and its impact on freedom of expression.

The results of the conducted legal monitoring of the media scene in the period July-November 2010 were used in the selection of the topics treated in this Publication. These results pointed to the fact that, even after these five months, nothing in the media sector had significantly changed in 2010. Thus, the media regulatory framework is still not developed enough, nor it complies with European standards and regulations. Adoption of regulations has become a weak point in the media sector development, because they are changed and written without the participation of the media sector, although often with the pretense that its representatives have been asked and included in the process. Non-transparent work of authorities in this area leads to bad decisions and solutions provided in such laws, where the media suffer the most. All the more, the existing regulations are not implemented properly either. An example of this is the Digitalization Strategy. Although there are only 16 months left until the transition to digital television broadcasting, big uncertainties and ambiguities in the process badly affect its implementation; all activities are delayed, which raises legitimate questions about whether its planning has sufficiently taken into account the needs and interests of all stakeholders in this process that determine the pace of the preparation for the transition. New digital era will open new opportunities to the media, but will also put new challenges before them. It is therefore important to build an appropriate legal framework, which would recognize and properly regulate the media in accordance with their new concept, new functions and new technological environment. The Media Strategy should serve to set a framework for this. However, Serbia still does not have this important strategic document. The process of its development has begun but has not yet been completed and no one knows when it will be. It is not known what solutions it will offer, although the Media Study and recommendations of its authors, independent international experts, should have helped. Not even the set of 5 round tables dedicated to drafting the Media Strategy, which were in the focus this September, as well as the activities of all interested in the progress of the media sector, has contributed much to a simpler and more rapid formulation of this strategic document. On the contrary, it turned out that all of these had only additionally confused the competent Ministry, which was not capable of meeting the expectations and responding properly to this task. The entire process of the Strategy drafting only saw the successful endeavor of the media and journalists' associations (all but one), which have recognized the importance of the Strategy and managed to consolidate their stands around its fundamental principles. It however remains to be seen how the Strategy, once made, would be the basis for Serbia's entry into the necessary media reforms, or it would just be a new source of conflict between the media sector and the government.

Texts in this Publication are tackling these important media issues and show why the changes for the better in the media sector have not yet taken place in 2010.

The month of October 2010 did not bring much new or good for the media scene in Serbia. You will find out why, in the Sixteenth Monitoring Report of the expert team for that period.

a) According to the monitoring team, the month of October was marked by extreme cases of physical attacks on journalists, but also new threats that have led to an increase in the number of journalists in Serbia that had to be put under direct police protection. Analyzed cases of attacks on journalists, one of which was carried out by members of the police, show that the authorities still do not have adequate respect for freedom of expression, that they do not contribute to the prevention of its threats and violations with their activities, as they deal with consequences of such behavior rather than its causes, in a non-precluding way. Also, uneven court practice and uncertainty about the outcome of the disputes in media cases are one of the main causes for reduced use of investigative reporting and increasing self-censorship in the media.

b) Monitoring of the implementation of existing laws again points out the problem of legal insecurity of the media and journalists, as a result of the fact that the provisions of the Law on Amendments to the Public Information Law, declared unconstitutional in July, are still in force. However, in this part of the Report two cases are also analyzed, in which the action of the media was unprofessional and questionable from the point of application of relevant legislation - in the first case, by going to another unacceptable extreme in relation to the prohibition against the violation of the presumption of innocence, and the second, by abusing the freedom of expression through a drastic violation of the individual's right to privacy and rights of minors for the purpose of breaking the strike of the Union of Serbian judiciary.

c) In this period, there has been no adoption of new laws relevant to the media; the Draft Media Strategy has not been brought as well, whose passing has been pending since the beginning of October. As this document is very important for the further development of the media sector, but also for future legislative work on a number of new laws, the monitoring team is indicating on time the extreme importance of the nature of strategic decisions as well as answers to controversial questions, such as state funding of the media and the state ownership in the media, that would be offered in the Media Strategy.

d) The activities of the competent authorities, listed in the Report, have not particularly affected the position of the media, although some of them may be of relevance to them. For example, the EPRA event in Belgrade had dealt with the digitalization, advertising in the media and the EU legislation in the broadcasting sector, which are important topics for the media; Drafts of three RATEL set of Rules at a public debate are also important for broadcasters in the period prior to digitalization; the statement of the Culture Minister on the basic principles and essence of the Media Strategy greatly concerning the media; also important for the media is how the collective organizations operate whether their actions are in accordance with the law.

e) There have been no new developments in the field of privatization and digitalization even in this period. Most of the obligations foreseen in the Action Plan of the Digitalization Strategy has not been fulfilled within the envisaged deadlines, while there is still neither plan, nor strategy for the completion of the privatization process of the media - the alleged reason for this were the norms of several laws passed since 2007 to date that were in direct conflict with the media laws and whose interpretation has been disputable and very extensive for years.

f) In the Conclusion of the Report, the monitoring team points out to the fact that the media scene in this period has been mainly marked by poor state of freedom of expression and the worrying situation of the media and journalists, but also certain occurrences in the media that were not good either for them or for the profession.

The Sixteenth Monitoring Report, produced in cooperation of the expert team of the law office "Zivkovic&Samardzic" and ANEM, can be downloaded here in whole or in part, by clicking on the selected section below.

Results of the legal monitoring of the Serbian media scene, conducted in September 2010, are presented in the Fifteenth Monitoring Report.

The Report shows that during this period, the media scene in Serbia was particularly marked with: a) a series of round tables dedicated to drafting the Media Strategy and b) further attacks and pressures on journalists and the media, especially local ones, whose continuance has been contributed by unchanged legal practice in media cases.

a) The section of the Report, titled Monitoring of the adoption of new laws, deals with launched process of creating the Media Strategy in Serbia. In addition to an overview of the five round tables dedicated to drafting the Media Strategy, held in September in Belgrade, the monitoring team also provided the review of basic principles and specific proposals for strategic regulation of the most important media issues offered by media and journalists' associations, those who actively participated in these events, but also the stands of one media association that decided not to take part in the process.

b) Several cases, presented in the section of the Report dealing with freedom of expression, show that the freedom of the media and the public's right to know about everything that is of public interest, especially in the inner parts of Serbia, remain limited to personal interests or personal judgment of the authorities and certain interest groups regarding what the public needs to know and how much it needs to know. Particularly worrisome are the decisions of the competent courts in proceedings instituted on the occasion of physical attacks on journalists, which, as is evident in the Report, continued to bring the verdicts on the limit of the legally prescribed minimum or even below it, thus contributing to legal uncertainty and self-censorship of media professionals.

c) In the section of monitoring of the implementation of existing laws, the authors team elaborates the case of infringement of the provisions of Law on Public Information made by certain media, which is, at the same time, the drastic violation of the personal right to privacy with the possible serious criminal  consequences. Regarding the court proceedings initiated before the Constitutional Court, the authors especially deal with the Law on Electronic Communications as it, although generally good for the media sector, has also the provisions whose application may questioned some essential human rights and media freedoms, too.

d) Monitoring of the work of authorities, in the part relating to regulatory bodies, points to the need of urgent amending of the Broadcasting Law, which, due to outdated solutions among other things, does not provide the RBA with a sufficient measure of flexibility in the regulation of cable distribution of the program, and can be a problem in the process of digitalization of terrestrial broadcasting, as RATEL pointed out. According to the analysis and evaluation of team of authors, the activities of the Ministry of Culture in the process of drafting the Media Strategy demonstrated its lack of readiness and ability to deal with all the challenges of this process, which can be bad for the media sector as well. The activities of collective organization OFPS show that the implementation of the new Law on Copyright and Related Rights runs smoothly in all other segments except the one most important for the media - in the area of determining tariffs - due to still present problem of failure to appoint the competent Commission.

e) In the area of digitalization and the privatization, even in this period, the authorities made no significant progress. The monitoring team has therefore presented requests and stands of media and journalists' associations on these media issues, laid down in the September round table discussions, or provided as a contribution to further work on Media strategy.

f) The Conclusion of the Report points out the importance of proper and careful definition of the Media Strategy for the future development of the media sector, but also the seriousness of the problem of growing self-censorship in the media and its causes.

The Fifteenth Monitoring Report, developed in cooperation of the expert team law office "Zivkovic&Samardzic" and ANEM, is available here in its whole or in parts. You can download it by clicking on the selected section below.

The Fourteenth Legal Monitoring Report for August 2010 brings the review of the most important developments that marked the media scene in that period:

Freedom of Expression - the authors of the Report analyzed 2 cases of violations of freedom of information by public office holders who had expressed their dissatisfaction with journalists' reporting, by verbal and physical attack on the journalists in the first case, while in the second, by prohibiting local public services and companies to give statements to journalists without prior approval; three court rulings in media cases had been delivered, indicating that there had been positive developments in the area of protection of freedom of expression in Serbia, but also that those changes did not send a sufficiently clear message that any threat to this freedom would be promptly and adequately sanctioned; it remains to be seen what message will deliver the verdict in the trial of persons arrested under suspicion of committing brutal attack on journalist Teofil Pancic.

Implementation of existing laws - in this part of the Report, the authors particularly point to: the legal consequences of non-publication of the decision of the Constitutional Court, passed on July 22, 2010, on the disagreement of most of the provisions of the Law on Amendments to the Law on Public Information with the Constitution of Serbia and ratified international treaties; the fact that, although the RBA considered to have, in this period, successfully performed the supervision within its competence over the work of broadcasters, in practice, there are circumstances that can lessen the effects of its activities; the increasing use of the right to free access to information of public importance, the lack of respect of this right by public authorities and fulfillment of their legal obligations, through the analysis of an unusual case of violation of this right by public authority bodies, which, at the same time, represents the restriction of freedom of expression.

Monitoring of the adoption of new laws - in August, there had been no adoption or work on new legislation. Only the Media Study, offered as a basis for drafting the Media Strategy, was the subject of analysis and consultations within the media and journalists' associations, as well as their mutual talks.

Monitoring of the work of regulatory bodies - in this period, the regulators were the most active - the RBA had issued new broadcasting licenses, thus increasing the number of legal broadcasters, while RATEL delivered a number of its decisions aiming at bringing order to the air, by prohibiting the operations of illegal broadcasters and sanctioning the legal broadcasters for non-complying with the regulations; due to failure to appoint the Commission on Copyright and Related Rights, the collective organizations have continued to charge fees from broadcasters under the old tariffs that had been arbitrarily determined, while, at the same time, they entered the process of determining tariffs for exercise of rights to special fees, whose collection would cause the increase of operating costs of electronic media; the Culture Minister has again stirred up the media public with his statements, this time on the issue how to make a good information environment in Serbia, which indirectly explain why there are still no positive changes in the Serbian media sector.

Digitalization and privatization - in the process of preparing the digital transition, all planned activities are still delayed, which jeopardizes the sustainability of the foreseen date for analogue switch off; for the privatization of the media, beside the government that persistently fails to participate in solving this issue, there is no more interest even of investors, which significantly complicates the situation of those media that the local authorities no longer wish to retain in its possession.

The Conclusion of this Report indicates good, seemingly good and bad developments in the Serbian media sector in August 2010.

The Fourteenth Monitoring Report, like all the previous ones, was prepared by an expert team of the law office "Zivkovic&Samardzic", in cooperation with ANEM. The entire Report, or its parts, can be downloaded here, by clicking on the selected section below.