21. 04. 2011

TWENTIETH MONITORING REPORT

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.

Section FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION here
Section MONITORING OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF EXISTING LAWS here
Section MONITORING OF ADOPTION OF NEW LAWS here
Section MONITORING OF THE ACTIVITIES OF REGULATORY BODIES, AUTHORITIES AND COLLECTIVE ORGANIZATIONS here
Section MONITORING OF THE DIGITALIZATION AND PRIVATIZATION PROCESSES here
Section OVERALL CONCLUSION here
The COMPLETE REPORT can be downloaded here