25. 07. 2011

TWENTY-THIRD MONITORING REPORT

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.

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