26. 10. 2011

TWENTY-SIXTH MONITORING REPORT

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.

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