24. 08. 2008

MINISTER ANNOUNCES CHANGES IN PROVISIONS OF THE LAW ON LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT WHICH BLOCKED THE PRIVATIZATION OF LOCAL MEDIA

Belgrade, August 24, 2008 (B92) – The Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, Milan Markovic, said in an interview to the Beta agency that status of media outlets reporting in minority languages must be different from other solutions, especially from the solution defined by the Law on the Capital City, which allows establishment of a regional public service media outlet.

"Privatization of media outlets reporting in languages of national minorities had to be stopped because it had resulted in diminishing of rights of minorities, which is contrary to the Constitution", Markovic said.

In his words, the problem was identified more than a year ago, but no one "had the intention to solve it".

"In cooperation with the Executive Council of Vojvodina, we have tried to offer a stop-gap solution to prevent it... to protect the Constitutional norms. The case of Belgrade was the result of the majority decision by the Government. I still believe that it is unsustainable and that it will have to be modified... We'll see what the final political decision will be", Markovic said.

Markovic said that he had agreed with the Minister of Culture, Nebojsa Bradic, to find a solution to protect rights of minorities and, at the same time, to continue the process of media privatization.

In his words, the main intention is to complete the privatization, but also to keep certain number of hours of reporting in minority languages as an obligation in accordance with the law.

At the moment, warned the Minister, there is a possibility that new owners may decide, five years from now, to stop reporting in minority languages.

"This would probably lead to a dispute before an international court and Serbia would lose such dispute", said Markovic, adding that his task was to prevent such possibility from happening.

Changes to the Law on Local Self-Government may be expected as soon as "the people with most expertise in this area give an answer to the most important question, which is how we can preserve the achieved level of minority rights and at the same time continue the process of privatization."

"The second issue is the Law on the Capital City, where we need some kind of a political decision", Markovic emphasized.

The Minister pointed out that at the time of preparation of the Law, his Ministry "didn't favor the viewpoint that some local self-governments should be allowed to own media outlets".

According to the Law on Local Self-Government and the Law on Capital City, adopted in late December 2007, local self-governments are allowed to establish media outlets or, in the case of Belgrade, a regional public service broadcaster, which is contrary to the provisions of the Law on the Media that does not provide for state ownership in the media.

Journalistic associations have opposed these new solutions, on the basis of which privatization of local media outlets was stopped, including Studio B.

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