National Councils and the media

The dismissal of Caba Presburger, the editor-in-chief of "Magyar Szo", the only daily newspaper in Hungarian language in Serbia, in June of this year, has demonstrated there is another form of pressure that the media in minority languages are exposed to, in addition to all other pressure that is directed toward the media in general.

This form of pressure is exerted by (individual?) national councils of national minorities and its victim is the editorial policy of "their" media outlets, i.e. the media whose founders are these highest-ranking bodies of minority autonomy in Serbia. National councils have so far treated their role of media founders as the role of media owners, at least in some individual cases.

In 2004, the Assembly of the Province of Vojvodina adopted the decision on the transfer of founding rights over the media outlets the Assembly had founded to councils of national minorities. The decision, although it exhibited numerous flaws in practice, was confirmed in 2009 by the nation-wide Law on National Minority Councils. This is the same law that was widely praised by individual international organizations and politicians. Domestic and foreign professional associations warned that the Law specifies only the rights of national councils over the media but no obligations; however, such warnings have been ignored.

If there is anything good in the arrogant move made by the Hungarian National Council, it is the openly demonstrated arrogance which may prove to be the biggest mistake of those who are responsible for it. Not even the public outcry before the "historical" session when Presburger was dismissed could prevent them from removing him from his position using absurd explanations. In fact, their explanations amounted to this message: Presburger was not a good editor because the newspaper had not sufficiently reported on the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (SVM).

Of course, had it not been the SVM, some other political party would have had the majority in the Hungarian National Minority. We all remember the Democratic Party's efforts to win as many national minority councils as possible. In other words, the model of a party state, in which political parties in Serbia have absolute power over their subjects, has been simply copied within national minority councils. Our political society of small and large feudal masters is characterized by the desire to have power at every level, however small it may be.

The case of the Magyar Szo newspaper is certainly not the only such case when it comes to national minority councils as media founders. It is only the most glaring such example and it serves as a warning that the media are exposed to another form of pressure. This pressure exhibits a simple reasoning: national minority councils are the highest form of autonomy of national minorities, which obviously is interpreted as meaning that they are allowed to whatever they want without suffering any consequences.

In many other media outlets in minority languages, as well as in many other media outlets, the fact that the public has not been informed about attempts to influence and interfere with editorial policy does not mean that such attempts are non-existent. Perhaps the situation is even worse, and perhaps journalists and editors have been blackmailed and made to agree to a role of "state employees" instead of journalists. "Minority" find themselves in an even worse position than the "majority" journalists because they have even less chance to find another job if they work against their employer's wishes.

The model of a "party state" not only threatens the idea about the existence of minority media founded by national minority councils, but deeply compromises the idea of the existence of such minority autonomy bodies. It seems that sometimes it is not in the interest of such bodies to realize the minorities' rights to information, culture, education and official use of their language and alphabet, and that they want to continue (auto)ghetto-izing national minorities, much to the delight of ethnic majority nationalists.

"The case of Magyar Szo" has blown a hole in the monolithic world of political dealing and it should be used to begin a discussion on the future of minority media outlets founded by national minority councils. It is necessary to organize public debates whose aim would be to change the Law on National Councils and to define obligations of minority autonomy bodies in addition to their almost unlimited rights. Such debates should be initiated immediately while we are awaiting for the media strategy, since without additional pressure by journalistic associations and organisations the pressure on the media in minority languages will doubtlessly continue, and national minority councils will certainly attempt to snatch founding rights over few other minority media outlets, especially during the period leading to general elections in Serbia.

The discussion about the role of national minority councils in the media scene could also stimulate the discussion about the role of minority councils in general. For example, are they governmental or para-governmental organisations? Are they non-governmental organisations? In which way are they financed? Does such a way of financing mean that the state has remained the owner of some media outlets? This debate is not necessary because we want to question the need for autonomy of national minorities, but because it is necessary to create bodies that will truly take care about minorities' rights in the areas of information, education, culture and official use of language and alphabet.

Many national councils have not exhibited any desire to take into account any critical comments and they have usually treated all such comments as attacks on the national community they represent. It is, however, also true that certain media experts who analyze the relationship between national councils and the media have not considered the specific position of national minorities in Serbia and Vojvodina and their media outlets.

Dinko Gruhonjic

About the authors

MC Newsletter, August 12, 2011