Media business operations

Salaries of the employees of Radio-Television Sumadija in Arandjelovac are 3-4 months late, while contributions are being paid using the lowest acceptable range, it was said yesterday at a press conference. The conference was held because the municipality – whose budget is the significant source of the station's income – has not offered any reply to the official note demanding regular payment of salaries.
(Tanjug, Pregled, 04.08.201)

Local media outlets from Pozarevac will receive three million dinars from the city Fund for Environmental Protection in accordance with public contests for informing and education related to ecology and management of communal waste. The sum will be allocated to 12 media outlets, with the biggest amount – slightly more than a million dinars – going to TV Sat.
(Vecernje Novosti, 08.08.2011)

Despite the claims of the TV Pink that their advertising blocks are completely filled with adverts, and that canceling of adverts related to Croatian tourism will not hurt them, it is a fact that the station's bank accounts have been blocked. The bank account of the Information and Marketing Company "Pink International Co." was blocked on August 2 due to debt in the amount of 12.2 million dinars. During the previous 12 months, the company's account was blocked for 116 days in total.
(Blic, 07.08.2011)

Due to unpaid fees for usage of the frequency, the Council of the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA) decided to revoke the terrestrial broadcasting license of TV Enter. The TV station had possessed a license to broadcast its programme in the territory of the city of Belgrade. "The crisis in the local media has reached such proportions that even the media in Belgrade – who have the largest income from advertisements – cannot survive any longer", says the vice president of the Council of RRA. "Out of the total number of TV stations in Belgrade, half of them have lost their licenses because they did not pay fees for their frequencies". TV stations Art and Plus had already lost their licenses before TV Enter.
(Vecernje Novosti, 09.08.2011, UNS, NUNS, 24 sata, 12.08.2011)

Four out of nine remaining employees in RTV Smederevo have been dismissed due to decreased amount of work, according to the explanation. Two out of four employees who have been dismissed from work are trade union leaders, and all of them were involved in previous three strikes that followed after privatization. As the dismissed employees have found out, the employer has hired four new workers in programme production, who are employed illegally.
(Tanjug, Pravda, Blic - Srbija, 06.08.2011)

Only in the first half of the year, national TV stations violated the Law on Advertising 2,123 times. The first place among them belongs to TV Prva (539 violations), which is followed by RTS 1 (405), B92 (338) RTS 2 (330) and Pink (315). TV Avala and TV Happy were much more careful, with 93 and 91 violations, respectively. The most disciplined among the stations was Happy Kids TV with only 12 violations. The Council of the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA) submits complaints on the basis of these violations against national TV stations, but the number of verdicts is negligible compared to the number of cases. During the last year, the number of violations amounted to thousands, but none of the TV stations were punished.
(Vecernje Novosti, 10.08.2011)

Regarding radio stations, the Law on Advertising was most frequently violated by Radio S, which made 790 violations in six months, followed by Radio B92 with 123, Roadstar with 80, Radio Belgrade 1 with 12, Radio Index with 11 and Radio Focus with five violations.
(Danas, 12.08.2011)

Privatization and state-owned media

TV Prva Srpska intends to buy TV Pro from Montenegro, a station that possesses a broadcasting license but has no own production. The owner of TV Pro has delivered the Montenegrin Agency for Electronic Media a letter about intention to change the ownership structure of the media outlet.
(Beta, Blic, Press, Kurir, 07.08.2011)

German company WAZ has not given up on the attempts to become the owner of Belgrade newspaper Vecernje Novosti. The issue will probably not be discussed during the forthcoming visit of the Chancelor Merkel to Belgrade, because it is quite appropriate for the level of ambassadors, believes a well-informed source of Danas. On the other side, Srdjan Kerim, who manages the activities of German publishing company WAZ in Skoplje, has a completely opposite opinion.
(Danas, 15.08.2011)

German media company WAZ has sued the Commission for Protection of Competition, which will not decide on the sale of Novosti before the completion of the legal proceedings.
(Danas, NUNS, UNS, 17.08.2011)

Issue No. 10
August 04-19, 2011

Abbreviations