Media business operations

A local weekly magazine in the city of Vranje, Nova Slobodna Rec, will cease publication due to the lack of money for printing. The last, 91th, issue appeared on newsstands on 13 July, while the first issue of the magazine was published on 24 September 2010.
(Blic – Serbia, NUNS, 02.10.2012)

Privatization and the state-owned media

The report on financing of the media from budgets of local self-governments, issued by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), shows that the city of Novi Pazar and the municipality of Raska are the only local self-governments in Serbia that are financing from their budgets only the media outlets that they founded. All other self-governments financially also support private media outlets which are not under their direct control: Uzice finances eight local and regional media outlets, while Valjevo, Krusevac and Prijepolje finance seven, four and four media outlets, respectively.
(Blic – Serbia, Vecernje Novosti, UNS, NUNS, 28.09.2012)

The president of the Democratic Party, Boris Tadic, told Radio Fokus that he had prompted "some of our nationals" to buy Politika and Novosti, believing that it would be better if those media outlets remained domestically owned.
(Dnevnik, Politika, NUNS, Novosti, E-kapija, UNS, 01.10.2012)

"The former president now flatly admits that he had "prompted some of our nationals" to buy Politika and Novosti, now that we already know that! Why has he kept quiet until now?", says the daily newspaper Press.
(Press, 02.10.2012)

Boris Tadic has not explained why the overtake of the newspapers was attempted in a covert and utterly suspicious manner, via fictitious companies and anonymous owners, says the daily newspaper Informer. At the same time, Tadic has failed to explain how and under whose orders loans amounting to millions were been provided by state-owned banks for the purchase of Politika and Novosti. Nemanja Nenadic from Transparency Serbia says that the state and government officials are in no way allowed to interfere with ownership over media outlets. "Politicians must not become involved in such issues. On the other side, if something should be domestically-owned, in that case it should be nationalized, be it a media outlet, a company or a piece of land".
(Informer, UNS, NUNS, 01.10.2012)

A local newspaper, Suboticke Novine, has lost its business premises that were bought at the yesterday's auction held in the Primary Court of Subotica by the company "Pedja Komerc".
(Politika, 27.09. 2012, Danas, e-novine, NDNV, 28.09.2012)

Representatives of small shareholders of Politika published yesterday an open letter to the Government of Serbia and the new co-owner of the company Politika Novine i Magazini, in which they expressed their expectation that the change in ownership would create conditions for more successful business operations.
(Politika, Blic, NUNS, UNS, 05.10.2012)

The public discussion about the new set of media laws continued at the conference organized at the initiative of TV Niska (NTV), among them the laws on public information, broadcasting, the news agency Tanjug and public service broadcasters. Several journalistic associations, especially the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS) and the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) are opposed to formation of regional public service broadcasters. The concept of regional public service broadcasters is supported by the ruling political parties United Regions of Serbia (URS) and the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) and some of the representatives of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), one of which is the minister of culture, Mr. Petkovic. The editor-in-chief of the web portal Juzne Vesti, Predrag Blagojevic, denied the claims that expenditure of money in the media founded by local self-governments was more transparent than in private media outlets and that such media is less exposed to political pressure.
(Danas, UNS, NUNS, 08.10.2012)

The president of the National Parliament of Serbia and a member of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), Nebojsa Stefanovic, said yesterday, during the parliamentary debate about the revoking of the immunity of deputy Oliver Dulic, that he was not interested who the owner of the newspaper Press was and that the newspaper had been frequently and blatantly interfering with judicial proceedings. Press is making arbitrary statements about someone's guilt or innocence and is trying to influence the public opinion, prosecutors and courts, said Stefanovic.
(Kurir, NUNS, UNS, 09.10.2012)

The minister of the media said that "if foreign ownership of the media was transparent and if it would improve the position of journalists and the freedom of the press, there is no reason why a foreign company should not buy a media outlet. The state should withdraw from ownership of the news agency Tanjug, Radio Yugoslavia, Jugoslovenski Pregled and Panorama.
(RTS, UNS, NUNS, 05.10.2012)

Other news

The Media Center Nis has invited all companies and employers from the region of Nis to participate in a mentoring program that would ensure easier employment of youth without parents. The project is financially supported by the European Commission and is implemented in Serbia by the Media Center Nis in partnership with the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, the organization "1000 Young Leaders", the Metropolitan University, Media Center Belgrade and the National Employment Agency.
(Pregled, 01.10.2012)