Media situation in Serbia

The Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS) is concerned because of announcements indicating that the proposed law on fees for usage of public goods, whose draft is being prepared by the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Serbia, might affect and threaten the position of independent regulatory bodies – the Republic Agency for Electronic Communication (RATEL) and the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA). NUNS believes that a solution which would place the sources of funding of RRA and RATEL directly under the authority of the Government of Serbia and its relevant ministry would not be adequate and acceptable. Such control would allow the authorities to directly influence the operations and decisions made by independent regulatory bodies, which would basically make their role ineffective.
(NUNS, Blic, 31.10.2012 Politika, UNS, Alo!, NUNS, 01.11.2012)

Paula Thiede, the acting head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia, has expressed OSCE's concern because of the draft law on fees for usage of public goods, which is being secretly prepared by the Ministry of Finance and Economy. OSCE says that if adopted, such a law might jeopardize the independence of the Republic Agency for Electronic Communication (RATEL) and the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA), as well as the public service broadcasters like Radio-Television Serbia (RTS) and Radio-Television Vojvodina (RTV).
(Blic, UNS, 01.11.2012, Alo!, NUNS, 02.11.2012)

Danilo Nikolic, the state secretary of the Ministry of Justice, said yesterday that the existence of criminal offenses of libel and insult in the Criminal Code of Serbia was not in violation of international and European standards. Amendments to the Criminal Code stipulate that everyone who adheres to the “principle of journalistic diligence” cannot be found guilty of insult or libel, said Mr. Nikolic. On the other hand, representatives of journalistic associations and the OSCE Mission pointed out that decriminalization of libel is a precondition for free journalism.
(Tanjug, RTV, Dnevnik, Blic, Press, Vecernje novosti, Danas, Politika, 06.11.2012)

The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) is not satisfied with the draft amendments to the Criminal Code because it does not decriminalize the criminal offenses of libel and insult, as had been announced long ago.
(Kurir, 06.11.2012)

The Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS) has protested against the decision by the work group of the Ministry of Justice to abandon the decriminalization of criminal offenses of insult and libel. Retaining of these criminal offenses in the Criminal Code strenghtens the mechanism of repression over the media, says NUNS.
(NUNS, Alo!, Danas, 30.10.2012, Danas, Politika, 31.10.2012)

The secretary of culture and the media of the Province of Vojvodina, Slavisa Grujic, and the deputy president of the Council of the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA), Goran Karadzic, agree that Europe cannot wait any longer for adoption of the new Strategy of Development of the Media in Serbia and new media laws, which has been delayed for a long time.
(Beta, NDNV, 01.11.2012)

On the occasion of November 5 – the day of the European “Support Journalism” campaign, the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS) and the Independent Journalists' Association of Vojvodina (NDNV) warn that the judicial system of Serbia has been jeopardizing the rights of journalists and all media employees even in cases when verdicts are in theif favor. This is best evidenced by the case of a journalist from Novi Sad, Nikola Travica, who has won the lawsuit for unpaid salaries against his employer, but at the same time was forced to pay astronomical legal costs.
(NUNS, NDNV, 05.11.2012)

Serbian journalists and their families have been targeted in three attacks using explosive devices in less than two weeks. SEEMO said it had observed an escalation of attacks against journalists in Serbia.
(SEEMO, 02.11.2012)

Since the beginning of the year, the police in the city of Novi Sad has filed three criminal charges to the Prosecutor's Office for High-Technology Crime for illegal usage of broadcasting frequencies. In the area of Novi Sad, nine illegal stations have been found so far, three of them without any identification. 258 broadcasting bans have been adopted since 2008.
(Vecernje novosti, UNS, 05.11.2012)

Opinions about the current media situation in Serbia

The 37th Monitoring Report on the Serbian Media Scene in September 2012 has been published on the website of the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM). It is available here.
(ANEM, MC, 30.10.2012)

The US Ambassador to the Republic of Serbia Michael Kirby said today that the main challenges facing the media in Serbia, aside from economic, technological and political changes, are the transparency of ownership, competitiveness and privatization. In the following period, the Serbian media will need assistance due to diminished financial stability, while the professional standards in reporting and management have not been achieved yet, it was estimated on November 1 during the conference organized by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the non-governmental organization IREX. Participants of the conference said that they expected the media to find itself in the worse situation in the next year and that “it should be considered a success if the situation in the media remains the same as in 2012”.
(Tanjug, UNS, NUNS, www.mondo.rs, 01.11.2012, www.euractiv.rs, UNS, 02.11.2012, Advertiser Serbia, ABC Srbija, Newsletter, 06.11.2012)

Nedim Sejdinovic says in a published article: “BIRN research has shown that media outlets that are owned by the state or municipalities are absolutely privileged when it comes to financing from state funds. This inequality has advanced to absurd levels. Private media outlets are unable to operate in the market and survive the economic crisis that refuses to pass. The local media which function as public companies constitute unfair competition and threaten the freedom of the media due to their privileged position.”
(NDNV, 05.11.2012)

Branislava Dzunov writes: “The news that the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA) has closed down TV Avala reeks of hypocrisy. The RRA has decided to undertake radical approach only when it became obvious that the confusion in TV Avala was going to hurt its own self-interest, i.e. when the broadcasting fees paid by TV Avala to RRA dried up and when it became certain that no more money would come its way. The situation had directly threatened the RRA and all its constituents – a large number of counselors, experts and bureaucrats who spend a huge amount of money. The second surprising news from the RRA relates to the reality formats “The Mad House”, “Family Secrets” and “Adulterers”, which have shocked and horrified most of the television audience. These programmes are still allowed to be broadcast, both in the morning and afternoon. The only demand by the RRA was that the genre of these vulgarities be more clearly defined.”
(Blic, 04.11.2012)

Milan Stefanovic writes: “TV5 remained to the very end one of the most important parts of the fragile, young and short democratic history of the city of Nis and Serbia. During the nineties, when the then TV Belgrade, TV Nis and many more media outlets in the country were serving the dictatorial regime, oblivious to the democratic changes, full of hate speech and lies. At the same time, TV5 was objective, available and it stood with the people. The station managed to retain its quality and high standards in the years that followed. Despite its lack of bias and high ratings of the station, nobody in Nis or in Serbia wished to help TV5 to survive the crisis. Local powerful figures preferred dependent and sycophantic media – the media which could be bought cheaply and made to spread false news, demagogy and political intrigues. Petition for help to TV5 mobilized a huge number of citizens and many civil society organizations, but it has unfortunately proved that citizens have no say in Serbia and that their voice simply does not count.”
(Juzne vesti, 05.11.2012)

“You closed down Radio Nis, now you are doing the same to TV5. When we come to Belgrade, we will not put out the fire in the RTS” - this is a “threat” to the government and its RRA that was posted on the internet. This “threat” is a part of a highly palpable anger of the citizens of Nis caused by the closure of the popular television station. Company “Trebic MM” from Sokobanja recently issued a bill signed by TV5 in the amount of 1.3 million euros as a guarantee for a loan given by Hippo Bank in 2006. TV5 had participated in the public contest for national broadcasting frequencies immediately before the taking of this loan. For this purpose, the management of the station took a loan in the amount of 700,000 euros from Komercijalna Banka. However, it failed to win the national broadcasting license. Frequencies were given exclusively to Belgrade-based television stations, among them TV Avala, TV Kosava and TV Happy – which at the time were not broadcasting any programme. With closure of TV5, in a relatively short period of time, the city of Nis has lost one more of the things that were making it a city.
(Danas, UNS, NUNS, 06.11.2012)

The state and the media

At a public debate on media laws held today, the representatives of media associations and organizations pointed out that it was necessary for the state to withdraw from ownership over the media. At the same time, the assistant minister of culture and information, Dragan Kolarevic, announced that draft media laws would be modified in order to solve all disputed points. The director and editor-in-chief of the news agency FoNet, Zoran Sekulic, said that one of the crucial provisions of the Media Strategy stipulated complete withdrawal of the state from media ownership. “The state has proved itself to be a bad owner and even worse editor, not only in the media that it still owns, but also when it comes to its influence over other media outlets”, Sekulic pointed out.
(Fonet, Beta, NUNS, Danas, 01.11.2012)

Public service broadcasters

In recent days, many citizens of Valjevo have received warnings due to their failure to pay the TV fee to the pubic service broadcaster. Some of the citizens owe more than 28,000 dinars. RTS has offered the debt to be paid in five installments, if the first installment is paid not later than eight days after the delivery of the last warning before the lawsuit. So far, RTS has initiated around 400,000 lawsuits related to non-payment of the TV fee.
(Kurir, UNS, 01.11.2012)

Citizens of the village of Boljkovac near Gornji Milanovac have been receiving court warnings from the RTS demanding that they pay the TV fee, despite the fact that the village has not been covered by any television signal in the last 30 years.
(Beta, Danas, Informer, Kurir, Politika, Press, 06.11.2012, Večernje novosti, 07.11.2012)

Threats, attacks and legal processes against journalists; media-related trials

A month has passed since the attack on Tanja Jankovic, a journalist with B92, and the beating of the members of her family, but the attackers have not been arrested and no legal proceedings have been initiated against them. One of the six attackers, Nenad Jovanovic, a police inspector in the police department of Vranje, is still working for the police. An internal investigation was launched because of suspicions that Sladjan Veselinovic, the head of the police department of Vranje, had falsified the report on the incident.
(Kurir, 29.10.2012,Informer, 30.10.2012)

B92 has published exclusive recordings made by the security cameras in the Przar Hotel in Vranje, which show that a police inspector from Vranje, Nenad Jovanovic, had taken part in the beating of the family of B92 journalist.
(B92, UNS, NUNS, 02.11.2012)

The Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS) demands that the officials immediately investigate circumstances behind the discovery of an explosive device in Vranje, in the yard of the house belonging to the B92 journalist Tanja Jankovic.
(NUNS, Beta Danas, Alo!, Informer, Vecernje novosti, 31.10.2012, Informer, 02.11.2012)

The Independent Police Trade Union of Serbia has called on the Ministry of Internal Affairs to investigate the attack on journalist Tanja Jankovic.
(Informer, 03.11.2012)

Dragan J. Vucicevic has accused three companies – Blic, Press and ABC – that they had took money from the previous regime and falsified their auditing results and their ratings. During the panel discussion on tabloids at the Press Media Summit, editor-in-chief Dragan J. Vucicevic strongly criticized the company Ringier Axel Springer and the editors of newspapers Alo! and Blic, after which the editor-in-chief of Blic, Veselin Simonovic, decided to leave the summit, reports the daily newspaper Kurir.
(Kurir, NUNS, 01.11.2012)

The Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS) has strongly condemned the tone and the wording of the attack of the tabloid Informer on Veselin Simonovic, the editor-in-chief of Blic. It is impermissible that the newspaper has labeled Simonovic an enemy of Serbia, with direct allusions to the Nazi Germany. In this way, apart from professional dignity, the security of Veselin Simonovic is being threatened as well. NUNS reminds that the murder of Slavko Curuvija was preceded by a similarly intoned article in a daily newspaper.
(NUNS, 29.10.2012)

The spokesman of the Football Club Red Star (Crvena Zvezda), Marko Nikolovski, insulted yesterday all the readers and employees of the daily newspaper Informer. In the presence of colleagues from other media outlets, he told one of the journalists with the Informer that he was working “for a moronic newspaper”.
(Informer, 31.10.2012)

Slobodan Samardzic from the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) said that “at this moment, in the middle of a hysterical campaign lead by B92, it would not be a good idea to form an investigative committee of the National Parliament of Serbia that would investigate how the state money allocated to the Province of Kosovo has been spent since 2000”.
(Beta Pregled, 31.10.2012)

During his time spent in the prison in Subotica, where he served the prison term he had been sentenced to for insulting Laslo Torockai, the retired journalist Laslo Sas wrote a book entitled “Insulting the Esteemed”. The book will soon be published in Hungarian language, while a Serbian edition is also being prepared.
(Vecernje novosti – Vojvodina, UNS, 03.11.2012)

Rights of journalists

“Is it acceptable that an employee, after losing his salary, pension and disability insurance, and despite winning the lawsuit against the newspaper Gradjanski List, would be obliged to pay the court expenses in the amount of 53,000 dinars?” - asks Nikola Travica, a journalist from Novi Sad, in a letter sent to journalistic associations and the media. In Serbia, if you decide to take your case to the court because your constitutional rights were violated, you might end up in jail yourself, says Travica.
(NUNS, 05.11.2012, Politika, Vecernje novosti – Vojvodina, 06.11.2012)

The Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS) and the Independent Journalists' Association of Vojvodina (NDNV) warned yesterday that the judicial system of Serbia was detrimental to the rights of journalists and all employees even in cases when it passes verdicts in their favor. They said that it was a cynical paradox that journalists are punished even if they dare to defend their rights in the court of law.
(Alo!, UNS, 06.11.2012)

The Media Strategy

The minister of culture of Serbia, Branislav Petkovic, said yesterday that the Media Strategy was being redefined, while different draft versions of media laws were being harmonized. He pointed out that negotiations were held with Radio Yugoslavia, Jugoslovenski Pregled and the news agency Tanjug about the withdrawal of the state from media ownership. Minister Petkovic added that the management of Tanjug was willing to conduct ownership transformation and to transition to market-based business operations. For this reason, various models existing in the European practice were discussed.
(Beta, Vecernje novosti, Tanjug, UNS, NUNS, 02.11.2012)

In the next year, the European Union will give 1.5 million euros for implementation of the Media Strategy in Serbia, said the deputy head of the EU Delegation in Serbia, Adriano Martins.
(EurActiv, Beta, NUNS, NDNV, 02.11.2012, Blic, Dnevnik, 03.11.2012)

The minority media

After a forced year-long hiatus, the only newspaper in Bulgarian language in Serbia, Bratstvo, should again appear on newsstands at the time of publication of this text. However, this newspaper, which is more than a half a century old, warns that its publication will again be uncertain after January 1 of the next year due to unsolved financing issues.
(Danas – Weekend Edition, 27.10.2012)