The Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS)

The Laguna Lux hotel in Nis is offering a 15% discount on the regular prices of accommodation to members of the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS). Additional information is available on the website www.lagunalux-prenociste.rs.
(NUNS, 20.02.2012)

The tourist association "Zvezda" from Brus is offering a 25% discount on services in the Mountaineering Home "Bela Reka" in Brzece on Kopaonik and the hotel "Zvezda" in Brus. Additional information is available on the website www.tudzvezda.com.
(NUNS, 20.02.2012)

Journalistic trade unions

The Center for Development of Trade Unions and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation will present today the results of the research "Trade Unions in the Media", conducted on the sample of media reports during nine months in 2010 and 2011. The analysis covers nine daily newspapers and four weekly magazines.
(Pregled, 27.02.2012)

During the previous period, the daily Danas was the newspaper that paid most attention to trade unions and related issues – more than any other print media outlet in Serbia. This is the result of the research conducted by the Center for Development of Trade Unions in cooperation with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. According to the results, almost a fifth (18%) of all articles on trade unions have been published by Danas. Topics related to trade unions and rights of media employees in Serbia were mostly presented in the form of daily news, reports from specific events or publication of press statements. Only a few media outlets deal with this topic in an analytical or investigative manner. The research shows that reports, news and interviews comprise 75 percent of all content dedicated to trade union issues, while analytical forms like articles and comments comprise the remaining 25 percent.
(Danas, UNS, 27.02.2012, Danas, Pregled, UNS, 28.02.2012)

The Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA)

1.
Issuance of a broadcasting license to politically biased TV Kopernikus 3 (Svet Plus) is only one in a series of oversights committed by the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA), whose decisions are often controversial, writes the daily newspaper Blic. Appointment of Dalibor Bubnjevic – the promoter of the book authored by Goran Davidovic Firer – as a member of the Managing Board of Radio-Television Vojvodina; failure to punish obvious hate speech on television stations and excessively long advertising blocks; allowing TV stations to sell time slots to political parties in violation of the law – these cases prove that RRA has not been doing its job. RRA did not adequately react after the host of the programme "Evening with Ivan Ivanovic" insulted the Croatian community in Serbia.
(Blic, 07.02.2012)

2.
Employees of TV Avala demand to know for how long the authorities will tolerate broadcasting of a programme that deviates from the programme requirements specified at the issuance of the broadcasting license for the station. Representatives of the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA) say that at the moment there is no danger that TV Avala might lose its license, but that problems related to the strike should be solved as soon as possible.
(Blic, 08.02.2012)

3.
The daily newspaper Blic chose Porfirije Peric, the president of the Council of the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA), as "the loser of the day" because of the lack of response of RRA to the strike in TV Avala: "For how long will the TV station continue airing programe that differs from the requirements specified its broadcasting license?"
(Blic, 09.02.2012)

4.
Unsurprisingly, the issuance of broadcasting license to the cable TV station Svet Plus 3 has rocked the Serbian media scene. In the words of the spokesman of the Council of the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA), Srboljub Bogdanovic, there is no reason to doubt that any violation of regulations after the issuance of a license will be punished. The program director of Transparency Serbia, Nemanja Nenadic, has no doubts either: he says that the RRA is now less forgiving towards broadcasters then previously. Srboljub Bogdanovic told Tanjug that the Agency had never refused to issue a license for cable broadcasting, upholding the principle that everyone should be allowed to operate if they adhere to regulations and punished if the opposite was true.
(Politika, NUNS, UNS, 13.02.2012)

(Please note: News items 1-4 were mistakenly left out of the previous issue)

The Council of the Republic Broadcasting Agency has established that since January 2010 – when the Agency began submitting charges related to violations of the Law on Advertising – the number of violations in the electronic media has dropped tenfold. The statement issued by the Council said that a procedure had been initiated to punish broadcasters who had failed to properly label programmes unsuitable for persons under 18.
(Press, NUNS, 23.02.2012)

Radoslav Plavsic, a representative of small shareholders of AD Jedinstvo, received a notification from the legal department of the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA) informing him that the Council of RRA had decided at a session held on 3 February of this year to "annul the license no. 39/2007 (issued on 17 December 2007 to the company Jedinstvo in Novi Pazar for the purpose of broadcasting programme in the broadcasting region 2) as of 15 December 2011". TV Jedinstvo broadcasts its programme in the areas of Novi Pazar, Tutin and Sjenica. The decision was made because AD Jedinstvo had been closed down after the completion of its bankruptcy proceedings in mid-August. The company was removed from the Serbian Business Register on 15 December of the last year. At the same session, the Council of the RRA decided to send to the Republic Agency for Electronic Communication (RATEL) a demand that RATEL should investigate whether the TV station was still airing its programme. The director of TV Jedinstvo, Serif Marukic, says that his company has not received any document from RRA, but that he has received unofficial information about the decision.
(Danas, 25.02.2012)

Members of the Council of the Republic Broadcasting Agency held a meeting with representatives of broadcasters from the Western Serbia and discussed the problems of illegal airing of programme. Representatives of broadcasters pointed out their extremely difficult financial position that was caused by the large number of stations that air their programme without any license. It was decided that during the following week a meeting with other authorities should be organized. Since 2008, RRA has made 258 decisions on banning of illegal airing of programme, 123 requests for initiation of legal proceedings, and submitted 167 criminal charges.
(Danas, 25.02.2012)

During the second half of the last year, national broadcasters made almost eight times less violations of the Law on Advertising than in the same period of 2010, says the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA). The Agency points out that between June and December of the last year, there was 804 registered violations related to advertising on TV stations with national frequencies, while during the same period in 2010 there was no less than 6,183 violations. According to RRA, the largest number of violations of the Law on Advertising in the second half of the last year was committed by TV B92 – 276 violations in total. TV B92 is followed by TV Pink (222), TV Prva (91), TV Avala (88), RTS2 (61), RTS1 (30), TV Happy (32), and TV Happy Kids (4). Radio stations with national coverage committed much less violations of the Law on Advertising between 1 June and 31 December 2011 – 676 violations in total, while in the same period in 2010 the total number of violations on national radio stations amounted to 3,220.
(Danas, Blic, Dnevnik, Vecernje Novosti, NUNS, UNS, 29.02.2012)

Six years after the adoption of the Law on Broadcasting and Advertising, citizens are still unprotected from arrogant behavior of national broadcasters who are bombarding them with excessively long and often too loud advertising blocks, writes daily newspaper Blic. TV stations with national coverage – and there is five of them – find it more profitable to pay fines in the amount of 30,000 euros a month than to act in accordance with the law. Although the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA) is authorized to annul their broadcasting licenses, it prefers to make them pay fines. National TV stations violated the Law on Advertising 2,472 times in 2011. The vice president of the Council of RRA, Goran Karadzic, sees no problem in this fact. As he told Blic, "this is a good result because the number of violations is much smaller than in the previous years". The most frequent violator is TV Prva with 611 violations of the Law during the year, followed by B92 (452), RTS1 (412), RTS2 (398), Pink (389). TV Avala and TV Happy committed much less violations: 130 and 106, respectively. A professor at the Faculty of Political Science, Rade Veljanovski, is of the opinion that national broadcasters must not be allowed to continually violate the law and that RRA should react forcefully. "Commercial broadcasters are allowed to have 20 percent of advertising space, while RTS is allowed to have 10 percent. They have been exceeding this limit for a long time, while the RRA has failed to respond adequately. RRA informs us about all the registered violations, which means that RRA tolerates breaking of the law", said Veljanovski to Blic and added that "here we have a situation where someone breaks the law several dozen times, and the problem does not lie in the law but in its implementation". Snjezana Milivojevic, a professor and a former member of the RRA, has a similar opinion. She believes that broadcasters would act differently if RRA had reacted properly.
(Blic, NUNS, 28.02.2012, RTV 29.02.2012)

The Republic Agency for Electronic Communication

Using a mobile measuring unit, the Republic Agency for Electronic Communication (RATEL) registered several instances of illegal broadcasting and identified the perpetrators. They had already been warned several times by RATEL and their operations banned. Apatin is ranked at the top of list of places with highest number of illegal broadcasters per capita in Europe.
(Večernje Novosti - Vojvodina, NUNS, 27.02.2012)

South East Europe Media Organization (SEEMO)

SEEMO, an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), condemns the alleged assault against a Studio B TV crew. SEEMO joins the Association of Serbian Journalists (UNS) in demanding more significant sanctions in such cases. “I applaud any prompt police action, but I also call on the authorities to guarantee the safety of journalists,” said SEEMO Secretary General Oliver Vujovic. “Sentences for this type of offense are often very light, and courts take a long time to deliberate and implement them.”
(SEEMO, 23.02.2012)

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the number of attacks on journalists in Serbia has been on the increase during the last two years, warns the South East Media Organization (SEEM O). Since 2010, ten journalist have been attacked or threatened, while five of them – specialized in reporting on corruption – have been given police protection. Representatives of SEEMO met with the minister of internal affairs, Ivica Dacic, who pointed out problems related to the journalists' trips abroad, where police protection teams cannot follow them. For this reason, international police cooperation will be initiated that would resulting in protection of journalists in the country of arrival as well as in the country of departure.
(Vecernje Novosti, 24.02.2012)

SEEMO will, in cooperation with different partners, expand a number of press freedom websites dedicated to monitoring media developments in specific countries. Currently, SEEMO runs websites on press freedom issues in Belarus, Hungary, Macedonia and Turkey. SEEMO will create press freedom websites dedicated to Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Greece, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia and Ukraine. The web project is expected to be completed by September 2012. Country-specific websites contain an array of information sources in English: news, exclusive monthly reports, legal and political analyses, and local and international initiatives in support of press freedom.
(SEEMO, 27.02.2012)