Implementation of Transitional Laws in Serbia 2006

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Implementation of Transitional Laws in Serbia 2006BK television is the only station that has been closed down in this manner.The Serbian Broadcasting Agency (RRA) ordered that all electronic mediathat were not granted broadcasting license to stop broadcasting theirprograms. However, a decision was made that no media will be closeddown by the end of the year. Many members of the media connected thisdecision with the referendum campaign in Serbia. The last warning beforethe forced closedown was sent to radio and TV stations on November 1 st ,2006.New Changes to the Law on BroadcastingThe Serbian National Assembly’s committee for culture and informationsent the draft law on changes and amendments to the Law on Broadcastingto parliament for urgent adoption 538 . This was done without the knowledgeof the ministry and while the ministry was working on amendments to thesame law 539 . The main changes refer to granting jurisdictions to the RRACouncil to forcefully close down electronic media that has not been granteda broadcasting license 540 , then the deadline for broadcasters to start workingwas prolonged from 60 to 90 days 541 and the RRA Council was given the rightto grant licenses to cable and satellite distributors for broadcasting programwithout public contest 542 . Also, one of the provisions stipulates that insteadof the Serbian National Assembly, the consent to RRA’s financial plan isgiven by the government 543 .Associations of journalists, NGOs, but also representatives of the OSCEMission and the Council of Europe in Belgrade immediately reacted to thedraft law. In its press release, the OSCE Mission called for a public debateand pointed to numerous omissions in the work of the RRA Council 544 .Also, at the request of the OSCE Mission to Belgrade, an independent legalanalysis of RRA’s decisions was made 545 . The analysis was done by Karol538 Amendments to the Law on Broadcasting, B92, July 17 th , 2006, webpage: http://www.b92.net/info/vesti/index.php?yyyy=2006&mm=07&dd=17&nav_category=12&nav_id=204992&fs=1, visited on November 25 th , 2006539 A new chance for broadcasting, B92, August 2 nd , 2006, webpage: http://www.b92.net/info/vesti/index.php?yyyy=2006&mm=08&dd=02&nav_id=206598&nav_category=12, visited on November 25 th , 2006540 The Law on Changes and Amendments to the Law on Broadcasting, adopted on September 29 th , 2006, OfficialGazette of RS, number 85/06, Articles 11 and 12541 Ibid, Article 10542 Ibid, Article 7543 Ibid, Article 6544 Press release of the OSCE Mission in Belgrade, June 18 th , 2006, webpage: http://www.osce.org/serbia/item_1_19909.html, visited on November 25 th , 2006545 Legal opinion available at: http://www.osce.org/documents/srb/2006/05/20006_en.pdf, visited on November25 th , 2006108
Implementation of Transitional Laws in Serbia 2006Jakubovic, an expert for media regulatory bodies and director of the centerfor strategy and analysis of the Polish National Broadcasting Council 546 .Jakubovic stressed in his report that the process of decision-making was fullof fundamental weaknesses and that there is serious concern whether theRRA Council was guided by the principle of public interest in the processof decision-making when granting frequencies 547 .The Council of Europe pointed out that media standards have beenthreatened and that it is particularly worrisome that there was no publicdebate on this law 548 . The European Commission (EC) sent a letter tothe parliament speaker to warn that no urgent procedure without a publicdebate is allowed for this kind of matter and that enlargement of discretionjurisdictions of the RRA Council through amendments to the Law isdangerous 549 .The Association of Independent Electronic Media expressed bitterness notonly that the repeated changes to the broadcasting law were made withouta public debate, but also because of stronger government control over theRRA Council 550 . The Serbian Independent Association of Journalists, whichwas also opposed to this law, stated in a press release that with the adoptionof this law “the opinions of the President of the Republic, domestic expertpublic, as well as the top OSCE and EC officials in Serbia were arrogantlyignored.” 551The criticisms to the amendments to the law refer primarily to the factthat the agency was on the one hand placed under government control asthe government is to give consent to RRA’s financial plan instead of theAssembly. This solution directly causes that the RRA Council is dependanton the government, which may pressure the agency at any time by notgiving consent to its financial plan. On the other hand, the RRA was giveneven wider discretion jurisdictions on issues of regulation over the media,issuance of licenses and closing-down of stations that work without alicense.546 Ibid547 Ibid548 EC worried about broadcasting, B92, August 28 th , 2006, webpage: http://www.b92.net/info/vesti/index.php?yyyy=2006&mm=08&dd=28&nav_category=11&nav_id=209654&fs=1#, visited on November 25 th , 2006549 Ibid550 ANEM’s statement dated September 29 th , 2006, available at: http://www.anem.org.yu/anemnews/list.jsp?category=stat&language=sr&datey=2006&datem=09&dated=29&id=7400#id7400, visited on November 25 th ,2006551 What will happen with broadcasting, B92, September 30 th , 2006, webpage: http://www.b92.net/info/vesti/index.php?yyyy=2006&mm=09&dd=30&nav_category=11&nav_id=213706&fs=1#,visited on November 25 th ,2006109
Page 2 and 3:
Implementation of Transitional Laws
Page 4 and 5:
Page 6 and 7:
Page 8:
Page 12 and 13:
Page 14 and 15:
Page 16 and 17:
Page 18 and 19:
Page 20 and 21:
Page 22 and 23:
Page 24 and 25:
Page 26 and 27:
Page 28 and 29:
Page 30 and 31:
Page 32 and 33:
Page 34 and 35:
Page 36 and 37:
Page 38 and 39:
Page 40 and 41:
Page 42 and 43:
Page 44 and 45:
Page 46 and 47:
Page 48 and 49:
Page 50 and 51:
Page 52 and 53:
Page 54 and 55:
Page 56 and 57:
Page 58 and 59: Implementation of Transitional Laws
Page 138 and 139: 138Implementation of Transitional L
Page 158 and 159:
Page 160 and 161:
Page 162 and 163:
Page 164 and 165:
Page 166 and 167:
Page 168 and 169:
Page 170 and 171:
Page 172 and 173:
Page 174 and 175:
Page 176 and 177:
Page 178 and 179:
Page 180 and 181:
Page 182 and 183:
Page 184 and 185:
Page 186 and 187:
Page 188 and 189:
Page 190 and 191:
Page 192 and 193:
Page 194 and 195:
Page 196 and 197:
Page 198 and 199:
Page 200 and 201:
Page 202 and 203:
Page 204 and 205:
Page 206 and 207:
Page 208 and 209:
Page 210 and 211:
Page 212 and 213:
Page 214 and 215:
Page 216 and 217:
show all

Implementation of Transitional Laws in Serbia 2006

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?