Implementation of Transitional Laws in Serbia 2006

Implementation of Transitional Laws in Serbia 2006The Referendum CampaignThe Referendum campaign was followed by aggressive media propagandain which citizens were called to vote in the referendum and say “YES“to the Constitution. The Government of Serbia, almost all parliamentaryparties, state institutions, religious and sports organizations and respectedindividuals were included in the campaign. The campaign was characterizedby uniformity of the messages, i.e. open cheering for one of the options(the confirmation of the Constitution) and threats to all those who werein favor of boycotting of the referendum. A group of political parties(the Liberal-democratic Party, the Civic Alliance of Serbia, the Social-Democratic Union and the Social-Democratic League of Vojvodina) andnon-governmental organizations had taken the position that the referendumshould be boycotted. The main reasons were of both procedural (theabsence of public discussion, secrecy on the framing of the Constitution)and statutory nature (the reduction of the achieved level of human rights,mentioning Kosovo in the preamble, the definition of Serbia as a nationalstate, insufficient level of autonomy of Vojvodina, etc) 198 . This block wasmainly ignored by the largest media houses (RTS, „Vecernje novosti“, thetabloids) or ignored to a large extent (RTV B92, TV Pink, „Politika“) 199 .The messages of the anti-referendum block could only be found in thelow-circulation daily newspaper „Danas“ 200 . For the purpose of illustration,the daily newspaper with the largest circulation, „Vecernje novosti“, in theperiod of the 17th to 28th of October, published 84 positive, and only fournegative texts on the proposition of the Constitution 201 .On the proposition by the Government, the Parliament of Serbia votedfor the Law on Rebalancing the Budget, by which funds were obtainedfor the referendum campaign of the political parties 202 RIK had, on 17th198 On the reasons for boycotting the referendum see the announcement of twenty eight non-governmental organizationsfrom October 25 th , 2006, available at the website: http://www.yihr.org/Srpski/Saopstenja/Saopstenja%202006/Saopstenja2006html/Stop%20snizavanju%20nivoa%20zastite%20ljudskih%20prava%20i%20sloboda.php, visited on November 25 th , 2006; also see the announcements of the following parties: LDP, October 5 th ,2006, available at the website: http://www.cedajovanovic.com/code/navigate.php?Id=567, visited on November25 th , 2006; GSS, October 6 th , 2006, available at the website: http://www.gradjanskisavez.org.yu/srp/saopstenja2.php?id=784, visited on November 25 th , 2006; LSV, October 5 th , 2006, available at the website: http://www.lsv.org.yu/?menu=1&news=1859, visited on November 25 th , 2006199 Report of the Press Council of the Media Center on the referendum campaign, published on November 6 th ,2006, available at the website: http://www.mediacenter.org.yu/upload/Savet%20za%20stampu/Referendum%20izvestavanje%20final.pdf, visited on November 25 th , 2006200 Ibid201 Ibid202 The Law on the changes and additions of the Law on Budget, adopted on September 29 th , 2006, OfficialGazette of RS number 85/0656