SEEMO ulaže protest Srbiji

30.01.2003.

Dear Madam Speaker,

The Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), a network of
editors, media executives and leading journalists in South East Europe and
an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), is deeply concerned
about the failure to implement the Public Broadcast Act in Serbia.

According to information before SEEMO, this Act was adopted six months ago,
but its implementation has been blocked since the beginning by the Serbian
Parliament. Although the Serbian government, the organs of the Autonomous
Province of Vojvodina, NGOs and other authorised bodies fulfilled their
legal obligations on time and have already proposed their candidates for
membership of the Broadcasting Council, neither the Serbian Parliament nor
its authorised parliamentary committee have managed to propose their own
candidates for membership of this body. As a result, this has brought to a
standstill the selection and formation process of the Regulatory
Broadcasting Agency.

In SEEMO's opinion, the Parliament's failure to meet the given deadline
represents a fundamental problem, particularly given the worrying state of
public broadcasting in Serbia. Also, the electronic media have been kept in
an undefined position for a long time now, thus blocking the further
development of radio and television stations in terms of programming and
technical facilities.

Therefore, SEEMO calls for the urgent formation of the Council and its
Regulatory Broadcasting Agency, as well as for the necessary transition of
Radio Television Serbia (RTS) from a state-controlled broadcaster into a
true public service broadcaster.

We thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,



Oliver Vujovic
SEEMO Secretary General

Povratak