IFEX ovaj tjedan donosi vijesti sa srpske medijske scene

09.11.2005.

November 1-8, 2005

KRAGUJEVAC AGAINST PRIVATISATION OF RTK BEFORE FREQUENCY ALLOCATION

KRAGUJEVAC, November 2, 2005 (Danas) - The mayor of Kragujevac Veroljub Stevanovic and representatives of the union of Radio Television Kragujevac (RTK) urged the state authorities at the press conference yesterday to defer the process of privatisation of this media outlet until the allocation of frequencies to the electronic media in Serbia.

"We demand the revision of the decision to initiate the process of
privatisation of RTK, brought by the Government on October 21. The city is opposing to the privatisation of the station under these circumstances. The local government intends to reshape RTK into a regional media outlet before the frequency allocation tender, which should put its price up in the privatisation", Stevanovic said, adding that "some people would want to buy the regional media outlet at a very low price and misuse it as an instrument of their political party".

Presidents of the Independent Union and Nezavisnost Union of RTK, Jugoslav Barjaktarevic and Dejan Djusic, have backed up the mayor's standpoint. They pointed out that RTK had been loaded with problems, before all the ambiguous tenure and business relations with the cable network SBB, which still needs to be investigated.

Beside abrupt decision of the Serbian Government to initiate the process of privatisation of RTK, this media outlet is also in the focus of attention of the local public due to the anticipated dismissal of the current director Slavica Trifunovic. Mayor Stevanovic repeated yesterday that the Trifunovic's dismissal would be proposed at the next Assembly's session, scheduled for Friday, November 4.

The Liberals of Kragujevac "struck back" saying that if their renowned member, RTK director Slavica Trifunovic, and the head of the Sports Center Mladost Branislav Derovski, also a Liberal, were removed from their positions, the party would step out of the coalition majority the day after tomorrow.

Speaking for the daily Danas, leader of the Liberals of Kragujevac and also the president of the City Assembly, Dobrica Milovanovic, denied yesterday ever being so determined in the decision to stop participating in the activity of the local parliament's majority.

"Such decision could only be made by the Presidency of the Liberals of Kragujevac in its full constitution. On the other hand, we went to the polls together with the non-party individuals, as coalition "For Our City". We will see what happens after the session of the City Assembly on Friday", said Milovanovic, adding that he would state his opinion on dismissal of the RTK director and SC Mladost "when the time comes".

MEDIA FORUM

PRAGUE, November 4, 2005 (Beta) - A traditional Media-Forum, organized by MDLF, will start today in Prague, for the independence media representatives from twenty eight countries.

The two-day forum will cover many topics, such as newsroom financing, management and organisation, as well as several topical discussions on the main challenges of modern journalism.

Altapress representative Yuri Purgin, AMIN's Khalid Abu Akir and Mihail Kumok from "Melitopolska vedomosti" will elaborate on the issue is the ethics in journalism the way to lose readers, listeners, viewers and money.

Ljubica Markovic from the Beta News Agency, Yuri Fedotinov from Echo of Moscow Radio and Hose Ruben Zamora from El Periodico will discuss sources' reliability and use and misuse of sources, which is generally seen as a sore spot of journalism in many countries in transition.

The privatisation of media and influx of domestic and foreign capital will be discussed within the topical segment "To welcome investors or not?"
Anticipated speakers on the topic are Zoran Borcic from "Novi List" and Veran Matic from RTV B92.

Dragan Janjic from the Beta News Agency and Sandra Savic from RTV B92 will talk about the new way to organize desk, influences on editorial policy and quality of reporting.

Since 1996, the Media Development Loan Fund has supported over 80 projects of more than 50 independent media from 17 countries of Middle and South East
Europe, Russia, Africa, Asia and Latin America with loans, technological modernization or trainings for managers. MDLF currently runs projects in 11 countries.

1.5 BILLION DINARS FOR RTS

BELGRADE, November 4, 2005 (FoNet) - The budget for 2006 envisages 1.5 billion dinars to be secured for Radio Television Serbia.

The budget envisages paying subsidies to three media outlets and the Broadcast Agency, totaling 1.71 billion dinars, out of which, according to the Government's special program, 1.5 billion dinars goes to the national television station.

The Broadcast Agency will thus get 100 million dinars, "Panorama" publishing company, relocated from Pristina, will secure 84 million, while "Bratstvo" publishing company from Nis will be entitled to 30 million dinars. Council of Serbia-Montenegro Ministers for Information Directorate will secure 211.1 million dinars, while the largest part of the funds, 183.5 million dinars, is envisaged for Tanjug, Radio Jugoslavija, "Filmske Novosti" and "Jugoslovenski Pregled".

These companies carry out informational activities that are in the general interest of the state union, and, under the Implementation of Constitutional Charter Act, they will continue to conduct their work by the time their status is defined by the declaration of Serbia and Montenegro.

Furthermore, Tanjug is envisaged to get additional 10 million dinars as a donation from the Serbian Culture Ministry.

TV SUBSCRIPTION MUST BE PAID

POZAREVAC, November 7, 2005 (Danas) - "The privatisation of the state-owned media, as the law stipulates, is essential for the further democratization of the society, from which the people working in those media would benefit the most. If there have been any public disagreements regarding the payment of the subscription for the national television, it is now legally regulated. The subscription will be paid together with the electricity bills. In the past period, the media took over the role unfitting for them, instead of informing the public objectively and responsibly", said the Serbian Culture Minister Dragan Kojadinovic, at the opening of the tenth
Pozarevac Biennale "In the light of Milena".

DISMISSAL OF RTK DIRECTOR

KRAGUJEVAC, November 7, 2005 (Danas) - At the last week's marathon session of the Kragujevac local assembly that started at early in the morning on November 4, the director of the Radio Television Kragujevac Slavica Trifunovic, director of the Sports Center "Mladost" Bratislav Djerovski and director of the Company for Town Construction Mirjana Vulic were relieved from their duties by the majority of delegates' votes.

Their dismissal was proposed by the Kragujevac Mayor Veroljub Stevanovic.

Boris Jovanovic, a former journalist of Kragujevac private television
station "Kanal 9" and TV "IN" was elected new director of the Radio Television Kragujevac at the same session, while Rasko Tanasijevic and Zoran Tenjevic were appointed directors of SC "Mladost" and Company for Town Construction.

The dismissals of heads of all Kragujevac-based institutions with whose work the mayor Stevanovic was not satisfied, were announced several weeks ago.

The decision to relieve the directors of several local companies has upset the political public in Sumadija, since all dismissed were the eminent activists of the Liberals of Kragujevac.

Liberals of Kragujevac were active participants of the local parliament's majority work until last Saturday.

ILIC: DJILAS RESPONSIBLE FOR COLLAPSE OF RTS

VALJEVO, November 8, 2005 (Danas) - Capital Investment Minister Velimir Ilic stated B92 was being financed by mafia and tycoons and made series of accusations against the Director of the People's Office of the Serbian President Dragan Djilas.

Speaking for the local "Vujic Television" from Valjevo, Ilic accused Djilas of running a campaign against him. He also said Djilas was "the boss of B92 and daily 'Kurir', which he would soon prove.

"That's true and the whole Serbia knows it is. I can prove that, but let's see if he (Djilas) can prove otherwise."

The Capital Investment Minister said that "Djilas was racketing certain public companies like Telecom". He also said Djilas was responsible for the collapse of Radio Television Serbia, which would now fall on the backs of the people of Serbia. Ilic challenged Djilas to a TV duel, adding he would "put him behind the bars sooner or later".

Ilic also accused Djilas of "trespassing of TV B92 on his private property (in village Atenica near Cacak).

"I will teach him (Djilas) a lesson sooner or later. I will never forgive
him that, he will have to explain what B92 was doing on my property where my father, grandfather, all my ancestors lived, and where my family lives now", said Ilic.

Minister Ilic criticized Serbian president Boris Tadic for being surrounded by "the distrustful characters like Djilas and (Srdjan) Saper who pat him on the back".

CEKIC: TRANSFORMATION OF RTS

NOVI SAD, November 8, 2005 (Beta) - Chairman of the Serbian Broadcast Agency Council Nenad Cekic said the broadcast field in Serbia is chaotic.

Cekic also said the transformation of Radio Television Serbia into a public broadcast service is the priority of the Council, anticipating the process to be concluded by April 2006.

He however discarded the objections to introduce TV subscription before the transformation of RTS into a public service saying the transformation had to be financed somehow.

Cekic said one of the main aims of the Council was the allocation of
national commercial frequencies, saying there would be only 5 of them.

"There are currently 755 radio and television broadcasters in Serbia. That's too much for the field like Serbian."

MORE PROFESSIONAL MEDIA

BELGRADE, November 8, 2005 (FoNet) - Special reporter of the Media Center's Press Council Gordana Susa said the state of ethics in the Serbian media in October had been improved as compared to the previous months.

"The media was more careful to place sensitive information from the ethical point of view. This however does not mean there was no violation of ethical principles. Dailies Vecernje Novosti and Glas Javnosti still lead with 11 cases of violation of ethical norms. Following are the daily Kurir, with 10 articles, and Blic with 6, while Politika, Danas, Vreme, NIN and Evropa had only one such example", said Susa in her report.

"The most common cases of not respecting the ethical principles were sensationalism, publishing of groundless accusations, libel, rumors and defamation, fabricated letters, letters of anonymous authors and authors whose identity is unverifiable", said Susa.

She also said that the major problem lied in the fact that journalists often failed to comply with the fundamental rule of confirming the information by at least two sources prior to releasing it. 
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