On Monday, September 30, 2024, the Ministry of Internal and Foreign Trade in the Government of the Republic of Serbia launched a public debate on the Law on Advertising, with a minimum legal deadline of 20 days.
The Coalition for Media Freedom has already warned that the Ministry of Internal and Foreign Trade established a Working Group for Amendments to the Law on Advertising, without media associations and without the notification of the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications, which is responsible for implementing the Media Strategy, and in which four activities are linked for the field of advertising.
The Coalition particularly emphasized that it had repeatedly received a “promise” from the Government of the Republic of Serbia and the Prime Minister at the time, Ana Brnabić, that coordination would be established among the working groups, established precisely because of the amendments to the media and other relevant laws mentioned in the Media Strategy. Part of the promise was that representatives of media associations, the Association of Media and Local Press, would be co-opted into the membership of the working group.
One year and four months later, i.e. one year and six months after the formation of the working group and the release of the Law on Advertising into public discussion, the status is the same as at the beginning: without transparency of the process, without coordination with the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications, and of course without new representatives of media associations … The process itself was conducted informally, therefore, without minutes from all sessions, without an agreed agenda – just as it does not befit serious institutions and serious tasks!
Among the omissions, it should be noted that the Law does not include the creation of a regulatory framework in the areas of public information and advertising by public authorities and political advertising, and in the process of e-consultations, not a single proposal of the Coalition for Media Freedom and Crta was adopted. Due to all of the above, and many more doubts, it is necessary to start with extending the deadline for the public discussion, so that together we can reach acceptable solutions, which imply professional, serious and thorough work, and in the end, a compromise of all actors in an important process for the future of the Serbian media scene.
The Coalition for Media Freedom: the Association of Media, the Association of Online Media (AOM), the Independent Association of Journalists of Vojvodina (NDNV), the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (NUNS), the Business Association of Local and Independent Media “Local Press”, the Slavko Curuvija Foundation and Branch Trade Union of Culture, Arts and Media ‘Nezavisnost’