The Ministry of Information and Telecommunications decided to form a Working Group for drafting the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Public Information and Media without the majority of representatives of organizations that participated in the drafting of media legislation, the Public Information Strategy and the accompanying Action Plan.
In addition to representatives of the Ministry of Information, the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Justice, the Working Group will also include representatives of the Journalists’ Association of Serbia, the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia, the Union of Serbian Journalists, Local Press, the RAB Association, the Association of Journalists of Vojvodina , PROUNS, Comnet and the Independent Union of Employees in Graphic, Publishing, Information and Cinematography of Serbia.
We asked Minister Dejan Ristić why organizations that previously participated in the drafting of media laws and other documents were not invited to the Working Group, to which he replied that the Ministry decided to “extend the responsibility for the work on the drafting of amendments and additions to legal regulations to other associations that have not participated in it so far”, again indicating that 76 professional associations in the field of public information are active in Serbia. On this occasion, we would like to point out the fact that the number of registered associations is not and can never be an indicator of pluralism, activity or expertise of the same.
We remind you that the practice of previous ministers in charge of information, as well as of the Government of Serbia in previous convocations, was that all member organizations of the Coalition for Media Freedom delegate their members to all working groups related to the drafting of media legislation, the Public Information Strategy and the accompanying Action Plan. Such a practice was not without grounds because all organizations proved that they are credible partners and that they contributed significantly in the process of adopting key regulations in the field of public information.
Each member of the Coalition for Media Freedom has its own expertise in individual issues in the field of public information, and the absence of their representatives will have a negative impact on the quality of the work of the working groups, as well as on the legitimacy among journalists, citizens and the professional public. We remind you that practice has shown that the drafts of the Media Strategy and the initial process of drafting the Law on Public Information and Media were inconsistent with European standards and practices when these key partners were excluded from the process of drafting both documents.
For this reason, we express concern that the amendments to the Law on Public Information and Media that will follow will be to the detriment of media freedom and media pluralism.
The Coalition for Media Freedom and Association of Independent Electronic Media (AIEM)
Belgrade, December 4th, 2024
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’