An agreement between Telekom and the Telenor company threatens to completely alter the media market in Serbia. Telekom – with public money and agreements with other groups – threatens to become the dominant actor in Serbian media landscape, penalising media critical towards the government

The battle continues for the Serbian TV market. After TV Prva and TV O2 (ex B92) have changed ownership in an opaque way, provoking fierce debate over the involvement of telecommunications company Telekom – of which the state is the majority owner, a new document has emerged, stating that the aim of an agreement that is supposed to be signed between Telekom and the Telenor company is to “put an end to United Media’s and SBB’s activities in Serbia”.

The company United Media – which together with cable provider SBB is part of the United Group – owns two cable television channels, N1 and NOVA S, and of the online news portal Nova.rs., and plans to buy the daily paper Danas. All of the above-mentioned media are critical towards the Serbian government.

Belgrade, on the other hand, has full controll over all commercial television stations with national coverage and exerts a strong influence on the public service, including the Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) and The Radio Television of Vojvodina (RTV). In addition, the Euronews Serbia television channel, founded and 100% controlled by the company HD-WIN, owned by Telekom, will soon begin broadcasting.

According to the most recently available data, United Group holds 46.1% of the Serbian telecomunications market, while Telekom has a 42.4% market share.

Telekom – as its representatives said – is not satisfied with the current balance of power on the Serbian market, so it decided to sign an agreement with Telenor, owned by Czech businessman Petr Kellner.

Concerning explanations

This agreement – which, according to a press release issued by Telekom, fully complies with European practices and standards – envisages that Telenor will be able to use Telekom’s optic fiber infrastructure, thus contributing significantly to the liberalisation of the Serbian telecommunications market. In addition to using Telekom’s infrastructure, Telenor will have the possibility to buy contents produced by television networks controlled by Telekom as well as those produced and distributed by other companies, and it will also be able to produce media contents independently.

Judging by a press release from Telekom, the agreement at hand appears to be a standard agreement between two telecommunications companies. What raises concerns here is the explanation given to the Telekom’s board of directors by its executive director Vladimir Lučić regarding the agreement with Telenor.

“This [agreement] allows [us] to push SBB out of the market, it allows Telekom to consolidate its leading position as a retail fixed broadband internet service provider, as well as to generate a large turnover as a wholesale service provider. As far as our contents, i.e. our television channel are concerned, since the use of our infrastructure also means the possibility to use our contents, [the agreement] will allow our media contents to prevail over those produced by channels controlled by United Media. Therefore, the above-mentioned agreement will put an end to United Media’s and SBB’s activities in Serbia”, says a document signed by Lučić which came into N1’s possession and the veracity of which has not been disputed so far.

The statements contained in this document provoked a storm of discontent in United Group, but also among the Serbian public that has a critical stance towards the government. United Group and the government’s critics see the agreement between Telekom and Telenor as a call for destruction of the media that are not controlled by the elite as well as the umpteenth attack on media pluralism.

Reacting to the above-mentioned document, the Independent Association of Serbian Journalists (NUNS) said that the announced agreement between Telekom and Telenor, owned by PPF investment fund, may further reduce media pluralism and contribute to increasing state dominance in the media sector.

Pavol Szalai, head of EU-Balkans desk at Reporters Without Borders, said that “there is a risk that the agreement between Telekom and Telenor will prevent cable provider SBB from reaching a wider audience”, adding that the media owned by United Group (N1, NOVA S, and NewsMax Adria) offer information that cannot be found in the media controlled by the government.

Just a simple competition?

While waiting for the Commission for protection of competition to pronounce itself on this agreement, the Serbian leadership defined the whole dispute as a “competitive battle”.

Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić stated that “the dispute” between Telekom and Telenor on one side and SBB on the other “has absolutely nothing to do with media freedom”, as that would be a battle for the telecommunications market.

Asked by N1 journalists if it is appropriate for a state-owned company to say that its goal is to destroy another company, President Vučić responded: “I usually don’t meddle, even if it would be right for me to be concerned about Telekom’s interests, because the state holds shares in Telekom, but I try not to meddle, I have learned my lesson. It is clear that there is a competitive relationship between your company and Telekom, but it is important for us to guarantee [the conditions for] the competitive battle”. Vučić also added that “everyone is fighting their own battle on the market” and that “in a competitive system everyone has to fight for themselves”, inviting the opposing sides to resolve the dispute in court.

It is highly possible that this dispute might end up in a national or international court, but what is clear is that despite the approval of the new media strategy and related action plan – which clearly say that state withdrawal from media ownership should be completed in the next future – we are witnessing a diametrically opposed scenario.

Joint-stock company Telekom, of which that state – that is Serbian citizens – is the majority owner, has served as a smokescreen for many operations, including the purchase of Adria Media Group, the launch of Euronews Serbia channel, and the agreement with Telenor. These operations have allowed Telekom and its pro-government media to strengthen their position in Serbian media landscape.

Using Telekom, the state returned indirectly to the media sector, making sure that it can exert an even stronger influence than when it owned the majority of Serbian media.

BRCKO, 16.02.2021. – The Department of Health and Other Services of the Government of Brcko District has corrected the vaccination plan against COVID-19 in the District, so that media representatives will be among the priority categories of the population that will receive vaccines.

According to the Brcko District Government, in addition to health workers and vulnerable populations, journalists, cameramen and other media professionals will be included in the first phase of vaccination.

– Taking into account the importance of the journalistic profession in a democratic society, as well as the immeasurable contribution to public reporting on the coronavirus pandemic and all the social consequences it caused, the above-mentioned amendment was made so that members of the journalistic profession could continue their work in a safe and free manner – stated the letter of the Department of Health and Other Services of Brcko District Government.

At the end of January, Ministry of Civil Affairs of BiH sent a request to the competent health institutions to include journalists on the list of priorities for coronavirus vaccination. The Prime Minister of Republika Srpska, Radovan Viskovic, previously announced that journalists would be a priority group, while the authorities in Federation of BiH have not yet officially stated that.

BANJA LUKA/SARAJEVO, 12.02.2021. – The Steering Committee of the BH Journalists Association and the Free Media Help Line (FMHL) are sending a public protest to the administration of Railways of Republika Srpska for attacking the media crew in Banja Luka and trying to prevent reporter and cameraman from performing their journalistic tasks.

While they were preparing to record the statement of the former RS ​​Railways employee, on Wednesday, February 10, journalist Đorđe Vujatović and the cameraman who worked with him were approached by RS Railways security worker Milenko Kičić, who verbally attacked them and threatened to “break their camera” and “break them on the concrete” if they continue filming. At that moment, the media crew was in a public area, at the parking lot in front of the RS Railways, which they tried unsuccessfully to explain to the security worker who attacked them. The cameraman managed to record part of this incident and in the end, the police were called and took statements from all the actors in this event.

The Steering Committee of BH Journalists and the Free Media Help Line strongly condemn this attack on media freedoms and endangering the safety of journalists and the media. We demand from the RS Railways administration to conduct an internal investigation into the incident and sanction their employee Milenko Kičić in accordance with the company’s rules of operation, as well as to send a public apology to journalist Đorđe Vujatović. The statement of the RS Railways Information Service  which states that “according to their knowledge and internal checks” the worker did not threaten the journalist, and that the media crew filmed “facilities, space and employees of the RS Railways unauthorized, without permission”, represents a relentless attempt to justify the attack on journalists, especially given the fact that a video of the incident is published on the Internet and publicly available and it clearly shows a worker of this company threatening a journalist and a cameraman.

Such attacks on journalists who have only done their job in a public place, where no one can forbid them to film are inadmissible in a democratic society. Unfortunately, this is not the first such case in Bosnia and Herzegovina – a similar incident happened two years ago when the photographer of the online magazine Žurnal Adi Kebo was physically attacked on a work assignment, but also in many other situations.

The Steering Committee of BH Journalists draws attention to the fact that many employees of public institutions and companies are obviously not sufficiently familiar with the rights of journalists and media, which often leads to violent attempts to prevent media teams from doing their job. Therefore, we emphasize the need for the management of institutions in BiH to acquaint their employees, especially those who work in security department, with at least fundamental rights of journalists, which includes performing journalistic tasks in public areas without interference.

BELGRADE, 12.02.2020 – The Coalition for Access to Justice hereby requests from the Government of the Republic of Serbia to remove  without delay the shortcomings in its work on amending the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance (hereinafter referred to as: LFAIPI), by ensuring that the work on drafting of the Law will be taken over by the competentMinistry for Human Rights alongside equalparticipation of experts, media representatives, associations and others, in accordance with the Law on the Planning System.

Democracy and rule of law are based on the competency and transparency of the work of public authorities.

LFAIPI represents one of the foundations of the democratic order of the Republic of Serbia. The aim of this law is to regulate the manner of exercising and protecting the right of the public to be informed about the work of public authorities. This right is guaranteed under the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia.

For a decade now, LFAIPI has been considered to be among the best European laws in the field of access to information by relevant international organizations.

The work on amending LFAIPI has been burdened with numerous irregularities, i.e. shortcomings which can be classified into five groups.

First of all, the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government (hereinafter referred to: MPALSG) is not competant for amending LFAIPI. The competences of this Ministry cannot be either directly or indirectly drawn from Article 11 of the Law on Ministries. According to Article 12, and in conjuction with Article 39 of the abovementioned law, the Ministry in charge of drafting human rights regulations shall be competent for amending LFAIPI, which means the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue.

Second, the working group in MPALSG tasked with amending LFAIPI, which was formed after the establishment of the new government of the Republic of Serbia, consists only of addressees of the Law, i.e. public authorities which are obliged to respect and protect the right to access information whereas the beneficiaries of the Law, i.e. the representatives of  civil society organisations, media as well as the professional and general public, have been excluded. In this way, participatory mechanisms in shaping the content of legal provisions, characteristic of a democratic legal order, are completely neglected.

Third, and directly related to the  point above, the identified shortcomings are related to the transparency of the work on amending the Law. Namely, the MPALSG web page does not contain basic information on the drafting of the Law in the period following the establishment of the working group which currently works on the amendments, which means this activity is hidden from the public. The latest published information on the proposed legislative solutions dates from November 2019. In that sense, it seems that it could be easily concluded that the law, which should ensure the transparency of the work of public authorities, is drafted insecret, which is especially concerning if we take into account the recent statements of the Commissioner for Free Access to Information of Public Importance, which is also a member of the working group, that “Everything in the Law will be changed”.

Fourth, on the basis of the available information, the drafting of the Law after the establishment of the new Serbian government has not been organized in the manner prescribed by the Law on the Planning System. Here is a shortlist of provisions of that law which have been violated so far:

• Failure to recognise“stakeholders” and “target groups” referred to in Article 12, as entities participating in policy making;
• Violation of the principles of public policy system management referred to in Article 3, and especially the principles of relevance and reliability, prevention and precaution; equality and non-discrimination, transparency and partnership, as well as responsibility;
• Violation of the rules on drafting policy concept papers referred to in Articles 16 and 17 and in conjuction with the public policy regulatory measures referred to in Article 24;
• Violation of the rule on conducting ex-ante impact assessment referred to in Article 31;
• Violation of the rule on transparency of the work performed referred to in Articles 32-34.

In addition, according to the available information, no public debate on the draft Law has been planned yet, which may lead to a violation of the provision on conducting a public debate referred to in from Art. 36 of the Law.

And fifth, on the basis of the available information on the work done so far on LFAIPI amendments, and especially on the basis of the insight into the proposed solutions from 2019, it can be concluded that there is a serious and imminent danger of the system of access to public information collapsing. Namely, in the context of the model of misapplication of laws that have so far been shaped in the practice of public authorities, the Commissioner for Free Access to Information of Public Importance and the Administrative Court, the adoption of the proposed solutions would, on one hand, allow for serious violations of the interest of the public to know when this interest prevails in relation to the opposite interest, and on the other, it would allow for violations of public interests and the interests of protection of the rights of individuals in cases when these interests prevail in relation to the interest of the public to know.

The Coalition for Access to Justice members are the following organisations:

Centre for Advanced Legal Studies

Civil Rights Defenders

Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia

Independent Journalists’ Association of Vojvodina

PRAXIS, Humanitarian Law Centre

Youth Initiative for Human Rights

CHRIS – Network of the Committees for Human Rights in Serbia

Sandzak Committee for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms

MOSTAR/SARAJEVO, 12.02.2021. – The Steering Committee of the BH Journalists Association publicly demands from the City Council of the City of Mostar to provide journalists and media crews with direct monitoring of the Council session and election of the Mayor of Mostar and not via Internet, with full respect for the normal working conditions for all media in accordance with international standards of media freedom. The election of the Mayor of Mostar is an event of exceptional importance for all citizens of Mostar and the whole of BiH. The exclusion of the public and the media from the process is a harsh attack on freedom of expression and the right of citizens to be informed through the media about the voting process, political coordination and responsible behavior of councilors they voted in the recent elections.

The Steering Committee of BH Journalists considers it inadmissible to introduce political and institutional censorship of the media in Mostar, with an unconvincing explanation and excuse about the lack of space for media crews in the City Hall of Mostar because of the scheduled wedding!? The inappropriate and arrogant behavior of the administrative staff of the current City Administration and the newly elected councilors is an example that no one should follow, especially not the government elected by the will of the citizens. BH Journalists therefore remind Mostar City Council that publicizing the work of local authorities and providing free access to events and public information to all journalists and media outlets are fundamental values ​​of European, democratic societies, and an integral part of the right to freedom of expression and dignified work of journalists.

In this context, the Steering Committee of BH Journalists demands an urgent change of the decision backed by the City Council, and calls on Chairman Ivan Zelenika to apologize publicly to journalists and invite them to follow today’s session in a direct manner and until the end of the entire election process. At the same time, BH Journalists call on the OSCE Mission to BiH, the Delegation of the European Union and the Office of the High Representative to, in accordance with their powers, prevent violations of the rights of journalists in Mostar.

PODGORICA, 11.02.2021. – Almost 60 percent of citizens think that media freedoms in Montenegro are at a low or very low level, while half of them think that the position of journalists is more or less bad.

This was announced at the press conference “Presentation of the results of research on media and media freedoms”, organized by the Center for Democracy and Human Rights (CEDEM) within the project “Strengthening the capacity of local media to report on human and minority rights”, supported by USA embassy in Podgorica.

The author of the research and the main methodologist of CEDEM, Milos Besic, also stated that the number of citizens who believe that journalists are mostly protected or unprotected is equal.

The survey showed that over 45 percent of citizens believe that the state should adopt special measures to further protect journalists, while one in three believes that there is no need for that.

“When asked how efficient the state is in prosecuting and punishing those who threaten and attack journalists, about 47 percent of citizens negatively assess the state’s efficiency in this regard, while twice as many citizens think that the state is more or less efficient in prosecuting and punishing those who endanger journalists “, stated Besic.

When asked what is the reason for the inefficiency of the state in terms of protection of journalists, as he said, 50 percent of them said they did not know the reason, corruption and organized crime were chosen by 15.4 percent of citizens, inefficiency and selectivity of the judicial system by 11.3 percent , lack of political will 10.7 percent.

The data, he said, show that citizens have high expectations of the new government when it comes to protecting journalists and media freedom.

“They think that the new government will treat the media and journalists better. 30 percent of citizens say that it will be significantly more efficient, 17 percent that they will be equally efficient, and 15.5 percent – less efficient,” Besic stated.

When it comes to investigative journalism, the most dominant view is that investigative journalism is generally good (39.5 percent), but that a small number of journalists deal with it in the right way.

Answering the question of which political structure the media supports, the least citizens cannot assess, while most of them think that the media are divided on that issue.

“A similar percentage of citizens believe that the media work for the interests of the owners (39.6) on the one hand, as those who work for the interests of politicians (39.7 percent), on the other. Every fifth citizen of Montenegro believes that the media mostly work for the interests of citizens,” said Besic.

The research showed that citizens generally believe that the media are not independent in relation to various actors.

“On a scale from 0 to 1, TV Vijesti is estimated as the most independent media with almost 0.33, followed by the newspaper Vijesti 0.29 and the portal Vijesti 0.28. It is followed by RTCG 0.28, Dan 0.26, CDM 0.25, Analitika 0.23, FOS 0.22 “, said Bešić.

According to the citizens, as he said, the government at the state level is the most responsible and about 30 percent of citizens have identified that actor as a key violator of media rights and freedoms, about 15 percent of them believe that media owners do it, and only one in ten attributes it to journalists.

“Over 40 percent of citizens believe that the public service has better business conditions than private ones, as opposed to 26 percent of citizens who say that private media have better business conditions. More than half of  citizens believe that the degree of media freedom is more present in the private than in the public media,” Besic said.

When asked who should contribute the most when it comes to the promotion of media freedoms, the research showed that comparatively, the greatest contribution is expected from journalists, the state, the media and media owners and professional associations.

The research showed that every second citizen of Montenegro does not trust the media, that television is still the most dominant medium, the most visited social network is Facebook, and citizens have high expectations of the new government when it comes to protecting journalists and media freedom.

He pointed out that television is still the most dominant media and that over 70% of citizens watch television every day.

“The second most frequently watched are social networks, which are used daily by 45.3 percent of citizens. Social networks and internet portals are gaining in importance from year to year. Behind that are two traditional media. 21.3 percent listen to the radio every day, and only 8.4 percent of the citizens read the newspapers every day,” Besic stated.

The Vijesti portal is monitored daily by every fourth citizen of Montenegro (24.3), and the second and third in terms of frequency of monitoring are CDM (16.2) and RTCG (15.2).

“Citizens have the most trust in the Vijesti portal (32.8) in which every third citizen has a higher or lower level of trust. Then follows RTCG (21.5), and then CDM (18.3) “, stated Besic.

Any newspaper is followed daily and regularly by a very small number of citizens, but the most read is Dan, which is read regularly or daily by 7.5 percent of citizens, followed by Vijesti with 6.2 and Pobjeda with 4.2 percent.

“When it comes to trust, trust is expressed in the same order, with the differences being proportionally small. 23 percent of citizens express confidence in Dan, 21 percent of Vijesti and 18 percent in Pobjeda” said Besic.

When it comes to televisions, the most watched are Vijesti, which in the category is very often watched by over 52 percent of citizens, followed by RTCG 1 with 40.5 percent, TV Prva 30.6 percent, Nova M 23.6 percent.

“When it comes to trust in information on TV stations, the first are, again, Vijesti with 59.2 percent of citizens, followed by RTCG1 (51.4), RTCG 2 (46.1), and PRVA (43.8) and NOVA M (38). So, the more often people watch a media, the more they trust it, or people watch a media because they trust it”, explained Besic.

The most visited social network, he said, is Facebook, which is followed daily by 42.8 percent of citizens, followed by Youtube 30.8, Instagram 23.3 percent. He added that the highest level of trust is in Facebook, which is trusted by 35.9 percent of citizens, and trust in Youtube is 34.7 percent.

When asked if they heard about fake news, 45 percent of respondents answered that they heard, 26.9 percent of citizens heard about fake news, but they are not sure what that means, and 28.3 percent of citizens do not know what fake news is.

Just over a quarter of citizens are more or less able to recognize fake news, and it is possible to manipulate fake news with about a quarter of citizens.

“When they recognize fake news, most citizens simply ignore it, but ignoring it does not stop the spread of fake news. A very small number of citizens share them and inform others that this is fake news or report to the administrators that they have seen it”,said Besic.

The program manager, Marko Pejovic, said that the research was conducted from December 10 to 21, 2020, and 999 respondents participated in the research.

BELGRADE, 10.02.2020 – Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia condemns the threats and insults directed at Gordana Uzelac from Pink TV. We call on the institutions to react and the authorities to provide protection.

IJAS also reminds that only in 2020, 32 physical attacks, 15 attacks and endangerments to property, and 50 verbal threats were recorded. We also recorded  92 pressures on journalists and the media. So far in 2021, 11 attacks and pressures were recorded, including this one.

IJAS regularly reports on each case of attack to regional and international organizations, so it strives and tries to follow up on each of these cases till the very end.

We appeal to calm the passions in the media environment, so we call on government officials not to further have an effect on the contamination of the already poisoned scene.

IJAS,

10.02.2021.