BELGRADE, 15.06.2020. – Everyone needs independent and professional media and this represents a challenge for every country, not just Serbia, said the head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia, Andrea Orizio.
He told the FoNet news agency that the media is the basis of every democratic society and that the importance of media for the citizens could especially be seen during the coronavirus pandemic.
Orizio reminded that the OSCE joined the work on the Media Strategy on an invitation by Serbia’s Government.
“That strategy was adopted in January, and now we are working on the funds for the implementation of the Media Strategy,” Orizio said, stressing that the real challenge will be its implementation.
Speaking about the elections in Serbia, Orizio stated that the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) has formed a special unit that will observe both the pre-election and election processes and will assess how it all went.
“The ODIHR is unable to deploy long-term and short-term observers due to the current circumstances, but it will have a basic mission to observe all aspects of the campaign, the election process itself and will issue a statement after it all,” he explained.