Serbian Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) Council chair Olivera Zekic said that REM will end its strike once the police find and punish the person who drew a swastika and the acronym REM at the entrance of the building in which her deputy, Milorad Vukasinovic, lives and once the pressures regarding the decision on the award of the fifth broadcasting license have ceases.
„The suspension of work will last until healthy working conditions are created, meaning when the persecution by Nova S, N1 and by a certain part of the opposition part of the society and civil sector, which has been going on for years, stops. The request is for the pressures to cease and for the competent bodies to find and punish the person who drew that sign outside my deputy’s building,” Zekic told the Journalists’ Association of Serbia.
Zekic said that, due to the strike, REM will not be making any decisions, including that on the fifth national broadcasting license.
“The independence in the work of and the safety of Council members as well as of all REM employees is seriously threatened. For years REM employees are exposed to pressures from a part of the opposition political parties, independent media and a part of the civil sector organizations, and they are directly threatening its independence in performing its work,” Zekic added.
REM decided on Thursday to suspend work.
Information and Telecommunications Minister Mihailo Jovanovic said any kind of influence on REM’s work is “unpermitted and impossible.”