13. 09. 2004

Information Committee reviews campaign report

BELGRADE, September 13, 2004 (B92) – The Serbian Parliament’s Information Committee has reviewed a report by the Broadcast Agency on media behaviour during the campaign for the Serbian presidential elections. The chairman of the Broadcast Agency Council, Nenad Cekic, has warned that BK Television has further violated the Broadcast Act by publicly commenting on the agency’s warning over the presidential campaign. The agency repeatedly claimed that the broadcaster had favoured the campaign of its owner, Bogoljub Karic. “We find it particularly dangerous that a number of things are interwoven, things which need to be defined and specified by amendments to the Broadcast Act. Political parties are not permitted to own television stations. What if an individual has both a political party and a television station? Does this party then have a television station or not? This has to do with how we interpret things,” said Cekic. Responding to a complaint from the Radical Party that B92 and other broadcasters were selective in their presentation of presidential candidates, Cekic said that the council makes a distinction between the right to exercise editorial policy and flagrant breaches of the law.