13. 09. 2004

First television station for Orthodox Church

TRSTENIK, September 13, 2004 (B92) – The Serbian Orthodox Church is to establish its first television station, operating from Trstenik. ANEM correspondent Gordana Jevdijic reports that the local Municipal Council has decided to transfer ownership of the regional TV Trstenik to the Zica Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church. The former director of TV Trstenik, deputy Culture Minister Miroljub Radosavljevic, said that it had been decided that the station should seek a specialised niche. “Obviously we can’t be a regional broadcaster so we came up with the idea of setting up the first Orthodox television station. “This isn’t being done in a hurry, if we were in a hurry we would have done this long ago. This is a case of being late, rather than being in a hurry. The process has been delayed because we have been waiting for a decision from the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church, these negotiations have been going on for two or three years. You know that all decisions by the Church take time, but they are made properly,” said Radosavljevic. Thirty employees of the former public company have decided to stay with the new Church television station, while the remaining 26 will remain with the radio station and daily Tribina, if the local government authorities decide to keep operating these. A majority of local councillors were in favour of the board of RTV Trstenik’s decision to transfer part of its assets, in the form of the television station, to the Zica Diocese.