24. 10. 2004

Broadcast Council chaos

BELGRADE, October 24, 2005 (B92) – The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), the Independent Association of Serbian Journalists (NUNS) and the Association of Serbian Dramatic Artists have withdrawn their nominations for members of the Broadcast Agency Council. The associations all say that there have been breaches of the Broadcast Act and that its original concept of the Broadcast Council as an independent consultant body has been perverted. The president of the Association of Serbian Dramatic Artists, Sonja Jaukovic, says that this organisation has also withdrawn its candidate for the same reason, following the example of the media organisations grouped around ANEM and NUNS. The last meeting clearly proved that agreement could not have been reached, said Jaukovic. “The whole atmosphere was completely without principle. It was absolutely clear that we won’t be doing any coordination of the lists and everybody already knew who the two candidates would be,” she added. NUNS president Nebojsa Bugarinovic believes that the withdrawal of the candidates is a result of the lack of faith in the present government, because the Serbian authorities are continuing with their nomination of disputed candidates for the council. “In fact some earlier arrangements we had with representatives of the Serbian authorities on a solution for the problems of the Broadcast Act were unsuccessful. After all, the amendments were adopted without public discussion. From our contacts with other proposers, or those who want to be proposers, we realised it would be difficult or almost impossible to reach any reasonable agreement,” he said. The president of the Association of Journalists of RTV Pres, Milorad Roganovic, said he was surprised by the move, describing it as merely lobbying. “The reason for this skirmishing and lobbying is the fear of not getting what they ask for. These are phoney concerns and I can say that freely and take full responsibility for it,” he said. Nebojsa Bugarinovic disagrees: “I have to say I don’t understand who we are lobbying. We’re simply stepping out of the nomination procedure. APRES and the Association of Serbian Journalists now have an open space. I suppose they will now easily reach agreement. I don’t understand their reaction at all. Perhaps they can breathe more easily now,” he said. The group of journalists organisations gathered around the Association of Serbian Journalists and the Association of professional Broadcasters have proposed Milorad “Fandja” Jaksic and Slobodan Joric as members of the Broadcast Agency Council.