11. 12. 2004

MEDIA CATASTROPHIC SAYS LOCAL PRESS ASSOCIATION

BELGRADE, December 11, 2004 – Local print media are in the worst situation they have been in since the ouster of the Milosevic regime in October 2000, the Local Press Association said today. The association notes that many publishers are on the edge of collapse and has demanded that the Serbian Government adopt regulations and deadlines for the privatisation of media operating as state-owned public companies. Local Press supports the initiative of the Association of Publishers and Broadcasters and the Association of Private Media for coordinating deadlines for regulating VAT payments and tax returns. Representatives of Local Press say that, four years after democratic changes in the country, local media are in an unchanged position with political hierarchies still controlling the majority of print and electronic media. Because of this, media companies may find themselves in a situation where they can only survive is by funding from political forces which would then directly dictate editorial policy. The Local Press Association has 25 members, most of them municipal publishers and the remainder private.