09. 03. 2005

MINISTER OF CULTURE VISITED GLAS JAVNOSTI

BELGRADE, March 9, 2005 – Serbian Minister of Culture and Information Dragan Kojadinovic visited the Belgrade daily Glas Javnosti. Minister Kojadinovic spoke about the current state of media in Serbia, what the Public Information Act brought, and commented on recently announced introduction of the television subscription. “I’ve heard so many sad songs about the state of the Serbian journalist profession on various panels. Some media are in better, some in worse position. The state, however, cannot do the job of managers, directors and editors; it cannot improve the work conditions in this profession. Those who claim that this is an unsafe profession and demand the beneficiary years of service should be aware of how many young people hasten toward it. Then they would realize that this is not a work in a coal mine. Professional organizations should work on social programs and collective agreements in order to make the better place for everyone. The unions are here acting as local town halls that protect only the interests of their members”, Kojadinovic said. Kojadinovic noted that the deadline for privatization of electronic media has been extended to June 1, 2006. He has also announced the creation of media register and stressed the importance of information on the ownership structure, because, as he explained, due to lack of such records, it happened before that the owner of some print media was also a criminal. The problem of distributing information needed to be solved as well, especially those information covered with the label “official secret”. Some paragraphs, behind which were hiding those who did not want the information to be provided, needed also to be unveiled. The Draft Criminal Code also has some litigious provisions on libel and defamation. “Litigious provisions have been left by the group of lawyers working on the Code, alleging similar resolutions of some European countries. Justice Minister says that it is more complicated to abrogate the Act, than to amend it. We are both against bringing the criminal charges against journalists for libel and defamation.” Kojadinovic also supported further reorganization and reform of the Radio Television Serbia into a public service. He said that the subscription, although unflattering to citizens and commercial television stations, were just one of the ways of total democratization of media. “Our intention is to prevent the state institutions to own a single percent of the media. But, before that, public service needs to be demarcated from commercial television and the percentage of the commercials on RTS limited. Other media must define, through their personnel unions, whether the commercial percentage given to RTS is realistic. The state cannot be expected to do their job.” Minister Kojadinovic sees the national television station as a petrified, overstaffed structure. “Name one company in this country, beside this, that has more than 8,000 people employed? I believe that Aleksandar Tijanic, current director of the RTS, has the strength to break this fossilized structure, which many of them had entered exclusively according to their political suitability”, Kojadinovic said.