Confidence Crumbles in Serb Broadcast Council

Michael Hedges November 8, 2004

Created more than two years ago the agency meant to overhaul Serbia’s broadcast media remains mired in politics left over from the Milosevic era.
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The Broadcast Council, created in July 2002 by a new broadcasting law, took to business in June of this year. The Serbian Parliament nominated Council members, three of whom, including the designated chairman, attracted immediate criticism from broadcaster and journalist organizations. The law creating the Broadcast Council stipulated four members would represent the parliaments of Serbia and Vojvodina, two representing universities and churches and two representing the media sector. A ninth member, selected by the Council, would represent Kosovo.

When the Serb Parliament voted in July 2003 to uphold the selectionof three Council members despite protests of irregularity in their nominations, others members resigned and their seats remained unfilled. After gaining the Parliaments support two of the disputed members charged the president of the Association of Independent Media (ANEM) Veran Matic with engaging in a “witch-hunt.” Matic is also chief editor of B92, the independent broadcaster that famously rallied Serbs against the Miloslovic regime. The Broadcast Council, now thoroughly discredited nationally or internationally, never functioned.

A consortium of media groups posted new nominations. After a period of parliamentary inaction followed by a restructuring of the Council by amending the broadcast law allowing fewer members and government discretion in dismissing members those groups withdrew their nominations in late October in protest.

The Serb Parliament defended its restructuring of the Council as its attempt to jumpstart the needed regulatory reform.

At issue is an overhaul of broadcast frequency allocations in Serbia and Montenegro and reconfiguring the state broadcaster into a functioning public service broadcaster. Existing broadcasters either received licenses before the exit of Miloslovic or operate without licenses. Over 1000 radio stations, mostly unlicensed, now operate in Serbia and Montenegro. Television operators are seeking national coverage. Independent media groups – ANEM, the Independent Association of Serbian Journalists  (NUNS) and the Belgrade-based Media Center – have been skeptical of the process since the broadcast law was passed. 

In September Broadcast Council chairman Nened Cekic questioned an arrangement for television frequencies between BK TV and the Serb Montenegran Army, and agreement signed in 1997. The Army, said Cekic, is not allowed civilian broadcasting and that BK TV “was established through a series of grave cases of abuse.”

European financial support for the Broadcast Council was suddenly frozen in August 2003. “Proceedures were not honored,” said Hasso Molineus of the European Agency for Reconstruction (EAR), “and we are unable to support a process which has certain flaws.” In addition to EAR, the European Commission and OSCE also suspended support, which totaled about 300,000 euros annually.

Serb Culture and Media Minister Bromislav Lecic called the move blackmail.

“It seems that the battlefield has moved from home to abroad,” he said in an interview with B92 after the withdrawl of funding was announced, “with certain political circles applying pressure for this decision.”

The following month Giovanni Porta, head of OSCE’s media department, resigned and suggested that entrenched special interests with financial ties to foreign governments were sabotaging efforts to bring order to Serbia and Montenegro’s broadcast landscape. In a resignation letter made public, Porta specifically cited radio and television broadcaster B92.

Quoted by the weekly Nedelji Telegraf, Porta explained his decision to quit and brought light to the difficult media environment in Serbia.

“Rainy days await the small and defenseless media, “he wrote. “This does not only apply to those that enjoyed the patronage of the former regime, but those that call themselves independent, such as RTV B92. TV B92 is slowly being transformed into a private commercial media house, even though it still enjoys the privileges of receiving millions of US tax dollars.”

The European organizations that administer and finance reconstruction efforts in Serbia and Montenegro have left no doubts that they intend to purge as many traces of the Miloslovic regime as possible. This includes the media sector. A broadcast regulator independent politically was meant as a first step to insuring a media sector independent of those forces. Overcoming the dilemma – satisfying the international agencies, the local media sector and the strong will of the old guard – appears gravely difficult for the Serb government.

In a letter resigning his Broadcast Council nomination, Belgrade Media Center director Nebosja Spaic charged directly that “there is no political will to constitute (the Broadcast Council) as an independent, credible, legitimate and recognized one.”

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Montenegro Set To Change Broadcast Rules - November 1, 2005

The Broadcast Agency Council (BA) of Montenegro is in the midst reorganizing and rewriting its regulations for broadcasters. Frequency allocation, ownership of private stations, funding for a public broadcasters and, of course, advertising are mixed together with the need to harmonize regulatory structures with neighboring Serbia and satisfy European bodies, the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

For its size, Montenegro is filled with radio signals. There are 37 private stations, two channels of public broadcaster RTCG and 14 local public stations. Seven new stations have been approved in the first round of applications, according to BA International Relations Advisor Djordje Vujnovic, though none have yet received official licenses. The second round of applications is on going.

Under the new frequency allocation plan all private stations will apply for frequencies by region. The newly adopted rules require stations to pay license fees and debts and restrict the amount of re-broadcast programming and advertising. The public broadcaster is limited to 7 minutes per hour and private stations to 12 minutes.

Total advertising revenue for radio broadcasters in Montnegro, with a population slightly more than 600,000, is estimated at just €1.3 million leaving most to rely on subsidies and grants from international agencies. Antena M, the oldest privately owned radio station in Montenegro, is funded in part by the Swedish Helsinki Committee and the Media Development Loan Fund (MDLF).

Previously published in Radio World International, October 2005, in a slightly different form.