National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia / Activities / Activity details
13 October 2023 The participants of the meeting
Monday, 23 October 2023
National Assembly Deputy Speaker Dr Zoran Lutovac Meets with Media Freedom Coalition and Association of Independent Electronic Media Representatives
National Assembly Deputy Speaker Dr Zoran Lutovac received representatives of the Media Freedom Coalition and Association of Independent Electronic Media to discuss the Bill on Public Information in the Media and the Bill on Electronic Media, which are on the agenda of the current session of the National Assembly.
Lutovac said that they should improve the situation in the media sphere, but some of their points make it all meaningless and the real intention is political influence and control, through the return of the media into the state’s realm.
He emphasised that it is important that the issue of media freedom does not remain only within the realm of specialised associations and non-governmental organisations, considering that the media are one of the pillars of every state's democracy. Lutovac congratulated the representatives of the associations on their efforts to, through amendments to the abovementioned bills, try to prevent, he said, the suppression of the last traces of pluralism in society.
"There is no greater public interest than to have an informed public opinion, where there are no taboo topics, where there is no hiding what is unpleasant for the government or the opposition, but for citizens to be informed about everything that is important," said Lutovac.
The meeting was also attended by Marinika Tepic, who first of all expressed great concern about the possible future role of Telekom in the ownership structure of the media. She believes that today's meeting should result in an appeal to the Government, Euro-parliamentarians, ODHIR and all European partners that there be no vote on the abovementioned bills, or at least to postpone their implementation.
"Perhaps the solution would be that a Governmental amendment, because the Government, as the submitted of the bills, can change its proposal until the start of the debate on the amendments, does not ask for the complete withdrawal of the bills, but a delay in their implementation, until a professional REM is established or until a fifth frequency is assigned to Nova S or N1 TV stations", said Marinika Tepic.
The representatives of the Media Freedom Coalition and Association of Independent Electronic Media pointed to the disputed parts of the bills, to which they submitted amendments, and stressed that if these bills are adopted, what lies ahead is a great effort to create and adopt by-laws, as well as their implementation. They also pointed to, as they said, the death of free media, especially at the local level.
The meeting was also attended by MPs Nebojsa Zelenovic, Tatjana Manojlovic, Pavle Grbovic and Prof. Dr Djordje Pavicevic, and on behalf of the Media Freedom Coalition and Association of Independent Electronic Media by Ivana Stevanovic (Slavko Curuvija Foundation), Sasa Mirkovic (ANEM), Tamara Filipovic (NUNS), Stevan Ristic (Media Association) and Tanja Maksic (Online Media Association) .
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