Amid suspicions of political influence, Serbia’s media regulator again handed national broadcasting licenses to four reliably pro-government TV stations.
REM Council at the beginning of the session about national broadcasting licensees. Photo: cenzolovka.rs
Serbia’s Regulatory Body for Electronic Media, REM, has granted national TV licenses for broadcasting via terrestrial digital transmission to four TV stations that already had them: Pink, Happy, Prva and B92.
The REM Council said on Friday that, “due to the great interest in obtaining a license for television broadcasting … the Council of REM made a decision to call for a tender for the award of another license for the so-called ‘fifth frequency’”.
Council president Olivera Zekic told the media that TVs will have to apply again for the fifth frequency and that she expects the process to be over by the end of autumn.
Fourteen TV stations competed for the four licenses: Pink, Happy, Nova S, N1, Prva, B92, TV Tanjug, Kurir TV, Kopernikus, TV K1, TV2, Vesti, BK and Una.
The process was conducted amid suspicion that licences would be given to media outlets close to Serbia’s ruling Progressive Party, not to those who criticized it, like N1 or Nova S televisions.
The REM Council insisted that it made its decisions “in a professional and responsible manner, in accordance with the democratic procedure, appreciating all the circumstances stated in the tender documentation, respecting the opinions of the profession, the public and each member of the REM Council.
“That is why the REM Council appeals to the broadest public and indicates the need to avoid any kind of manipulation and politicization in connection with the decisions made,” it said.
N1 TV news director Igor Bozic said after decision that, “the political message is clear – nothing is changing in Serbia, nor does anyone intend to change anything in terms of informing the public”.
One dissenting REM Council member, Judita Popovic, told media portal Cenzolovka after the meeting that in the decision making process, “not enough emphasis was placed on the fact that they [the stations that got licences again] broke the law in every possible way”.
Two NGOs, the Slavko Curuvija Foundation and CRTA announced proceedings before competent institutions against the REM for alleged non-compliance with the Law on Electronic Media.
“REM’s expert service in reports on the monitoring of broadcasters for years states that these televisions do not comply with the elaborations on the basis of which they were granted a license, that they do not have mandatory program contents, and do not meet the minimum prescribed conditions for providing a media service,” the Curuvija foundation said.
“A number of measures were imposed on the same broadcasters for violating legal provisions,” it added.
According to a 2020 report by the Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications and Postal Services, RATEL, some 84 per cent of households in Serbia use cable television, while Judita Popovic told the media portal Cenzolovka in July that “between 15 and 20 per cent of citizens do not have access to a cable network”.
Licences for national radio and television broadcasting via terrestrial transmission were given for the first time in 2006 to five television stations: Pink, Happy, B92, Fox and Avala. Fox meanwhile was renamed Prva TV, and Avala was stripped of its frequency in 2012.
Licences for other four TV stations were extended while competitions for a fifth frequency were held in 2013 and 2018, but none of televisions that applied got it.
On Friday, REM gave radio licencies to Hit Music FM, Radio S, Radio S2 and Play Radio.
Source link: balkaninsight.com
