09. 11. 2009

ANEM SECOND PUBLICATION “LEGAL MONITORING OF SERBIAN MEDIA SCENE”

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ANEM proudly presents the second issue of the specialized Publication, "Legal Monitoring of Serbian media scene", which is an upgrade of the legal monitoring conducted in the previous quarter August - October 2009. Legal monitoring and publishing of the Monitoring Publication are supported by USAID and IREX Serbia.

Creation and issuing of the quarterly Monitoring Publication is the special ANEM activity aimed at promotion of the legal monitoring results. This monitoring is being conducted by the expert team of the law office "Zivkovic & Samardzic" in cooperation with ANEM, since May 2009. The quarterly monitoring preceding the release of this Publication indicates that the media sector in this period was marked with the following: bad changes of media regulatory framework, without the participation and against the will of the media sector; various forms of threats to freedom of expression, from the specific pressures, threats and disputable judiciary practice, through economic and political influence on the work of the media, to self-censorship of the media, which is the result of recent amendments to the Law on Public Information; indifference and disregard of the authorities for the media and their problems; confusion when it comes to the key media transition processes - privatization and digitalization, which, as the practice shows, are obviously not binding all equally; still distorted media market, with unequal status and treatment of subjects, which does not allow proper development of the media; stalling with the media development strategy, which actually should precede everything, and so prevent many problems that cause partial resolution of media issues, and so on. Considering that it is necessary to elaborate more on some of these media issues, for their essence, the importance and long-term consequences of their bad solution in order to be properly understood, ANEM has created this Publication as a set of selected expert texts, which treat chosen topics of key importance for the previous quarter. These are: amendments to the Law on Public Information and their consequences on the work of the media; the privatization of the media and its importance for the realization of media independence from political influence; media development strategy, which is the basis for further positive development of the media sector; the significance of free access to information of public importance and classified data for media freedom. A special supplement is a set of excerpts from the judicial practice of the European Court of Human Rights, through a review of two rulings that concern the application of Article 10 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The electronic version of this Publication is distributed to all partners and associates of ANEM, and printed edition will soon be publicly presented at the round table organized in Belgrade. The issue is bilingual, available in Serbian and English language, as it is intended for both local and foreign audiences.

Monitoring Publication II contains the following:

• Introduction (with summarized results of the quarterly monitoring in the period August-October 2009),

expert authors' texts:

• Amendments to the Law on Public Information: key problems and risks in reporting - the author: Slobodan Kremenjak, lawyer (through a presentation and analysis of the most disputable amendment to this law, the author gives instructions to journalists on how to prevent the negative consequences of these changes by raising the attention in their work)
• In focus: Media privatization  in Serbia - by Nebojsa Samardzic, lawyer (answers the question why it is important to continue the privatization of the media from the perspective of achieving an independent editorial policy, why is not good the state to be the owner of the media, and why it still is)
• Media strategy for the digital era - author: PhD Snjezana Milivojevic, (how overdue is the development strategy of the media sector, and how the current strategies - for the development of broadcasting and digitalization, are not a vision, but a source of confusion and outdated solutions; who would and who should participate in developing media strategy; why the strategy is needed at all and which are the key questions that the strategy should give answers to)
• (Right to) Information in service of freedom of media - author: Nevena Ruzic, MA (freedom of information and its importance for the freedom of the media; exceptional permission of restrictions on this freedom and classified data as one of them, with the obligation to achieve legal security; the importance of good legal framework and good practice in the field of freedom of information for the full exercise of freedom of expression and media freedom)

and the fifth text:

• European Court of Human Rights, Information note on the Court's case-law (extracts from official documents of the European Court of Human Rights, available on the website of the Court) - a short review of two rulings of this Court concerning the application of Article 10 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms; in the first, the monopoly of the authority over the information of public importance is rated as inadmissible, because it limits the right of the media, while in the second, the unlawful limitation of free access to information is sanctioned with right to compensation.

INTEGRATED VERSION of the Bilingual Publication II can be downloaded here