24. 04. 2014

ANEM WELCOMES COMPLETION OF THE PUBLIC CONTEST FOR ISSUANCE OF TV BROADCASTING LICENSE WITH NATIONAL COVERAGE

Belgrade, April 24, 2014 - The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) welcomes the yesterday's decision by the Council of the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA) to formally end the public contest for issuance of the television broadcasting license with national coverage.

ANEM has pointed out on several occasions the formal and technical shortcomings of the contest and consistently criticized the organization of the public contest for issuance of a license for analog terrestrial broadcasting at the time when digital broadcasting is to be launched soon - and especially taking into account the fact that the obsolete legal framework has not kept pace with changes in technology and the media market that have been evident since 2006. Insistence on organizing the public contest by invoking the Article 49 of the Broadcasting Law has jeopardized and slowed down the process of digitalization, while the second, repeated, contest has resulted in a compromise regarding usage of the frequencies allocated to digitalization, thereby casting doubt on the usability of the remaining frequencies to future broadcasters with regard to ensuring nation-wide coverage. Aside from this, the same candidates have applied to both public contests and both times it has been established that they had not fulfilled the conditions defined by the Broadcasting Law, i.e. none of the candidates had won the required majority of votes in the Council of the Republic Broadcasting Agency (RRA). At one point, the public contest and the RRA were exposed to strong pressure during the second-instance proceedings taking place at the RRA because one of the candidates used its cable channel and other media outlets with the aim to force the independent regulator to change its decision and issue the license. For this reason, the yesterday's decision has a great importance since it has defended the integrity of the institution of the independent regulator.

ANEM calls on the RRA not to organize a new public contest until the adoption of the new Law on Electronic Media, especially taking into account the fact that the process of digitalization is in its final phase and that the next contest should relate to digital, not analog broadcasting.

If the RRA insists on a strict interpretation of the Law on Broadcasting and organizes a new public contest despite all this, such a step would waste more time and resources since the outcome would be the same. At the same time, it would divert attention from much more important issues in the media scene (adoption of a new legal framework, privatization of the remaining publicly-owned media outlets, transition towards digital broadcasting, reform of the public service broadcasters etc.).

ANEM calls on the RRA to thoroughly consider the needs of the media market and perform an all-encompassing analysis that would establish the realistic number of broadcasters in this media market, and then use the results of this analysis to begin preparing a draft of the new Electronic Media Development Strategy, while at the same time consulting broadcasters at the national, regional and local levels.

ANEM, as an association of electronic media, is fully available and offers all forms of cooperation and partnership to the Republic Broadcasting Agency, especially having in mind that by the end of the last year ANEM delivered the Agency a document that could serve as a basis for preparation of the new Strategy of Development of Broadcasting (Electronic Media).

ANEM President, Milorad Tadic