09. 06. 2005

"Why People Whisper in Church"

The apology by Sasa Milenic, the Deputy Mayor of Kragujevac, to Bishop Jovan for the TV serial "Why People Whisper in Church", which has been prepared with the support of Media Center's Media Fund, clearly indicates that politicians still think erroneously and believe that they have right to interfere in exclusively professional issues. Namely, this local official of Kragujevac municipality stated his intention to call the editors of RTV Kragujevac to account for the programme. He also said that other local officials were worried over the fact that the programmme managed to satisfy editorial criteria. Media Center, not only as an institution that participated in the making of the TV series - within the EAR's Programme of Support for the Professional Development of Serbian Media - but also as an institution whose mission is to raise professional standards in the media, must point out that outside interference, from political or any other circles, constitutes the gravest violation of principles of media freedom. The quality of the work of journalists can be judged only by professionals, and its success - by their audience. Politics and politicians are not welcome here. A possible formal explanation - that RTV Kragujevac is a public company and that authorities have right to intervene in professional issues - is especially disturbing, not only because professional issues are by definition outside the influence of politics and ownership, but also because all legal deadlines for privatization are already past, which arouses suspicion that government is deliberately delaying privatization of the media in order to use public companies to influence professional issues. Nebojsa Spaic Director of Programmes Media Center