Minority media must remain free

(Source: Аутономија) Minority media have always been more sensitive to the influence and pressures of political parties and founders — formerly the Assembly of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina (APV), and today the national councils of national minorities — because they are almost entirely funded from the state budget.

How to preserve independent editorial and staffing policies in the languages of national communities in Serbia was the main topic of the conference “Self-regulation and Reporting in the Languages of National Minorities”, organized by the OSCE Mission to Serbia, the Independent Journalists’ Association of Vojvodina (NDNV), and the publishing house Ruske slovo.

For these reasons, Ruske slovo, with support from NDNV and OSCE experts, participated in a pilot project on self-regulation and the creation of an internal ethical media code, which was later formally included in the Law on Public Information and Media in the Republic of Serbia.

Karolina Hidea, acting Head of the OSCE Mission in Serbia, emphasized the importance of self-regulation in minority media, noting that it has been functioning voluntarily for five years as a result of the Media Strategy, even before the adoption of the new Law on Information and Media.

Boris Varga, director of Ruske slovo and member of the NDNV Court of Honor, stressed that reporting in minority languages must be free and that self-regulation in that institution arose from informal initiatives. He also emphasized that no distinction should be made between “majority” and “minority” media.

Journalist and media expert Nedim Sejdinović noted that internal media acts have become mandatory since the beginning of the year and are submitted to the Serbian Business Registers Agency (APR), becoming largely a formality. However, regarding the real need for independent editorial policies, the internal act of Ruske slovo has, in some ways, been ahead of its time.

The foundation of self-regulation at Ruske slovo is the Code of Journalists of Serbia, which protects not only journalists and editors from interference by the founder — the National Council of Rusyns — but also provides internal self-restraints. On journalistic ethics, Gordana Novaković, Secretary General of the Press Council, emphasized that the Code of Journalists of Serbia prohibits both self-censorship and direct censorship.

Veljko Milić, lawyer and media expert, explained in detail that the right to state budget funding for media founded by the national minority councils, which existed in the territory of AP Vojvodina, was expanded to the entire Republic of Serbia with the adoption of the 2023 Law on Public Information and Media.

These obligations were introduced to promote pluralism in these media and provide stronger guarantees of editorial independence. The law stipulates that the principles of media founded by national minority councils must align with the principles governing public media services and that editorial policy must remain independent from the founders.