Minister Ristić's Attack on the Press Council: Abuse of Office and Public Disinformation

(Source: Danas) Serbia’s caretaker Minister of Information and Telecommunications, Dejan Ristić, has once again misinformed the public by making inaccurate and unfounded claims about the work and jurisdiction of the Press Council, the body said following his comments and remarks about members of the Council’s Complaints Commission.

Namely, Ristić, according to the Council, took it upon himself to label the work of the Complaints Commission as “so selective that it has lost all meaning,” without offering any evidence for this claim, apart from his own judgment that some Commission members (he named three of the 11) are “clearly opposition-oriented.”

“We don’t know if the outgoing minister is trying to create an alibi for potentially allocating budget funds to media outlets that the Commission finds to have violated the journalistic code, but this is not the first time Ristić has tried to present the Press Council as an organization doing a poor job, consistently misrepresenting its role and position in our media landscape. Since becoming minister, he has repeatedly claimed that the Press Council is a regulatory body with legal authority, like REM, which is absolutely false,” reads the statement signed by the Managing Board and the Complaints Commission of the Press Council.

Furthermore, the statement says, Ristić has now taken it a step further by claiming that “the state entrusted the Press Council with the task of monitoring print and online media.”

“With this, the outgoing minister has once again shown that he either does not know or does not understand the responsibilities of the Press Council or the concept of media self-regulation. His belief that the state can delegate tasks for which it itself has no jurisdiction further calls into question his competence,” the statement adds.

However, as the Press Council concludes in the statement, “the fact that he does not know or understand something does not give him the right to continually make false claims and, with irresponsible statements and malicious assessments, undermine the reputation of the Complaints Commission members and the credibility of the Press Council.”

Among other things, the outgoing minister stated that the Council’s Complaints Commission “is selective in its decision-making, and we have witnessed this day after day for years.”

“Complete selectivity, especially considering who the members of the Complaints Commission are,” Ristić said, naming FoNet deputy editor-in-chief Tamara Skrozza, Vreme weekly’s editor-in-chief Filip Švarm, and former Commissioner for Public Information Rodoljub Šabić, describing them as “clearly opposition-oriented.”

Ristić continued, saying, “It is clear that they approach their task — supposedly entrusted to them by the state — of monitoring print and online media so selectively that it has lost all meaning.”

He reminded that the monitoring of electronic media is the responsibility of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM), but noted that REM currently does not have a functioning Council, even though it operates thanks to its professional services, which continue to publish reports.

Ristić also stated that “enormous amounts of money from certain Western countries, foundations, and organizations have been invested in Serbia’s media — tens of millions of euros or dollars, depending on the source country.”

He went on to say there is a worrying trend of violations of professional and ethical standards, as well as the misuse of professional associations which, although formally non-political, actively engage in the political arena.

“We have a whole series of journalists, media outlets, and journalist associations that are actively involved in politics, all while violating basic professional and ethical standards. They are even violating their own statutes, which define them as non-political, professional organizations. It’s good that many of them have come out publicly and made themselves clear to the citizens,” Ristić said.

One of the Commission members named by Ristić, lawyer Rodoljub Šabić, called this a “deeply unfair attack.”

“The minister knows very well that almost everything he said is untrue. And he knows that if he accuses someone of selectivity in their work, basic decency requires that instead of labeling them as opposition figures, he should at least provide an example of that ‘selectivity.’ He doesn’t — because there isn’t one,” Šabić said.

He added that the minister is engaging in a “cheap attempt to discredit the Press Council and its Complaints Commission.”

“It would be better if he explained his ‘contribution’ to the delay and eventual collapse of the process to appoint a new REM Council, which he caused by distorting the law,” Šabić told Danas.

To recall, the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM), which unlike the Press Council has the authority to sanction TV broadcasters, has lacked a functioning Council for five months. Only the Council can make decisions in such matters.

Leaving aside the fact that REM has for years acted solely in the interest of the ruling authorities and pro-government media, the minister again failed to explain the suspicious and unlawful way in which the parliamentary process for selecting REM Council members was abruptly halted — in order to avoid explaining to the public that the process had been compromised from the start by procedural violations and the nomination of politically connected candidates who did not meet the legal criteria. As a result, seven out of 18 independent candidates withdrew from the selection process.

“The amount of superficiality, arrogance, and malice in Minister Ristić’s attack on the Complaints Commission is staggering. This PhD holder, who once aspired to the status of an intellectual (perhaps even an independent one?), has, in the whirlwind of political conflict, degraded himself to an enforcer of authority. It’s bad enough that, as an outgoing minister, he chose to attack a body of an independent self-regulatory organization, but he singled out three individuals from the group and targeted them specifically. His delusion is evident in his claim that the state entrusted tasks to the Commission,” said Slobodan Cvejić, former member of the REM Council and vice president of the Serbia Center party.

He further explained: “In other words, he singled out three of the 11 members of the Press Council’s Complaints Commission — which isn’t even a regulatory body like REM, but a self-regulatory body founded by responsible journalists to uphold professional ethics and order in public communication.”

“He characterizes the Commission as biased based on its members — and not six out of 11, but just three. Vučić has apparently taught him that 30 percent is a majority! And, as any loyal foot soldier of the leader, he criticizes respected journalists and a lawyer for being opposition-oriented! Yes, that’s the dreadful label applied to anyone with critical thinking, to anyone with integrity. The exact opposite of his pals from Pioneer Park,” concluded Cvejić.

“Even in a caretaker role, it is shameful how he abuses his position as minister and fuels division in society,” Cvejić added.