Council for Media and Confusion: The aim is the degradation of the Press Council, which defends quality journalism in the face of the onslaught of disinformation and propaganda
(Source: Cenzolovka) Phantom gongo associations are suddenly coming alive in order to bring additional chaos at an important moment for the future of journalism in Serbia – when key media laws are changing and while the state openly tries to enable pro-regime tabloids, who violate all journalistic norms and create an atmosphere of fear and violence, to continue to receive millions from the budget for obedience
The portal contact phone is from Cacak and the address of the office from Los Angeles (California, USA), copied logo of another association and four news items belonging to others, falsely dated as announcements from five years ago, headquarters in Novi Sad, and in the Statute (database of APR) it says that the association will “raise ethnic standards”…
This is the first thing a journalist faces when he wants to learn something about the new Media Council of Serbia, which presents itself as “an independent, self-regulatory body that brings together publishers, owners of print and online media and professional journalists”.
Until now, journalists of print media had a self-regulatory body known to everyone under the name of the Press Council, which cares about compliance with the Code of Journalists in print media, news agencies and web portals. The emergence of another “council”, especially after a statement was published claiming that “the Press Council and related media are misleading the public; They are neither the only self-regulatory body, nor are they authoritative to judge all media,” it deserves to be checked.
Almost everything on the website of the new Media Council, which has the ambition to oversee the implementation of the Code of Journalists in all media – is a gross violation of the Code of Journalists, primarily the obligation to be truthful and not to manipulate facts.
The bombastic statement was written to attract attention, maybe some journalist wants to meet them or, rather, think that the new “council” wants to present itself better.
However, getting to know each other is not an easy task. No one answers the phone, and equally useless is the address from Los Angeles. In the database of the Agency for Business Registers it is written that the representative is Emilija Marić, editor of Novi Sad TV and the obvious, if not the only, known interlocutor on the topic.
After the first basic introduction of Cenzolovka journalist and the question “Do you have a little time to talk about the Media Council?”, Emilija Marić, with a sigh, says:
“I wouldn’t give (a statement). Thank you. I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t do anything. Thanks.”
There was an unpleasant noise from a broken connection.
Without a relevant interlocutor from the new Media Council, we return to the portal. The only content on the portal is taken from the portal of the Press Council, which this new council in the aforementioned statement sharply criticizes, disputes and degrades.
PLAGIARISM, FAKE DATES, OTHER PEOPLE’S NEWS…
The only content of the portal are four news stories, three of which are recent decisions of the Press Council, and the fourth “news” is the announcement of the Media Center that on June 27, it is not known which year, a panel will be held where members of the Press Council, among whom there are some who are deceised, will discuss the role of this self-regulatory body with journalists from Belgrade newsrooms.
Only the most recent post is correctly dated, while the other three are falsely dated as posts from 2018 although two more are from this year, and the fourth from we don’t know which one, but it certainly is not from 2018, because it mentions people who were not in 2018 in the functions cited in that text.
Almost everything listed on the website of the new Media Council, which has the ambition to monitor the implementation of the journalistic code in all media in Serbia and to improve the practice – is a gross violation of the journalistic code, primarily a violation of the obligation to be true and not to manipulate facts.
On the portal of the Council for media there is a banner #EU za tebe which denotes EU-funded projects. It is not known that this Media Council is funded by EU donations.
The portal also displaya a slogan, which is part of the Press Council logo: “Fast, free, fair.” Is it the theft of intellectual property? They didn’t know how to answer this question in the Press Council.
Sloppy, manipulative, inaccurate. These are epithets that could at first glance be put in the description of the portal of the Media Council of Serbia. Even the Statute of this new association, written obviously very ambitiously on 11 pages on the comprehensive professionalization of all media in the best European and world tradition, has one inappropriate mistake. At least we can hope it’s a mistake, because it says it will raise “ethnic standards,” which doesn’t mean anything in a professional journalistic sense, but it smells irresistibly of something that would be completely the opposite.
The text of the Statute with such an error was published as an official document in the database of the Business Registers Agency.
WHO, WHAT, HOW, WHY
According to the APR, the Media Council was established on May 10 this year. Its objectives are : “Improving the application of professional and ethical standards in the sphere of media and journalism and the dissemination of media literacy.”
The Statute states that the objectives of the council are “the application of the journalistic code in the work of all media in Serbia: radio, television, newspapers, magazines, services of news organizations and agencies, their electronic editions, independent electronic media – portals, other editorially designed websites and other types of media, which recognize the competence of the Council, but also “education for acting in accordance with the journalistic code and strengthening the reputation of the media and the journalistic profession”, and “raising ethnic professional and technical standards in an effort for the media to improve its role as an information service to citizens in the public interest”, “promoting and introducing European and world standards and values into the practice of the media”.
They also have a Complaints Commission that decides on the appeals of an authorized applicant, and it is stated that the decisions of the commission and the council apply to those who are members of the council or accept its jurisdiction. It’s just not clear who they are or what they are or whether they are members of the Complaints Commission.
However, since neither the bombastic statement of the new “Media Council”, nor their portal, nor the “conversation” with Emilia Maric inspires any confidence in professionalism, it is high time to stop dealing with them and move on to the circumstances that led to their establishment.
GONGO FOUNDERS
The Media Council has the ambition to control the application of the journalistic code in both electronic and print media, although the portal is exactly an example of its violation.
From their repeatedly mentioned statement, we learn that the founders of the Media Council: The Association of Electronic Media ComNet, Professional Association of Journalists of Serbia PROUNS, Association of Journalists of Vojvodina DNV, Association of Media and Media Workers UMMR, Association of Journalists of Niš DNN and Association of Radio and Televisions of Serbia ARTS.
Representative media associations UNS, The Coalition for Freedom of the Press (consisting of six professional associations) and ANEM In July 2021, they drew public attention to associations that do not care about the profession, but about something else.
In their statement, they said that “the Ministry has decided to include in the Working Group for drafting media laws, as they stated, “news associations PROUNS, KomNet, Association of Journalists of Serbia, The Association of Radio Televisions of Serbia, the Association of Journalists of Vojvodina and the Association of Media and Media Workers” and that “some organizations under this name do not exist, do not have contact data, active websites, cannot say how many members they have, i.e. which organizations are part of the association, as well as that the same people who appear as officials in one, appear in other organizations”.
They warned that “the Ministry is close to marking the end of the system of project co-financing of media content, which was established in good faith in Serbia in 2014.”
These associations are no longer in the Working Group, but now appear in the obscure Media Council.
And the latest version of the draft law on public information and media, although it does not foresee the existence of more than one, well-known Press Council, is not acceptable because it allows media that violate the code can unhindered receive budget money for media projects.
Professional, representative associations have been warning for days that according to the new version of the draft law on public information and media, media publishers that have not accepted the competence of the Press Council as a self-regulatory body can violate the Code of Journalists and receive taxpayers’ money for the production of media content without restrictions, which is contrary to the Media Strategy, which was adopted by the Government of the RS.
At the same time, for media publishers who accept the competence of the Press Council, a possible violation of the Journalists’ Code would bring negative points when allocating public money for the production of media content.
MONEY IS MONEY, AND THE CODE MAY NOT BE
There is an ongoing public debate on the draft law on public information and media and an attempt by professional media organizations and associations to prevent the current practice of financing media that violate the Code of Journalists, well-known tabloids, close to the regime, which foster the language of hatred, intolerance and, above all, are the biggest source of disinformation and fake news.
Professional and representative journalists’ associations are trying to introduce in the draft law the obligation that public money cannot be obtained by the media that the Press Council labels as media that violate the code of ethics. That is why this is the most opportune moment for opponents to relativize everything: the credibility of the Press Council and the Code of Journalists, as well as previous research that has shown that the tabloids that publish the most fake news are financed by millions from the budget.
The battle for professionalism with the help of the Press Council is still ongoing and it is not certain whether it will be successful.
NOVAKOVIĆ: THE AIM OF THE MEDIA COUNCIL IS CONFUSION
Press Council Secretary Gordana Novaković told Cenzolovka that the goal of establishing the Media Council is to divert attention from important changes to the Law on Public Information and Media, to create the impression that journalists are arguing among themselves, that they do not know what they want and that they are divided. The goal is to create confusion.
At the same time, Novakovic warns, this could further undermine trust in the media among citizens, while at the same time enabling the ministry to abandon important provisions that would prevent public money from going to the media that violate the code.
The aim is also to degrade one of the few institutions operating in this country, the Press Council (Gordana Novaković)
“It’s all manufacturing confusion. No one can understand issues here anymore. When an ordinary citizen reads that, it’s as if some Press Council and Media Council are arguing about something. What this is all about, they have no idea. Who to turn to, they have no idea. On the other hand, the ministry can now say that we wanted to put you in law, but half of the media community is against you, you are not doing it right, something is wrong. You can see that you can’t decide what you want. That’s what the Media Council is being used for. To be a council for confusion and to ruin everything the Press Council has managed to accomplish in these 12 years. And we’ve done enough. The goal is also to degrade one of the few institutions that function in this country,” says Gordana Novakovic.
She notes that she first heard about the Media Council recently, at the first public debate on the draft law, which was held in September in Belgrade. At the time, some of the founders said that the Media Council was founded.
“Immediately after that session, I checked on the APR website whether there was a Media Council and there was none at the time,” Novakovic said.
“All of this reflects badly on the media scene in general. It undermines trust in media organizations, in journalists and in journalism among citizens.”
In the first version of the draft law on public information, as noted in the analysis of the Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation, it was envisaged that there were several regulatory bodies or several Press Councils. There is every chance that GONGO organizations from the media sphere decided to form their own “Media Council” which would “match” the Press Council.
Author: Tamara Spaić