The battle for the Press Council: The state wants to amend the draft law so that the tabloids can still receive millions from the budget

(Source: Cenzolovka) At the end of the two-year process of amending the Law on Public Information, representatives of the state are trying to downplay the importance of the Press Council and not allow its decisions on violations of the Code of Journalists to prevent pro-regime tabloids from receiving millions from the budget. Until recently, it seemed that the state agreed to legal provisions that strengthen the role of the Press Council in accordance with the proposals of the media community and with the Action Plan for the implementation of the Media Strategy, which it had previously adopted

After several months of pause and waiting for the start of a public debate for two key media laws, working groups for amending the Law on Public Information and Media and the Law on Electronic Media met last week.

In a scathing statement published on the website of the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications on 15 August, it is stated that the meeting was attended by representatives of the Ministry and the Cabinet of the Prime Minister of the Republic, media and journalists’ associations, members of working groups and representatives of the Delegation of the European Union, the OSCE Mission to Serbia and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

It is stated that at the meeting the suggestions of the association and the Ministry were discussed in order to come up with a joint proposal of the draft of these two laws and to make preparations for launching a public debate, but it is not stated which suggestions are in question.

According to Cenzolovka, one of the debates is about the role of the Press Council, especially regarding getting money from the budget during media competitions.

In recent years, tabloids that do not adhere to ethical and professional standards have received millions from the budget each year, although the law recommends that commissions in competitions do not approve funds to media that violate the code of ethics. With the new law, this recommendation to the commissions was to grow into an obligation. In this process, the role of the Press Council, the body that assesses whether print media and portals adhere to the ethical and professional standards prescribed by the Code of Journalists of Serbia, is important.

For the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications, it is now problematic a provision according to which the Press Council would be the only self-regulatory body that will be competent to provide data for print and online media on whether they adhere to professional and ethical standards. The Ministry also disputes the provision that stipulates that as a condition for participation in the competition for project co-financing, the medium must accept the competence of the Press Council.

Representatives of the Ministry, as lawyer Veljko Milic, a member of the Working Group for ZJIM amendments and executive director of the Independent Association of Journalists of Vojvodina (NDNV) tells Cenzolovka, believe that such provisions are unconstitutional because they are discriminatory.

Milic notes that the Press Council is the only self-regulatory body that assesses whether the Code of Journalists of Serbia, which is also the only code of ethics of the journalistic profession in Serbia, has been violated.

“If the law leaves the possibility for other self-regulatory bodies to provide data on whether the media in the previous period adhered to professional and ethical standards, it could lead to the establishment of new self-regulatory bodies, but also to the adoption of new codes of ethics. In this way, chaos in self-regulation would be created, and the provision of the law that should prevent media that do not comply with ethical and professional standards from receiving money from the budget would be meaningless because each media could establish its own self-regulatory body that would issue it a certificate that it adheres to professional and ethical standards.”  Warns Veljko Milić.

During this process, the interpretation appeared that it is unconstitutional that a participant of a media competition, in order to receive funds from the budget, must accept the competence of the Press Council. Milic says that recognition of the Council’s competence should be distinguished from obliging a media publisher to become a member of the Press Council.

“Bearing in mind that the Council is an association by its legal form, to oblige someone to become a member of the association would be contrary to the principles of freedom of association. However, such a thing has never been suggested. Media does not have to be a member of the association – the Press Council to recognize its competence when interpreting whether that media adhered to the Code of Journalists of Serbia,” Milic explains.

PETROVIĆ ŠKERO: INTRODUCTION OF NEW SELF-REGULATORY BODIES UNACCEPTABLE

Commenting on the obviously controversial provision for the representatives of the state that priority in project co-financing will be given to the media that accept the competence of the Press Council, Zoran Ivošević, former judge of the Supreme Court and retired university professor in the author’s article in the newspaper Danas, points out that it is not possible to accept and support the provision according to which the right to participate in the competition for co-financing media projects of public interest has – the publisher of the media that accepted the competence of the Press Council,  Given that the Constitution, in Article 55 paragraph 1, guarantees the freedom of political, trade union and any other association, but also guarantees the right to remain outside any association.

This is confirmed for Cenzolovka by Vida Petrović Škero, former President of the Supreme Court of Serbia, but emphasizes that it is very symptomatic that a member that was previously accepted by the working group is now being challenged, after two years since the beginning of the process of amending the law.

“It shows that there is no real will, but that there is a desire to abuse something and minimize the power of the Council. The Constitution allows all people to join together independently or not to join together, which is very important, but it is precisely those who insist on such a thing that have created a state in which you have to join a party in order to get a job, to get some of your rights,” Petrovic Skero believes.

She also points to another provision that now the representatives of the authorities want to change – the creation of new self-regulatory bodies. This is inadmissible for the former President of the Supreme Court, noting that the Press Council is a credible body and was established by professionals, and that it is in connection with the violation of the Code of Journalists of Serbia among the media must be taken into account.

“For more than a decade, the Council has been working without objections. It is proven as a quality body that follows the work of the media well and there is really no need to wait for some new regulatory bodies to be made when we already have one. Should these new bodies now be formed ad hoc and make ‘Gongo’ self-regulatory bodies?” asks Vida Petrović Škero.

THE MINISTRY IS CHANGING THE PROVISIONS IT HAS ALREADY AGREED TO

These provisions were included in the draft law and in March this year, as Cenzolovka wrote, it seemed that the law would further strengthen the role of the Press Council. Only a few months later, at the end of the two-year-long process of drafting amendments to the Law on Public Information and Media, such a change became controversial for the state.

These provisions are also included in the Action Plan for the implementation of the Media Strategy, which the state has long adopted:

“The amendments to the regulations prescribe as a mandatory criterion compliance with the Code of Journalists of Serbia, for the purpose of using funds through project co-financing, in such a way that print and online media that apply for public funds must accept the competence of the Press Council.”

“By amending the regulations, it envisages that priority in the project co-financing of media content production under equal conditions has media that respect legal regulations and the Code of Journalists of Serbia, i.e. who have fewer measures imposed by REM and decisions and public warnings made by the Press Council.”

Veljko Milić recalls that there was already a working group that worked on changes to Zym and in which such a proposal, as he says, would not even pass. Then, he said, the line ministry formed a new working group and determined its composition, adopted the working group’s rulebook, according to which issues on which consensus could not be reached were resolved by voting. The Press Council was voted on and the proposed provisions were voted on by a majority vote.

“The Ministry has formed a Working Group, prescribed the rules of its work, and now I am really surprised that this issue is being reopened,” Milic concludes.

Author: Ivana Predić