PRESS RELEASE

Dejan Ristić Continuously Misinforms the Public

Outgoing Minister of Information and Telecommunications Dejan Ristić yet again misinformed the public by stating inaccurate and unfounded claims about the work and authority of the Press Council.

During the “Uranak” show on K1 television, Ristić took it upon himself to assess the work of our Complaints Commission as “so selective that it has lost all meaning,” offering no evidence to support this claim other than his own assessment that certain members of the Commission (he appointed three out of eleven members) are “clearly opposition oriented.”

We do not know whether the outgoing minister is providing himself an alibi for possible allocation of budgetary funds to media outlets found by the Commission to have violated the journalistic code, but this is not the first time that Ristić has attempted to portray the Press Council as an organization that performs poorly, consistently misinterpreting the place and role of the Press Council in our media scene. Since becoming minister, he has continuously claimed that the Press Council is a regulatory body with legal authority, similar to REM, which is absolutely incorrect. Now, however, he has gone a step further by claiming that “the state has entrusted the Press Council with monitoring print and online media!”

The outgoing minister has once again demonstrated that he either does not know or understand the jurisdiction of the Press Council or what media self-regulation entails. His belief that the state can assign tasks for which it itself is not competent further speaks to his competence.

However, his lack of knowledge and understanding does not give him the right to continuously make inaccurate claims and, with irresponsible statements and malicious assessments, undermine the reputation of members of the Complaints Commission and the credibility of the Press Council.

Managing  Council and Complaints Commission of the Press Council
Belgrade, April 10, 2025