Serbian Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic said on Tuesday that the process of electing members of Serbia’s top electronic media regulator has become complicated, and expressed regret that certain parties are, in her words, “toying with the will of national minorities.”
On November 12, the Serbian Parliament MPs elected eight out of nine members to the Council of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM), but failed to appoint either of the two candidates nominated by the national councils of national minorities.
The move was blocked by the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (SVM), a member of the ruling coalition, which insists that the proposed candidates do not truly reflect the will of those minority councils.
In an appearance on the Serbian state TV (RTS), Brnabic urged civil-society organizations, which have raised objections, to sit down with representatives of the national minority councils, reach an agreement, and then inform the parliament of their decision.
“We in the government are open to any solution. I simply want the will of the national minorities to be respected. We are missing just one member of the REM Council – let’s sort this out. There is no point in arguing, we need to do some work (…) Brussels has already given us the green light on REM, and the OSCE has also welcomed the process,” Brnabic said.
She added that most citizens have no clear idea what is going on with REM, but stressed that the regulator is not really important for ordinary people but that its significance lies in the media sector and the broader media landscape.
Source: N1
