The Coalition for Media Freedom calls on the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications and the Serbian Business Registers Agency (APR) to urgently align the Media Register with the Law on Public Information and Media, which entered into force in the second half of 2023.
By reviewing the Register, it is clear that public authorities do not submit, and the Registrar does not record, data on citizens’ money allocated to media on other grounds.
We remind that the Law on Public Information and Media obliges public authorities to submit to the APR, i.e., to register, not only information on funds awarded through public-interest project co-financing in the field of public information, i.e., in the form of state aid, but also all other public funds transferred to the media in the form of donations, gifts, sponsorships, market and economic research services, public opinion polling services, campaign services, advertising and marketing services, promotional services, media services provided on the basis of regulations in the field of public procurement, or other services provided by the media.
According to the letter of the law, the entities obliged to submit these complete data to the Registrar include: state authorities, bodies of territorial autonomy, bodies of local self-government units, organizations entrusted with the exercise of public powers, as well as legal entities established or financed wholly or predominantly by the Republic of Serbia, an autonomous province, or a local self-government unit, and companies in which a public authority holds a significant share in the basic capital.
The Ministry of Information and Telecommunications has also done nothing to encourage media outlets to adopt and submit to the Registrar internal ethical acts, which represent an internal self-regulatory framework for improving professional standards.
The registration of internal documents is also provided by the Law on Public Information and Media, and these documents should include measures and procedures for safeguarding a media outlet’s editorial policy, ensuring a safe environment for journalists and media workers, improving the position of persons with disabilities, and achieving gender equality.
By reviewing the APR database, we found that an extremely small percentage of media outlets have fulfilled this legal obligation, primarily as a result of encouragement from journalists’ and media associations.
This is also a consequence of the fact that, in its Rulebook, the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications sets only the initial date for submitting internal acts (from January 1 of last year), but not the deadline by which the documents must be registered at the latest.
On the other hand, media outlets that are newly registering must submit these documents. In other words, they will not be registered unless they submit (also) internal acts.
On the APR website, this obligation is likewise not explained and elaborated in detail; it could even be said that it is defined in a very confusing way. No precise instructions for registering the documents have been provided.
We recall that last year the Coalition of Journalists’ and Media Associations published and presented a Set of Internal Acts that media outlets can use to meet their obligation toward the APR, with the aim of helping them through this process.
We emphasize, however, that media outlets should adapt the Set of Internal Acts to their own needs and specific circumstances. We believe that the goal for all of us should be for these acts not to remain on a paper, but to be genuinely implemented.
We call on the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications and the Serbian Business Registers Agency to remedy the above shortcomings, and to become more actively involved in encouraging public authorities to submit the required data, and media outlets to draft and register internal acts.
Coalition for Media Freedom
The Coalition for Media Freedom consists of: the Media Association, the Online Media Association (AOM), the Independent Journalists’ Association of Vojvodina (NDNV), the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (NUNS), the Business Association of Local and Independent Media “Lokal Pres,” the Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation, and the “Nezavisnost” Branch Trade Union of Culture, Art and Media.
