The Association of Journalists of Serbia (UNS) has warned that the program councils of RTS and RTV have not been formed after the expiration of their members’ mandates, which raises the question of compliance with legal procedures and the functioning of control mechanisms of public media services.
Programming tips Radio and Television of Serbia (RTS) and Radio and Television of Vojvodina (RTV) were not formed, as the mandates of the members of those bodies expired, and the deadlines for starting the election of new members, prescribed by the Law on Public Media Services, were not met, the Association of Journalists of Serbia (UNS) announced.
Members of the RTS Program Council were elected on June 21, 2022 for a four-year term, which means that it expired a month and a half ago, while the mandate of the RTV Program Council ended on December 14, 2025, according to UNS.
The association notes that the competition for the selection of members of the RTS Program Council should have been announced no later than December 21, 2025, while the competition for the selection of members of the RTV Program Council should have been announced no later than June 14, 2025.
The Parliamentary Committee for Culture and Information is responsible for RTS, while the competent committee for RTV is the Assembly of Vojvodina.
The Committee of the Serbian Parliament for Culture and Public Information has not yet announced a competition for members of the RTS Program Council. On that occasion, the UNS sent questions to the Board as to why the public tender was not announced within the period prescribed by the Law and when it is expected to be announced, but the answer has not yet arrived.
Public services do not even have a commissioner for the protection of the rights of listeners, viewers and readers, who is chosen by the Program Council in a public competition.
In the statement, the UNS adds that it is not known whether the RTV and RTS boards of directors continued to work, recalling that on July 13 of this year, the mandate of most members of the RTV Board of Directors expired, and the RTS Board of Directors remained without two-thirds of its members, for the same reason.
Source: Fonet, Vreme
