Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said on Thursday that the state-owned Telekom Serbia can own media outlets through other companies because that is not forbidden by law.
Answering an N1 reporter’s question about ownership of Telekom Serbia, Brnabic said that the telecommunications company is partly state-owned. “Telekom Serbia has other companies which own media outlets with other companies which is not banned by law,” she said during a visit to the Vinca-Belo Brdo archaeological site.
N1 asked if Telekom Serbia is supposed to quit the public media under the Media Strategy and Brnabic replied that “the Media Strategy includes the finalization of the process of privatization. “When we started drafting the Media Strategy Tanjug was not completed, nor were Vecernje Novosti or Politika. The Media Strategy means the completing of privatization. If what you say is true, that would mean killing the remaining competition for your media house. That does not exist anywhere in Europe,” the Prime Minister said.
N1 has learned that the OSCE called for additional consultations on the two draft laws at the last minute.
She said that the OSCE, European Union Delegation and the Press Council were informed about the government’s draft media laws, adding that she read that the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) called them “a catastrophe and a step in the wrong direction”.
The International Press Institute (IPI) called the Serbian government to make real steps towards compromise and added that the reform of two media laws must be in line with the Media Strategy adopted in 2020.
“I called them all last night and said if that’s your opinion we don’t have to adopt those laws. We are doing this because that was in the media strategy. You don’t want us adopting media laws? All good. You won’t have a Press Council in the law – OK, not problem,” Brnabic said.
She voiced hop that “someone will say that the laws are good because that is what they said so far and if they don’t there is no need to adopt the laws”.
The Prime Minister met on Wednesday with officials from the Information and Telecommunications Ministry, media and journalists’ organizations and international partners at the end of the public debate on the draft laws on Public Information and the Media and on Electronic Media. She said that a compromise had been reached following criticism of the draft laws but media organizations said they were not aware of any compromise being reached.
