Associations of citizens, journalists and the media express concern regarding the current process of selecting members of the The Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) Council and request the National Assembly to elect candidates who fully meet the legal criteria, especially candidates from journalist associations. Also, the process for selecting members from the field of electronic media publishers’ association must be repeated in order to ensure transparency and legality. Without these steps, the integrity of the REM Council in these two categories of proposers will be seriously questioned.
Analysis of the nomination process in the field of journalistic associations showed serious procedural irregularities, conflicts of interest and political pressures that threaten the independence and integrity of the future REM Council. Only one association, the Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (IJAS), meets all the legal criteria, while the other proposers belong to the corpus of illegitimate proposers – the so-called “governmental non-governmental (GONGO) organizations”, connected to state structures without a sufficient number of members with paid annual membership fees, which represents an elementary violation of the Law on Electronic Media. Among the nominations, candidates such as Dr. Snježana Milivojević and Mileva Malešić stood out for their credibility and expertise. In contrast, candidates like Dejan Vuk Stanković and Petar Kočić, proposed by illegitimate associations, have clear connections with state structures, which is not in accordance with the legal principle of candidate independence.
The group of proponents of the Association of Electronic Media Publishers shows even greater shortcomings. No candidate from this field meets the legal requirements, which further undermines the credibility of the process. Organizations such as the “Serbian Chamber of Commerce” and the “Radio-Television Association of Serbia” cannot be proposers in terms of the Law on Electronic Media, while the candidates Jovana Vitez and Tanja Vojvodić-Mitrović do not have the relevant expertise for the role of REM Council member. Miloš Rajković must be disqualified, because he was already a member of the Council, which is expressly prohibited by the current law. This situation requires repeating the nomination process to ensure legality and transparency.
We invite the Committee for Culture and Information of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia to disqualify all illegitimate candidates and proposers in all categories (especially in the field of journalist associations), initiate a new nomination procedure in the field of electronic media publishers’ associations and ensure that the final list of candidates for voting in the Assembly includes only candidates who meet the legal criteria.
The undersigned organizations remain committed to monitoring this process and appeal to domestic and international actors to insist on respecting the law and principles of transparency in the selection of future members of the Council of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM).
Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM)
Association of Media (ASMEDI)
Association of Online Media (AOM)
Autonomous Women’s Centre (AWC)
Belgrade Centre for Human Rights (BCHR)
Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP)
Center for Contemporary Politics
Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA)
European Movement Serbia
Civic Initiatives
Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR)
Business Association of Local and Independent Media “Local Press”
Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (IJAS)
Partners-Serbia
Renewables and Environmental Regulatory Institute (RERI)
Share Foundation
Slavko Ćuruvija Foundation
Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights (YUCOM)