Opposition MPs told a session of the Serbian Parliament’s Culture and Information Committee on Monday that the process for selecting members of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) Council failed, and claimed that government representatives are trying to impose rules contrary to law – because they are only interested in having media control.
“This process failed due to attempts to allow nominator organizations that simply aren’t eligible. I leave it to you to figure out how to reject candidates and nominators who cannot be there according to the law. If you can figure it out while staying within the law, I would gladly support it, but we cannot support this manipulation and I will not participate further in this session so as not to give it significance and legitimacy,” Green-Left Front MP Radomir Lazovic told the authorities.
He said he would attend every subsequent session to consider proposals if they are lawful and lead to getting an independent REM, and emphasized that no compromise can be made about whether the law will be respected.
“The government doesn’t want a professional REM. A serious number of candidates and nominators simply cannot be part of the process,” said Party of Freedom and Justice MP Branko Miljus, noting that the government’s actions are contrary to the European values it claims to support.
MP Ivana Rokvic from the People’s Movement of Serbia – New Face of Serbia group said the government is “ready to survive at any cost and is pushing Serbia into ever greater censorship and media darkness.”
“You do everything against media freedoms, you don’t care about the media scene but only about absolute control through your media slaves,” Rokvic said.
MP from the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) Natasa Jovanovic said Parliament speaker Ana Brnabic will “find a solution with her democratic capacity” and that the REM selection process will also be brought to completion, while she accused the opposition of obstructing the process.
Over the past few weeks, the new process to appoint REM Council members has seen a situation not much different from the previous one – accusations and heated debates, with government representatives accusing the opposition of trying to take control of REM in order to advance their color revolution agenda, said N1’s reporter.
On the other hand, he said, representatives of civil society, non-governmental organizations and other groups nominating REM Council members say the government is again trying to manipulate the process undemocratically and non-transparently to install its preferred candidates – people who would serve to protect the government’s interests and those of national broadcasters that report exclusively in favor of the government and routinely violate media and other laws.
Earlier this month, 18 candidates withdrew their candidacies due to the irregularities. Several nominators also pulled out to highlight that the new REM member selection process is unlawful and plagued by manipulation – similar to what happened in January when seven of the 18 shortlisted candidates withdrew and the process collapsed.
In the meantime, students organized a two-week blockade of the Serbian state TV (RTS) building, demanding that the REM Council member selection process be restarted. The government eventually agreed, with Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic providing assurances that she would try to find a solution through talks with the European Union.
The European Union specifically demanded that Serbia conduct the REM Council member selection process in a transparent manner.
Source: N1
