edition-dw-akademie-in-the-service-of-the-public-functions-and-transformation-of-media-in-developing-countries-pdf

The project’s main objective was met: RTS’s news and currentaffairs output is now more professional (both technical andeditorial), human and more relevant to its audience than priorto BBC Media Action’s intervention. 80 Apart from the improvementof the journalistic content the project brought othersuccesses, such as more effective organisation structures inthe newsrooms, a heightened awareness of the public serviceethos due to management trainings as well as more professionalismand production in RTS’s regional bureaus as a resultof training efforts outside Belgrade. 81 Due to the aforementionedachievements it can be said that the project significantlycontributed to the overall success of RTS’s transformationprocess. Recently, RTS has received support from the EuropeanBroadcasting Union (EBU), which assisted the digitalization ofRTS’s archives and provided training for trainers at the beginningof 2014. 82 These, however, were smaller projects, and currentlythere are no international organizations active in RTS.Status of the Media OrganizationLegal Framework, Governance and EthicsThe most important law with regard to the Serbian mediasystem remains the Broadcasting Law, adopted in 2002. Itwas drafted in cooperation with national media and law expertsas well as international experts and stipulates both theoverall principles of Serbian broadcasting and the regulationof public service and private broadcasting. 83 However, the lawis considered outdated and currently three new laws for theregulation of the Serbian media landscape are being drafted:the Law on Public Information, the Law on Electronic Media,and the Law on Public Service Broadcasting. 84 These laws weredue for ratification by early autumn 2014. They were developedby local as well as EU and OSCE hired experts. 85 So far,it is known that a central element of these new laws will beprovisions to privatize the remaining state media whichare owned and funded mainly by local municipalities. 86 It isconsidered important that the state withdraws from mediaownership in order to ensure independence of media outlets.Further, the new Law on Public Service Broadcasting will containregulations of a new financing model for RTS. 87 These newprovisions are urgently needed, since currently the financingis among the main problems hampering the broadcaster’stransformation process (see 6.3).The most important topics of the present BroadcastingLaw are the guarantee of freedom of expression, the prohibitionof censorship and all forms of interference with the workof public service media, freedom, professionalism, and independenceof public service media as well as objectivity andtransparency with regard to license allocation. 88 Moreover, inaccordance with the law, the Republic Broadcasting Agency(RRA) was established, an independent organ that controls andensures the implementation of the law, monitors all broadcastersand guarantees the protection of minors or copyright,among other things.The RRA is also the regulatory body of RTS; it appoints RTS’sboard of directors. 89 RRA’s most important organ is its council,which consists of nine people nominated both by civil society(universities, church, journalists associations, and localmedia NGOs) and by the state. The candidates need to haveprofessional expertise in relevant areas; among them aremedia experts, legal experts, economists, and engineers. 90The four civil society sectors and the regional parliament ofVojvodina each nominate two candidates. Out of these tensuggestions, the parliament selects five people and appointsthree members itself. These eight members, in a next step, determinethe ninth member – a native of the Kosovo province,considered by Serbia to be its southern province. 91 Generally,the legal provisions with regard to RTS’s regulatory body tryto reduce both the political and the economic influence to aminimum: Article 25 prohibits the nomination of governmentrepresentatives, deputies, party officials and all persons whoprofessionally deal with the production or transmission ofmedia content. Further, family members of these people areexcluded from the nominations. 92However, the interviews conducted for this study revealedthat the RRA council suffers from significant political influence.Moreover, the media researcher Jovanka Matic pointsout that the criteria to ensure that the council members areexperts are not taken seriously. Matic questions the way theRRA monitors RTS’s programming: In its yearly “Report on thefulfillment of legal and programme obligations” 93 the controllingagency has repeatedly stated that everything is fine exceptthe compliance with the 10% quota of independent productions.94 According to the media researcher the problem istwofold: First, the RRA is not critical enough, e.g., regarding thepercentage of cultural and educational programs, and second,the law only stipulates that the PSB’s programming shouldbe diverse but does not clearly determine what the structureshould be like in detail. 95RTS’s governing body, the board of directors, is appointedby the RRA council and consists of nine people, for which similarcriteria as for the RRA council apply, e.g., they have to beexperts and must not be politicians or members of the RRA.However, according to the interviews currently only two membersfulfill the criteria, i.e., are real experts. 96 Moreover, theabove-mentioned political influence within the RRA councilresults in the fact that the members of RTS’s governing boardare not independent either. 97 The main tasks of the governingbody include the implementation of strategic plans, informingthe public, the parliament and the RRA about RTS’s activity,appointing the director general as well as dealing with suggestionsof the programming council. 98RTS does not have an individual ethics code, but ratherworks according to the national code – the Codex of Journalistsof Serbia – adopted by all media. The public broadcasterdoes not have official editorial guidelines either.168