Media Study - Medija centar Beograd

The 2009 EC Progress report says that progress was made in 2009 in terms of the transparency and accountability
of the activities of the Republican Broadcasting Agency; However, it also states that a small number of cases, in
particular those relating to media using minority languages, the decisions have proved controversial and procedural
irregularities were raised. A significant number of the stakeholders interviewed for this report pointed to unclear
procedures in the RBA’s allocation of frequencies. See e.g. IREX Media Sustainability Index 2010 24 .
The 2009 EC Progress Report states that political interference in the work of media has continued, while some
media has continued breaching the rules on protection of privacy and ethics.
In August 2009 amendments to Law on Public Information were adopted, and both the government and parliament
were criticised over the lack of transparency and lack of public consultation prior to the adoption of the
amendments. Later some of the provisions have been changed.
The RBA is in charge of adopting recommendations, and regulations of broadcasters to ensure efficient
implementation of the broadcasting policy. This competence is specified in the Broadcasting Law. However, it
appears that the RBA has not yet issued detailed programming standards that broadcasters must follow. The RBA
administration has developed draft procedural regulation for cable operations. It is, however, a matter of dispute
whether such ‘procedural rules’ fall within the RBA’s competence and whether the RBA has proposed the
appropriate measures.
When organizing broadcasting licensing competitions, the RBA determines certain programming and technical
criteria which the contenders must fulfill. During the evaluation process, the RBA administration reviews whether
applicants meet these criteria and reports to the council. However, interviewees repeatedly claim that, the criteria
used to evaluate the applications are not transparent and clearly defined. The Council, which makes the final
decisions, has a large margin of discretion, which is hardly judiciable.
RBA does seem not to have played a key role in the preparation of sector specific regulations, in media strategy
development or in media policy. The RBA administration does not seem to have a proactive role in relation to
developing such regulations or to involve proactively in commenting on draft law initiatives. Similarly, there seems
to be no decision making committees within the council which is detrimental to the efficiency of RBA operations.
Republican Agency for Telecommunications – RATEL
The Republican Agency for Telecommunications (RATEL) is established as an independent regulatory body in charge
of regulating telecommunications networks and services. It is headed by a management board which takes most of
the relevant decisions itself. Apparently sub–committees or administrative bodies do not to take decisions
concerning specific issues. The following RATEL competencies are of particular relevance to media:
Allocation of frequencies,
Monitoring of frequency use,
Analysis of the available frequencies,
Monitoring of the technical capacity, mapping etc.,
24 IREX MSI 2010 http://www.irex.org/programs/msi_eur/2010/EE_MSI_2010_Serbia.pdf - read 1.6.2010.
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