MANJINE I MEDIJI NA ZAPADNOM BALKANU - RRPP

Concerns have been raised regarding violations and inadequate implementation of legallyprescribed
obligations on the rights of national minorities in media, legislative voids and
vague regulations on the obligations of broadcasters and relations between regulatory bodies
and media, as well as pressure and “special ties” between politics and media. Some solutions
related to obligations of broadcasters are outdated (no reference to new media or the launched
digitalization).
The common assessment is that Roma are in the most difficult and specific position and that
media must approach it with particular sensitivity and convey that attitude to the general
public.
The position of the Roma population in all European countries, especially in Eastern and
Southeast European countries where grave cases of ethnic discrimination have been reported,
inspired first the non-governmental sector and then the state bodies as well to launch a
coordinated action for improving the position of the Roma minority in Southeast Europe. The
“First Roma Decade” was created as an initiative of eight countries from Central and
Southeast Europe during a regional conference in Budapest in 2003.
The Decade covers the period from 2005 to 2015 and represents a political obligation of ten
participating countries to implement programs and reforms at the national level with the goal
of improving the position of Roma. These countries are: Bulgaria, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro and Slovakia.
The launch of the Decade was a positive step toward finding systematic solutions to key
issues related to improving the position of the Roma population. Action plans adopted as part
of the Decade individually for each country concretely spell out individual measures that are
supposed to be implemented in order to achieve a better position of the Roma population in
the fields of education, employment, housing and healthcare, with a view of comprehensive
goals of battling discrimination and poverty, as well as gender equality. Although the Decade
documents do not mention media anywhere explicitly, both Roma organizations and state
bodies expect the media to publish information on the implementation of the Decade activities
and to raise awareness of the general public (majority community) on problems encountered
by Roma.
It is believed that support of the state for Roma, including improvement of legislative
solutions, must have the status of positive discrimination (as is the case now with the goals of
the so-called Roma Decade), but this must refer to media activities as well.
In BiH, it is concluded that the functions of national minority councils are declarative and that
relations among them, government bodies, associations and media are underdeveloped. In
Serbia, concerns are raised regarding vagueness, even contradictions, in legal regulations on
minority rights and regulations on broadcasters, especially with regard to the rights of national
councils, at the expense of publishing information and media freedoms. In Montenegro,
critical remarks are made about the National Minorities Fund which is influenced by the
authorities and disrupts the equal position of all minorities in access to funds. In Macedonia,
an initiative has been made to legally obligate the Broadcasting Council to carry out regular
monitoring of compliance of minority media with public service obligations toward national
minorities.
A common request is to regulate more precisely in legislation the obligations of public
broadcasting services to create programs in the languages of the nationalities and programs
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