Sabic Wants REM to Tackle Illegal Local TV Stations First

Rodoljub Sabic, a lawyer and member of the Council of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM), said in a written statement on August 7 that a growing number of local television stations in Serbia broadcast under practically the same editorial concept, dictated by one central outlet. He explicitly named Informer as a possible source of that concept.

The statement landed at a moment when the REM Council has no elected chairman, meaning that, by the members’ own reading of the rules, it cannot pass any formal decision. Sabic has opened a question the regulator has left unresolved for years, and he has done so from a body that currently cannot even vote on it.

What Sabic Calls a Network

Sabic describes a pattern, not a single case. In his assessment, the phenomenon defeats the entire point of local reporting, since stations that should be covering local government and local problems instead air content put together somewhere else.

“The phenomenon of a large and growing number of local television stations acting as a network, under a virtually identical editorial concept dictated by one ‘central outlet,’ whether Informer or another, is in itself a negation of the meaning and role of local media,” Sabic said.

He also spelled out what that programming looks like in practice. Most of the airtime, he said, goes to live broadcasts of ruling party activities, while political opponents get branded with labels.

“It is not in line with the basic standards of electronic media for a network of local television stations to reserve the overwhelming majority of its programming for live broadcasts of assorted activities of the ruling party, and it is entirely incompatible with those standards to systematically and continuously mock or target opponents of the government, or anyone else, by labeling them ‘illiterate,’ ‘idiots,’ ‘domestic traitors,’ ‘foreign mercenaries,’ and ‘Ustashe,’” the REM Council member said.

Money From Public Tenders, Stations Without a License

The second part of the statement deals with financing. Sabic called it absurd that companies that set up such stations, including unregistered ones, receive multi million dinar amounts through government run media tenders and through arrangements involving public companies and institutions.

“Electronic media operating without proper legal status and broadcasting illegally are always a major problem, and especially so when the programming, in breach of basic standards, amounts to aggressive, low grade political propaganda and the demonization of opponents. Solving that problem must be one of REM’s priorities,” he said.

He added that prosecutors should also look into the involvement of the founders of such outlets in the public funding system, shifting the issue from the regulatory to the criminal domain. Srpske Novine has previously reported on that link between local budgets and tabloids, citing Nis, Vranje and Bor and their advertising with Informer.

Valjevo as an Example

Four days earlier, on August 3, Sabic had reacted to a specific case. He said at the time that the local Informer station in Valjevo had broken several laws by reading out a nineteen year old resident’s school grades on air, publishing his photographs and disclosing details from his private life. That case, he said, shows what the pattern he describes looks like on the ground, in a single broadcast by a single local station.

What Can REM Do Without a Chairman?

Practically nothing that requires a formal decision. The REM Council failed to elect a chairman on July 30 after two rounds of secret voting: Milos Garic received four votes and Dubravka Valic Nedeljkovic three, neither enough to win.

“Without a Council chairman, nothing further can be done. We are standing still, and there is a lot of work,” Garic told reporters after the session, explaining that the chairman must sign every decision made in the Council’s name.

Among the matters left pending:

• the election of the governing boards of the public broadcasters, whose deadline expired last December
• the status of local and regional broadcasters whose licenses have expired
• a decision on the fifth national frequency

The Council has eight members. Alongside Sabic, they are Dubravka Valic Nedeljkovic, Milos Garic, Mileva Malesic, Stevica Smederevac, Milan Petkovic, Snezana Miljkovic and Ira Prodanov Krajisnik. A new session is planned for the second half of August, when the chairman will again be up for election.

The question Sabic’s statement leaves behind is not whether REM has jurisdiction over unlicensed broadcasters, since it does. The question is whether a body that has spent months unable to elect even its own chairman will find a majority to rule against television stations that carry the ruling party’s activities. The earliest possible answer comes at the session in the second half of August.