REM: Sabic, Independents Won't Attend Closed Session
Council chair Stevica Smederevac has called an electronic session closed to the public, and Rodoljub Sabic says the independent members will not take part.
Stevica Smederevac, chair of the Council of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM), has called an electronic Council session for Thursday, October 22, closed to the public. Council member Rodoljub Sabic wrote on X that the independent members will not take part in it, and that, in his words, there will therefore be no session.
What did Sabic post about the session?
Sabic tied the call to his own earlier post, in which he had publicly called out Smederevac. He wrote on X:
“Just a few hours after I ‘called him out’ on X, the chair of the REM Council has called a Council session. But a session (electronic) closed to the public. The independent Council members warned him earlier that they would not take part in these secretive sessions. They won’t now either, so there won’t be one.”
With that, Sabic confirmed that the independent members are rejecting the format of closed electronic sessions in general, not just this particular call. The warning to Smederevac, as he puts it, came earlier.
What does Sabic say about the first two closed sessions?
According to Sabic, at the first such session the government’s representatives voted against their own previously submitted proposals and so blocked the monitoring of Informer. At the second, he claims, they voted without any discussion or arguments against the opinion of their own expert staff and blocked the launch of several proceedings against Informer and some other pro-government media.
The Council is split in a way Sabic describes as four votes to four. That very split, in his reading, is being used to avoid applying the law. He said:
“If they think they can and may use the 4-4 split to circumvent and block the enforcement of the law, and to cover up a multitude of violations and the enormous inequality in media representation of the ruling list and the Student List, then let them do it before the eyes of the entire public. So that it is seen and not forgotten.”
Sabic is the source for the outcomes of the earlier sessions. No other Council member has confirmed or disputed them in the sources available to us.
What came before the session was called?
On Wednesday Sabic, again on X, posted that Smederevac was not scheduling a Council session. He wrote then:
“The idea is that by blocking the Council’s work he ensures we reach the end of an election campaign, marked by literal rampage, without a single measure having been imposed?! And that, most importantly, this unprecedented multitude of gross violations of the law is then covered up with a thickly ‘varnished’ report. This well-rehearsed tactic will not work this time.”
The call to session therefore landed between two of Sabic’s posts: the first accused the Council chair of not scheduling a session, the second announced that one had been called, but without the public. Smederevac’s response to Sabic’s claims was not available at the time of publication.
All that is known for now is that the session was called in electronic form and is closed to the public. Whether it would have a quorum without the independent members cannot be seen from Sabic’s posts.
