
Deutsche Welle journalist Nemanja Rujevic said the adoption of changes to the two draft media laws by the Serbian Government will not produce any consequences because telecommunications provider Telekom Serbia, as a state-owned company, already owns a number of media outlets and is now legalizing that.
“It is an admission that so far this has been illegal,” he said.
Two amended draft media laws are to be tabled in the Serbian Government on Friday. The disputed drafts include the articles enabling Telekom Serbia to legally continue being the owner of the media outlets already in its possession, that is, to legalize the ongoing ownership situation. Experts warn that this officially allows the state to return to being a co-owner and founder of media outlets.
“Nothing will change. Here you can write whatever you want in the laws, it won’t make a difference. What was the original idea, for the state and local self-governments not to be allowed to own media outlets? The idea, when the state is not the owner, is for the party is power not to be the editor, yet here we see that it is,” Rujevic told N1.
He says that this is “an admission that Telekom was illegally a media owner and that nothing happened in practice.”
In addition, Rujevic said he fears that some future government could be very tempted to continue doing the same thing.