IPI says REM Council election process not transparent

“The process for the appointment of new members to the council of Serbia’s media regulator has again been conducted in a non-transparent and discriminatory manner, in clear violation of Serbian legislation, making a mockery of democratic media reforms demanded by the European Union,” a statement by IPI with partners in the MFRR and SafeJournalists Network said.

The Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM) is Serbia’s top electronic media watchdog body which is supposed to be independent but has shown bias towards pro-regime media. The members of the REM Council are elected by parliament following a process of nomination and selection. All independent candidates and the organizations that nominated them have withdrawn from the competition because of the lack of transparency.

“Our organisations conclude that the appointment process to the REM Council was again conducted in a non-transparent, non-independent and arbitrary manner, favouring candidates and organisations supportive of the ruling administration, in violation of Article 10 of the Law on Electronic Media. This makes a mockery of actual democratic reform called for by the EU,” the IPI statement said and warned that the election of the new REM Council – “a key EU-mandated measure outlined in both EU Rule of Law and Enlargement reports – is now again in a state of limbo, stalling wider reform of the Serbian media ecosystem”.

It said that “the EU should be clear eyed about the disingenuous and compromised approach displayed by Serbian authorities in implementing EU-mandated reform of the REM Council”. “The legally unviable and politically motivated manner in which the recent election procedure was carried out should mean that progress on media reforms under Chapter 23 of the EU accession process remain stalled until true democratic reform is completed,” the statement said.