Nemec: State should be expelled from media

The Slovenian politician told the N1 show Newsnight that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic should primarily do this because of the people who are protesting.

Commenting on electoral conditions, Nemec said that European Parliament members are well acquainted with all the problems, that they have repeatedly pointed them out and given recommendations for them to be resolved.

“The European Parliament adopted a resolution in May containing objections and many of the same demands that the protesters in Serbia have put forward. We too asked for electoral conditions to be improved, so as to enable freedom of the media. There is a document saying what should be done by the Serbian authorities to resolve these problems. We all know the opposition in Serbia has no access to the media. If these conditions are not met there can be no talk of Serbia as a democratic country,” said Nemec.

He stressed that freedom of the media is of utmost importance.

“Realistically, there is no democracy without free media. Media freedom is a tough one for the government in Serbia. The European Parliament has been drawing attention to this for years, and this is one of the major problems in Serbia. There are documents that we have seen, and Serbia is warned about this in our report, and the European Parliament is warning about this, about the dubious operations of the state-owned Telecom and the lack of transparency. It is clear what needs to be done. The state should be expelled from the media,” Nemec said.

Commenting on the fact that the government has repeatedly promised to pull out of the media, Nemec said “this has to be done if Serbia wants to be a free country.”

“State ownership in the media through Telekom, as well as other companies that are close to one side or the other, should be eliminated. Such changes should begin to take place," he said.

Nemec stress that it was not up to the European Union (EU) if changes in Serbia will happen, the EU is there to help.

“We are not in a position to change anything, but to talk about rule of law, media freedom. If the Serbian authorities and Government want to join the EU, then they really need to change. We can't change that, everyone knows it. We say what is good and what is not for those who want European standards. We want Serbia to be in the EU. Our intentions are sincere and many in Brussels want us to cooperate with Serbia, but Serbia should also want that. We can come, talk, but we cannot change the situation on our own, it takes both sides,” said the MEP.

He stressed that many people are also running out of patience because Serbia says one thing and then does something different, no changes are being made.