New law: Cable operator must pay amount determined by REM, cannot cancel TV channels, otherwise it will be shut down

This would mean that all operators in Serbia would be obliged to broadcast channels with national frequency and to pay a fee determined by the REM. The same authority would also order that these channels must be offered by all cable operators.

If the law changes are adopted, it will enable additional pressure on operators and the possibility of their shutdown, because REM will determine the broadcast prices for TV channels with national frequency.

A similar scenario occurred last year, when the owner of two TV stations with national frequencies - Prva and B92 - Srdjan Milovanovic asked SBB cable operator to pay a fee for those two channels in the future that is increased by 1000 percent.

SBB rejected the ultimatum and said it would remove those channels from its offer, unless Milovanovic keeps the same price SBB had been paying until then.

If these law amendments had been in force at that time, SBB would not have had the option to exclude Prva and B92 from its offer.

The new changes also stipulate that the REM determines the order on the list of channels for the operators, where public broadcasting service and commercial channels with a national frequency would have priority.

This means that pro-government TV channels would have a dominant position on the list with all cable operators.

Also, the new law foresees that the state can be the owner of the media outlets, which is contrary to the Media Strategy. Experts warn that this serves to “legitimise” the fact that the state-owned Telekom Srbija has founded several media outlets in recent years.

This is a serious violation of this already limited media freedom, said Igor Bozic, N1 news director.

“Up until now, the government has tried in every possible way to break free media down - through pressure, labeling, abuse in preventing the spread of SBB distribution. Now they legally want to deal with them without any public discussion,” he added.