INTERNATIONAL JOURNALISTS' NETWORK
August 30, 2004
MEDIA PRIVATIZATION GUIDELINES ADOPTED IN SERBIA
The Serbian government has approved new guidelines for the privatization of
community radio and television stations, the Association of Independent
Electronic Media (ANEM) reported.
ANEM said these regulations are long
overdue. The failure to pass these regulations was making it impossible for
public media to launch the privatization process they were required to do under
the Broadcast Act of 2002.
Other provisions, however, could prove
problematic, according to ANEM. The regulations allow the government to restrict
the field of potential buyers by issuing conditions that must be met by the
company being privatized rather than the buyer. ANEM says that these rules
exclude the possibility of employees taking an active role in the privatization
process.
Days before the guidelines were
published, however, Serbia's Minister for Culture and Information, Dragan
Kojadinovic, said that the privatization rules would allow journalists in Serbia
to buy shares in their companies. He said it would be better having media
employees as owners rather than selling them to businessmen "with a lot of money
and no knowledge of the industry."
According to media accounts,
Kojadinovic urged Serbian banks to make loans available to media employees so
that they could buy shares in their companies. He also promised the government's
help for journalists and other media employees who would not be able to
participate in the privatization of their companies.
"We won't allow journalists to be left
without jobs when the privatization process is over, especially those who have
been working in the industry for more than 10 years," said Kojadinovic.
The guidelines are available online at
http://www.anem.org.yu/download/Rules%20for%20privatization.rtf.
source: IJNet 272
published by: Daniela Mathis dma@medienhilfe.ch
date of release on this site 02/09/04
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