Serbian Journalists Seek Action on Media 'Strategy'

One year after the government pledged to regulate Serbia's chaotic media scene by bringing out a long-term media strategy paper, the document is nowhere to be see. Recent changes in government as a result of a March cabinet reshuffle have not moved the issue forward.

In the March 14 reshuffle, the Culture and Media ministry was merged with Telecommunications under a new minister, publisher Predrag Markovic. He promised a new start, saying work on the media strategy would finally get going.  

But journalists' associations are not persuaded. In an open letter sent to President Boris Tadic on Wednesday, they described the situation in the media as at the lowest ebb since the authoritarian regime of Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

"The status quo directly threatens the implementation of a founding European principle that the state must neither rule the media nor influence editorial policy," the letter said.

The letter complained that journalists who reported on organised crime, war crimes and hardline nationalist groups are often on the receiving end of violent threats, while most reported attacks on reporters remain unsolved.

A pivotal point in moves to regulate the confused media scene came last June, when the Ministry of Culture and Media presented a study on which the future media strategy was to be based. The study focused on six key problem areas with recommendations on how these problems should be solved.

Round tables on the study commissioned by the ministry, funded by the EU and drafted by consulting firm COWI in Brussels, were held in September and October 2010. Journalists' associations agreed with the Ministry of Culture on forming a joint working group to work on drafting the strategy.

The draft strategy was supposed to be presented in November 2010. It was then postponed for February. Since then, no date for its release has been given.