The decision on the allocation of the fifth national frequency has not yet been made, although almost half a year has passed since the end of the competition.
On the last day of October last year, at the session of the Council of REM, the list of applicants for the Public tender for the issuance of licenses for the provision of television broadcasting media services for the whole of Serbia was determined. The candidates identified are Nova S, KCN, Kurir and BK television. In the conditions of the competition, it is written that REM will make a decision no later than 30 days from the date of publication of the list of all applicants, and that decision, as said, has not yet been made.
REM Council member Judita Popović points out that REM meetings do not discuss this at all, and that they have not had a regular session for months.
"When we would meet, everything boils down to voting on items on the agenda. There is no conversation, there is no comprehensive analysis of the media scene that would lead to a valid decision regarding the fifth frequency."
He adds that there is no justified reason to delay the decision on the fifth frequency, because the candidates have been determined, so REM has nothing to prevent them from choosing one of them.
He further states that on the agenda of their meetings are only some technical matters concerning the regulation of the price of compensation paid by media service providers. He says that in fact "it does not go into the heart of the regulation that was overlooked by the Law on Electronic Media, which is the question of what kind of programs are broadcast by media service providers and what are the goals that they do not achieve, which are prescribed by law."
"The regulator deals with some peripheral matters and not the key ones, and that is the biggest problem," says Judita Popović.
He notes that the candidates have met all the requirements, long ago, that the interviews have been conducted and that they have the documentation that is necessary in order to make a decision on the carrier of the fifth frequency.
Judita Popović assumes that the decision was not made "because there is no political will to step out of the existing situation that arose after the frequencies were given to earlier users, which only further worsened the existing situation in the media sphere," and says that by re-selecting those television received the "award".
"And that was because of disobeying the law, because of their work that was not in accordance with journalistic or legal standards, but they were not held responsible for that, but they got another opportunity to market their program on the territory of the entire country for the next eight years."
When assigning the frequency, a large part of the Council of REM was guided by the studies that were presented, but not by the history of compliance with the laws and regulations by which television stations were supposed to be run.
"The studies are an empty letter on paper if the television stations do not carry out these studies, and they are not carried out considering that we have the media scene we have today."
He points out that the laws in the media sphere are fundamentally good, but that they are not implemented and that this is actually our biggest problem.
He adds that the consequence of this situation is "the chaotic media scene, that is why there is no freedom of speech, and hate speech has become acceptable. All kinds of discrimination are promoted at every step, and it has been proven that the media has a great influence on society."
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