Sweeping privatizations of media outlets in Serbia

A total of 79 state-owned media outlets will be privatized after relevant media legislation is adopted in the second half of 2014, said Serbia’s Assistant Minister of Culture and Information Sasa Mirkovic, as reported by Serbian newswire Tanjug May 12.

“I think it is realistic to expect the new legislation on media to be adopted in the second half of this year,” said Mirkovic as cited by Tanjug.

Mirkovic stated that the new bills on public media services and on electronic media are in the final stages of drafting in support of the European Commission.

“The bill on public service media should be forwarded to Brussels for analysis soon,” said Mirkovic, as cited by the newswire. “The sooner the opinions are received, the sooner the draft law will be presented to the government, and a bill tabled to the parliament,” added Mirkovic, as cited by Inserbia newswire.

When asked about the process of the state’s withdrawal from the media sector in Serbia, Mirkovic explained that this will start only after the adoption of the new public information bill.

“The Ministry of Economy and the Privatization Agency will play an important role in this process, working together with other ministries to see how realistic it is to expect the deadlines contained in the draft law on public information and media be really put in practice,” said Mirkovic, as cited by the newswire. “The media market creation has been postponed several times, but this time it is really happening and everyone will have to get used to.

Mirkovic also explained that the government will look to save as many jobs as possible during the media privatization process.

“As the state currently owns or co-owns only 79 of the total of 1,312 media houses, less than 10 percent of Serbian media firms will go through the privatization process,” said Mirkovic as cited by Tanjug. “The government will keep in mind the mistakes of the past and the good and the bad sides of media privatization process.”