Four members of the Serbian Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) Council informed international officials of what they described as the media regulator’s inability to fulfill its legal duties during the election campaign, following its failure to rule on two complaints against Informer TV within the mandatory 72-hour window.
Oglas
In a letter addressed to European Union (EU) representatives and international diplomatic missions, Council members Dubravka Valic Nedeljkovic, Ira Prodanov Krajisnik, Mileva Malesic, and Rodoljub Sabic said that the REM Council initiated two review procedures against Informer TV on October 6 over suspected campaign violations. However, no decision was adopted at the October 9 meeting because neither proposal received the required five votes. They noted that the Law on Electronic Media mandates a 72-hour deadline to finalize rulings on campaign-period violations, concluding that the media regulator failed to act within the legally prescribed timeframe.
According to data presented at the meeting, the REM received dozens of complaints against media providers between October 5 and October 9, with the majority directed at Informer TV. The four signatories said that Informer TV is still excluded from systematic election campaign monitoring, attributing this to the actions of pro-government Council members during a September 28 session.
The letter further noted that during the October 9 meeting, REM’s reports faced sharp criticism from Informer’s editor and those described by the signatories of the letter as pro-government Council members, even though those same members raised no objections when the proceedings were initially launched. The signatories added that decisions were similarly blocked in several other cases involving suspected severe violations of the media law, to the detriment of opposition election candidates.
The four Council members requested that international officials document the REM's failure to conclude electoral proceedings on time, evaluate the body’s actual enforcement capacity, and factor these circumstances into overall assessments of media pluralism and election integrity. Finally, the signatories urged a re-examination of previous European Commission assessments regarding the selection of REM members, warning that operational disruptions within the regulator are now directly undermining a lawful and fair electoral process.
Teme