TS proposes amendments to media bill

BELGRADE - Transparency Serbia (TS) proposed amendments to the bill on public information and media intended to provide better insight into media funding sources, and urged Serbian MPs to take these suggestions into consideration.

The amendments to 12 articles of the bill that entered the parliamentary procedure on Wednesday mainly focus on corruption issues.

TS Program Director Nemanja Nenadic told Tanjug that the amendments are designed to ensure transparency of media funding sources and address potential influence over editorial policy.

The amendments are intended to address the potential influence on the editorial policy, stemming not only from the state ownership and funding, but also from the potential dominant single-source funding, or significant loans and gifts that enable the work of a media company. This information should be public, the same as the data on the ownership structure and funding from the budget and other public sources, said Nenadic.

Ensuring full transparency of media ownership will not solve the key problem, considering that a media company can be started with modest capital and continue to be funded from sources that remain concealed, he explained.

The second set of amendments refers to the media funding awarded through competitions and other methods, said Nenadic, adding that, according to TS, this information should be detailed on the websites of bodies allocating the funds.

Photo Tanjug Video (archive)