“Lex non a rege est violanda,” – “The law must not be violated even by the king”, states a Latin legal maxim. But, in a recent saga over new media laws in Serbia it was never so much about the laws themselves as it was about those implementing them, Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) report states.

Two milestone laws that define the Serbian media landscape – the Law on Public Information and the Media and the Law on Electronic Media – were passed on November 4 after three days of stormy debate in the Serbian parliament.

This followed a groundbreaking eight-hour meeting on October 17 between the Prime Minister of Serbia, Ana Brnabić, and media community representatives in the media reform working group, convened by the OSCE Mission in Serbia.

It would be an understatement to say that the session in the parliament was boisterous and unrestrained. Once again, the highest interests of politics in Serbia’s polarized society clashed over the media scene. In the end, the Law on Public Information and Media was voted by a majority of 142 MPs, the Law on Electronic Media was passed by a majority of 144 out of 250 MPs.

Elements of both reforms had been strongly criticized by domestic and international media freedom and journalist organizations for deviating from the previously-agreed Media Strategy. In the final text, some positive compromises were reached and many of the most problematic aspects of the draft laws were removed.

However, one of the most controversial elements of the text remained. Under the new laws, the state of Serbia – through the state telecommunications operator Telekom Serbia – will once again be able to legally and officially own media outlets.

While the text of the new Law on Public information and Media states that “publishers or producers of media content” “may not be founded, directly or indirectly” by either state provincial or local authorities, it included an important exception. This loophole would be for cases in which the founder of the media outlet is “a for-profit corporation carrying out electronic communication activities, in accordance with the law governing electronic media, provided that it is not a state aid beneficiary within the meaning of the Law on Ratification of the Stabilization and Association Agreement” with the EU.

In practice, this exception will allow the state to own media indirectly, via Telekom Serbia. Press freedom advocates fear that this ability for the state-owned telecoms company to purchase and own media will hand the government greater indirect influence and control over the influential television market. This would risk distorting the media market by an uneven playing field for media companies, as well as posing the risk of undue political influence.

In reality, Telekom Serbia had already been the owner of media outlets in the country for some years. The first news channel to be 100% owned by a subsidiary of state-owned Telekom Serbia was Euronews Serbia, which began broadcasting in 2021.

Two years earlier in 2019, the Euronews company, headquartered in France, announced that it would launch Euronews Serbia during the official visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Belgrade.

This was not strictly in accordance with the law of the time, but a way was found. The Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) at the time argued that this was not in breach of the law against state ownership of media since Euronews was not owned directly by Telekom, but by a Telekom subsidiary, Arena Channels Group. It was furthermore held that Telekom itself was a joint stock company, where the state was not directly the sole shareholder.

However, the Strategy for the Development of the Public Information System (the Media Strategy) adopted by the government of Serbia in 2020, after extensive consultations with the media community, had the clearly stated objective of ending public ownership of media. With the passing of the Law on Electronic Media and the Law on Public information, this objective was abandoned.

The issue of public ownership of media outlets, in this case Telekom, is further complicated by the fact that Telekom is the largest cable operator in Serbia. There is concern that Telekom might abuse its position of control over cable networks to disadvantage independent media outlets.

Television stations with national coverage are offered by all cable operators. However, in Telekom Serbia’s cable offer, there are no news channels that are part of United Media Group, which is critical of the government. United owns channels such as N1, which is seen as being one of the most independent channels in the region.

These concerns underscore the importance of securing a level competitive playing field for all media outlets and the need for a truly independent and objective regulatory framework.

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