(ANEM/IFEX) – The following is an 11 December 2000 ANEM press release: Media for a Democratic Europe conference BELGRADE, December 11, 2000 – The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) is pleased to announce that on Sunday, October 10, on World Human Rights Day, a three-day international conference entitled “Media for a Democratic Europe” began […]
(ANEM/IFEX) – The following is an 11 December 2000 ANEM press release:
Media for a Democratic Europe conference
BELGRADE, December 11, 2000 – The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) is pleased to announce that on Sunday, October 10, on World Human Rights Day, a three-day international conference entitled “Media for a Democratic Europe” began in the Belgrade Hotel
Intercontinental.
The conference, organised jointly by ANEM and the Council of Europe, was opened by Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica. He declared that “newly liberated society demands a new liberation of the media scene, which is not an easy job at all — the responsibility is enormous”. He continued that the press must be free, but there could be no freedom without responsibility – towards the audience, towards ensuring privacy, and towards the commercial market and financial trends. President Kostunica added that he did not believe that media could be really free unless they were financially independent. “I do believe we will together build a new democratic society, a beautiful and slightly boring society,” the Yugoslav president said.
After his speech, conference participants listened to a message sent by OSCE media representative Freimut Duve.
According to ANEM chairman Veran Matic, the conference should help those in the independent media find the way forward for all the changes that must be implemented, to help Yugoslavia choose democracy for once and for all and to become an equal partner in all international institutions.
“Changes are necessary throughout the media and not just in the sector we will discuss in the next two days, the reform of the state radio and TV systems and the distribution of broadcasting frequencies. Other changes must also follow in the other large state media companies, in the commercial media and in the independent media. So far the roles have been mixed, with the independent media filling the role of public media, the state media filling the role of political party media, and the commercial media promoting a cultural model that was at the very core of the repressive regime.
“By applying international standards and building on our good reputation, I hope we can manage to develop media systems that will ensure, along with other state mechanisms, that we will never again find ourselves in the situation in which one person, one family or one party can be in a position to cause so much evil, like the regime led by Slobodan Milosevic was.
“We from the independent media want to draw on our established contacts and existing expertise to help our governments, ministries, and all those committed to the swift implementation of democracy in the country through reforms in the field of media. This conference, as well as future projects we have in the pipeline, should be understood in this sense.
“It is clear that we cannot do it all at once. We know that the processes will often be painful for society. Therefore I think we all need goodwill, tolerance and a wish to negotiate; we need debates, expert opinions and interim solutions to help prevent conflicts; and we need a willingness to make sacrifices while we build a healthy society.
“At the same time, we have to prevent what often happened in other countries in transition: the disappearance of the very independent media and non-government organisations that are the only guarantors of the balanced development of civil society. We must avoid the mistakes in the media systems of western societies – their globalisation and brutal commercialisation. Unfortunately, we used to suffer from both the brutality of the indoctrinated local media as well as the frequent failure of the western media to break free from their own constraints of superficiality, stereotypes, and the trap of commercialism,” Matic pointed out.
The Yugoslav Minister for Telecommunications, Boris Tadic, said that his ministry would form a media council, as well as expert groups for certain fields. He added that the Ministry had analysed the current situation and was now calling on expert and trade associations to help draw up new laws covering the media. Commenting on the issue of the redistribution of radio and television frequencies, Tadic said that the Ministry was open to suggestions but that it tended towards the “starting from scratch” approach.
The Council of Europe Secretary-General, Walter Schwimmer, sent a message to the conference in which he emphasised that “there cannot be any genuine democracy without freedom of expression and information and the existence of a plurality of independent media”. “The private broadcast media, both commercial and non-commercial, must be one of the pillars of the democratic broadcasting system that will be at the core of your discussions,” he said in the message read out to participants. “Like all of you, I believe that, beyond the establishment of a proper regulatory framework for the private electronic media, a major task ahead will be the transformation of the RTS into a genuine independent broadcasting organisation.”
Schwimmer pointed out that if the international community wants lasting peace, stability and democracy to be established in south-eastern Europe, it has a duty to help ease the transition to a democratic broadcasting system in Yugoslavia.