Serbian ruling party MP claims N1 illegal, REM official denies claim

N1

A Serbian ruling party MP accused N1 TV on Tuesday of operating outside the law but the claim was refuted by a senior official of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM).

Speaking at a debate in the Ministry of Culture and Information, Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) MP Marjan Risticevic said that he sees N1 TV as a foreign station. “To me it is a foreign station. It should register in Serbia, under the law, because it produces and broadcasts its program in Serbia and just passes the signal around. They can broadcast whatever they want, whatever program they want, but I am asking them to register. They are operating “in the black” (outside the law) now,” Risticevic said.  

The claim was denied by REM General Secretary Milan Todorovic who told the debate that all TV stations working as part of the United Group have valid permits to re-broadcast their programs in Serbia in line with European regulations. “A provider of media services, a TV station, has the possibility of getting a permit in the country where its headquarters are based and then re-broadcast to some other country. They have permission to broadcast in Serbia,” he said and cited the example of Al Jazeera whose program is not the same when viewded in Paris and in Belgrade. “The program is different and should be different because the station has separate permits for separate markets. We as a state have accepted the obligation of allowing free reception and re-broadcasting of the program,” Todorovic said.