OSCE media freedom representative questions REM’s credibility; session today on campaign monitoring

The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Jan Braathu, has questioned the credibility of the newly formed Council of Serbia’s Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM), as he told the daily Danas in an interview published today. He commented on the letter that four Council members — Dubravka Valić Nedeljković, Ira Prodanov Krajišnik, Mileva Malešić and Rodoljub Šabić — sent to the international community, including the European Union and the OSCE/ODIHR, over the refusal to place TV Informer under REM’s supervision during the election campaign.

According to the interview published today in Danas, Braathu said the REM Council’s next session, scheduled for 6 October, offers the opportunity to reconsider the scope of systematic campaign monitoring. He recalled that all eight Council members had previously expressed in writing their support for an expanded monitoring sample that would also include TV Informer, “but other factors prevailed when the formal decision was taken on 28 September” — the vote ended 4 to 4 and the decision was not adopted.

REM’s professional service began campaign monitoring on 10 September, even before the Council was constituted, on the basis of the 2023 methodology, which covers 11 television channels — RTS 1, RTS 2, RTV 1, RTV 2, Pink, Prva, B92, Happy, N1, Nova S and K1 — but not TV Informer. Braathu said that systematic and credible monitoring of media election reporting should adequately reflect Serbia’s media landscape and include prominent outlets with a large audience reach, among them TV Informer.

“An independent and fully functioning media regulatory body is the main guarantee of media freedom and pluralism in a democratic society,” Braathu said, stressing that this role is particularly important during the election period, when citizens need access to diverse and reliable information. He expressed hope that the Council will reconsider the issue at the 6 October session and reach the necessary majority for an approach that ensures comprehensive and credible campaign monitoring.

Braathu underlined that his mandate as OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media is to defend the principles of media freedom, including the regulator’s independence, not to influence individual decisions or votes. He said he will continue to actively follow the media environment ahead of the parliamentary elections and will raise matters of concern with the relevant interlocutors, fully respecting REM’s institutional independence.