Mediji civilnog društva u Srbiji
Civil Society Media in Serbia

Summary/Abstract: 31. December of 2007 was the deadline to complete transformation of the local media in Serbia whose founders were the state or enterprises with the major share of capital assets in state ownership. Domestic laws such as Information Act (2003) and Broadcasting Act (2002) made it the firm obligation following the guidelines of European standards and norms. Media transformation for more than 180 units could have taken two forms. First, local media to be sold to new private owners, and the second one, these media to be transformed into public, non-profit public foundations, e.g. to became civil society media. Although both paths are legal, privatization has a waste advantage both in practice and in public discourse. The process of privatization itself is so far unsuccessful, because only 24% of the local media enterprises under obligation to change their status did so. Interesting question is why this opportunity to develop local broadcasting media in form of civil society ones is missed? There are several factors responsible for it. Political actors do not like civil society media because they can likely loose control over them. Employees hesitate to take this direction because of financial insecurity and loss of hidden incomes. NGO-s and institutions of national and other minorities did not use the chance because of lack of knowledge about the model and its advantages. General public has no information about civil society media at all, and believes that only local media privatization is required. The article presents also the survey in which working journalists explain the reasons, in their opinion, for the poor development of civil society media in Serbia.

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