Sabic: Progressives' New Video, too, Violates Rules to Protect Rights of Minors

Rodoljub Sabic (Beta/Milan Obradovic)

A new campaign video featuring children, which has been launched by the Serbian Progressive Party's list of candidates "Aleksandar Vucic - For Our Children," is "yet another step towards the relativization and implosion of an already limited and ineffective legal framework for the protection of children against media abuse," Rodoljub Sabic, a lawyer and a former commissioner for information of public importance, warned on June 10.

"Only recently did the Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (REM) quoted Article 24 of the Rulebook on the Protection of Rights of Minors in Providing Media Services to ban the same party's video involving a little girl, after it had been aired for days. Right after the ban, another video, involving even younger children, has been presented by the same list of candidates and aired on TV," Sabic said to BETA.

The lawyer believes that "the move might not have particularly strong practical effects for the Progressives, because the first video had been on the air long enough to achieve the desired results, and it can still be used by social media as the Rulebook and the REM decision do not apply to them."

"On the other hand, it sends a strong symbolical message, making it clear that those candidates aspire to be above the law, and more powerful than the law," Sabic has warned.