BIRODI: Appointment of President, Deputy President of REM Council Illegal

REM - Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (Beta/Milos Miskov)

The BIRODI Bureau for Social Research think tank said on Jan. 14 that after looking at the statute and rulebook of the regulatory body for broadcasters (REM) it was clear that the president and deputy president of REM were chosen according to acts that had not been harmonized with the Law on Broadcasters, as article 115 of the law envisages.

A statement said that BIRODI had informed international media regulatory institutions and the European Parliament's rapporteurs for Serbia of the illegal appointments.

"The aforementioned article clearly states that the 'Council of the Regulator has the obligation of harmonizing the its statute and other acts within 90 days after the law's enactment,' meaning that the REM's internal acts were supposed to have been harmonized with the Law on Broadcasters back then," the Bureau said.

It stressed that the fact that that his had not been done to this day, did not only question the legality of choosing a president and deputy president of the REM's Council, but also the legality of every decision passed by the body since 2014.