REM: Elections, and Not Boycott, Serve the Public Interest

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

Commenting on the media representation of the participants in the coming elections, Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) member Olivera Zekic, has said that the national-reach media outlets are not obligated to provide airtime for those boycotting the elections and their advocates, adding it would not be in the public interest.

“The election boycott is a decision made by some political parties, it’s their right, just like someone’s right to abstain, but no one can say that elections are not in public interest, while the boycott is,” said Zekic for the Feb. 24 issue of the Vecernje Novosti daily.

For that reason, Zekic added, “the national outlets are not only not under the obligation to give the boycotters airtime, but if they did so, they would seriously threaten public interest as well as one of the basic human rights to choose and be elected.”

Zekic also said that the opposition “can’t understand that REM doesn’t have the right to influence editorial policies of private media outlets.”

The reason why the opposition criticizes REM, according to Zekic, is “lack of policy that addresses important questions, and which, instead, is looking for someone to blame – for everything, even their own shortcomings and failures. You have low ratings – someone has to be held accountable. You can’t win in the elections – someone has to be at fault. That’s how the whole ruckus around REM has started. A rumor spreading a complete lie – that REM decides who’s going to win in the elections,” said Zekic.