Returned REM Committee Member Defends His Actions

Rodoljub Sabic (BETAPHOTO/MILAN ILIC)

The regime would jump at the opportunity to accuse independent candidates of sabotaging the operation of the Regular Authority for Digital Media (REM) steering committee by refusing to assume their elected positions after the government issued an official opinion voiding their resignations,” committee member and attorney Rodoljub Sabic said on July 13.

“The state of our media is catastrophic,” explained Sabic – one of the four independents who resigned their REM committee positions over what they considered regime manipulations and legal irregularities. “[Serbia’s] media have been transformed into mudslinging platforms, [while] the REM is operating based on twenty-year-old bylaws.”

“In such circumstances, should we refuse to assume our roles in the REM [steering] committee, the regime would have the opportunity to present our behavior as a violation of the law and to foist its own responsibility – for the REM’s years-long inactivity, for the continued blockade of [state] institutions and the repercussions of this blockade on the rule of law and Serbia’s European path – onto us and the organizations fighting for a lawful REM,” Sabic said in the interview.

The attorney added he and the other independent candidates would attempt to improve the state of Serbian media and stressed society’s need for a functional REM.

On July 11, Rodoljub Savic, Dubravka Valic Nedeljkovic, Ira Prodanov Krajisnik and Mileva Malesic announced they would resume their positions in the REM steering committee after the National Assembly of Serbia adopted an Authentic Interpretation of the Law on Digital Media which rendered their resignations void.