Four REM Council Members Write to International Officials Over Informer Case

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

Four members of the Council of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) have informed international officials of what they described as the regulator's inability to fulfill its responsibilities provided by law during the election campaign, as it had failed to decide on two complaints against Informer television within 72 hours.

In a letter addressed to European Union (EU) representatives and international diplomatic missions, Dubravka Valic Nedeljkovic, Ira Prodanov Krajsnik, Mileva Malesic and Rodoljub Sabic explained that the REM Council had initiated two investigations against Informer on Oct. 6 over suspected violations of election campaign rules, but that no decisions were adopted at its Oct. 9 meeting because neither proposal secured the required five votes.

They pointed out that the Law on Electronic Media stipulates a 72-hour deadline for issuing and delivering a decision that would conclude proceedings concerning violations during an election campaign, adding that REM had clearly failed to meet the statutory deadline.

According to information presented at the meeting, REM received dozens of complaints against media service providers between Oct. 5 and 9, most of them concerning Informer, which is not covered by systematic monitoring of the election campaign.

The four REM Council members called on international officials to take note of REM's failure to conclude election-related proceedings within the statutory deadline, assess the regulator's actual ability to adopt and enforce decisions in their continued monitoring, and take these circumstances into account when evaluating the level playing field in the elections, media pluralism and the integrity of the electoral process.

They assessed that the consequences of REM's operational problems were no longer merely a risk of institutional deadlock but were directly affecting the conduct of a lawful and fair electoral process.