PRIVATIZATION OF MEDIA

24. September 2014.

On August 15, the Privatization Agency issued a call for collecting letters of interest for the privatization of over 60 media outlets in Serbia, including Radio Leskovac, RTV Vranje and Radio Medvedja.

The call was issued on the basis of the new Law on Public Information, which stipulates that all media, with the exception of the public RTS and RTV services, should be privatized by July 2015.

Under this law, which entered into force on August 13, the media were supposed to submit a privatization initiative by September 15.

The Agency shall make a decision on the method of privatization within 90 days of the submission of the initiative.

The deadline for the privatization of the state-owned media, as well as of the provincial and local self-governmental ones, is July 1, 2015, when media financing from the public funds shall be banned.

Instead of that, the principle of project financing of the media contents of public interest will be introduced.

If the media can’t be privatized until July 1, 2015, their capital will be transferred to the employees without any compensation. If the employees, however, fail to accept free shares, their media outlet will cease to exist and will be deleted from the Media Register.

Those interested in buying the media may find on the Agency’s website the information on the property, ownership, potential losses exceeding the capital, number of employees and previous privatizations and may also download the financial reports.

Source: Jugpress and Coordination Body