Agony of Local Public Radios Continues

21 November 2006

The Media Development Centre (MDC) and the Association of Private Electronic Media of Macedonia (APEMM) publicly oppose the initiative for a Law on Changes and Amendments to the Law on Broadcasting, which provides for extension of the deadline for transformation of local public radio stations for additional six months.

CRM i APEMM ja osuduvaat idejata za prodolzuvanje na rokot za transformacija na javnite lokalni radija

�The extension of the deadline violates the very principle of unchangeability of the Broadcasting Law and will not help the radio stations in any way or manner, having in mind that the situation is not likely to change�, says Viktor Grozdanov, APEMM Executive Director.

Grozdanov pointed a finger at the local public radios as unfair competition which goes with ever lower and lower prices for advertising time, thus presenting difficulty for the private broadcasters who also have to cut their prices, reducing in the process their profitability.

According to Roberto Belicanec, MDC Executive Director, the problem has a long history of flagrant violation and disrespect for the Law that is being tolerated by the state. He says that, instead of working on their own transformation, local radio stations lobby with political parties in order to preserve themselves in any manner possible, violating the legislation that doesn�t provide for the existence of local public broadcasting enterprises.

�This just prolongs their agony�, says Belicanec.

MDC and APEMM emphasize that the initiative to create opportunity for the municipalities to appear as founders of local public broadcasters is against the Law on Broadcasting, while the possibility for financing of such broadcasters from the Broadcasting Fee and the local budgets is also in collision with the Law on Local Self-government.

According to the Law on Broadcasting, the deadline for transformation of the local public radio stations, through privatization, expires on November 29, 2006. The stations failing to meet this deadline would cease to exist.