Public consultation held on draft rulebooks

The Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media held today a public consultation on 15 draft rulebooks in accordance with Articles 51 and 53 of the Law on Electronic Media (Official Gazette of the RS, no. 92/2023).

The public consultation was also attended, in addition to the members of the Council and representatives of the Regulator’s technical services, by representatives of public broadcasters, media service providers, organisations for the protection of copyright and related rights, associations that bring together media service providers and journalists, and by representatives of international organisations and the civil sector.

Topics discussed as part of the public consultation were 15 draft rulebooks from the area of protection of minors, urgent notification of the public about a missing minor, list of the most significant events, conducting prize competitions, deed on the transfer of licenses and change in ownership structure, amount and manner of calculation of the fee and the fee for the provision of services.

Special attention was focused on the draft rulebooks on European audio-visual works and the share of Serbian musical works, human rights protection, obligations of MSPs during the election campaign, the accessibility of programming content to persons with disabilities, requirements and criteria for granting licenses and approvals.  

Among the rulebooks that define a new area in the domain of audio-visual media services for the first time, the draft rulebook on providers of video sharing platform services stands out.

The Regulator’s technical services drafted the rulebooks with the support of experts from the Council of Europe, within the project Protecting Freedom of Expression and of the Media in Serbia (PROFREX), which is part of the Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye 2023-2026, a joint European Union and Council of Europe programme, in order to comply with Council of Europe standards and EU rules in this area.

Upon completion of the public consultation, the Regulator will analyse the suggestions, proposals and remarks of the participants in the public consultation and will compile a report on the conducted public consultation on the draft general enactments.

The final text of the draft general enactments will be published on 7 May 2024.