February 3, 2025<\/p>\n
Six independent candidates emphasised that the main reason for their withdrawal was the unlawfulness of the entire election process from the outset and discrimination against the candidates.<\/p>\n
Prior to them, one candidate who represented the Bosniak national minority cited the same reasons for withdrawing their candidacy.<\/p>\n
Following these withdrawals, the Serbian National Assembly could now repeat the entire REM election process or \u2013 in violation of the law \u2013 select an incomplete REM Council. Specifically, all the candidates have withdrawn in two of the nine areas covered, while of the remaining seven candidates, in three areas there will be only one candidate = instead of the two stipulated by law.<\/p>\n
The election process has been marked by breaches of the Law on Electronic Media from the outset. The mandate of the REM Council expired on 4th November 2024, which is why Serbia currently lacks a body tasked with deciding on the regulating of electronic media in the country. This is a consequence of the violating of the Law by the National Assembly\u2019s Committee for Culture and Information, which failed to schedule the elections on time.<\/p>\n
Despite promises given to international and domestic organisations that the new REM Council would be elected by year\u2019s end 2024, this has yet to happen.<\/p>\n
At the first meeting of the Committee for Culture and Information, at which nominations and candidates for REM Council members were discussed, members of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party stated openly that they would continue to control REM.<\/p>\n
They accepted phantom \u201cGONGO\u201d organisations as nomination proposers, despite them failing to fulfil the legal requirements. These organisations have nominated candidates that are known to be open supporters of the government. This is also illegal, as the law stipulates that REM Council members must be known for being independent and having expertise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
February 3, 2025 Seven of the 18 candidates shortlisted to fill the nine spots for members of the Council of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media have withdrawn their candidacies. Six independent candidates emphasised that the main reason for their withdrawal was the unlawfulness of the entire election process from the outset and discrimination against the candidates. Prior to them, one candidate who represented the Bosniak national minority cited the same reasons for withdrawing their candidacy. Following these withdrawals, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10063,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-content-en"],"yoast_head":"\n