August 15, 2018<\/p>\n
The fine, however, has been determined due to the employment status of Editor-in-chief Predrag Blagojevic. Referring to the nomenclature of workplaces in the public sector, tax inspectors found that Blagojevi\u0107 had not been granted permanent employment status within Ju\u017ene vesti, which is a private company.<\/p>\n
The Tax Administration calculated that Ju\u017ene vesti must pay taxes and contributions to the Editor-in-Chief dating back to this media company\u2019s establishment in 2010, which \u2013 with accrued interest \u2013 represents a figure of a million dinars. The Ministry of Finance, which includes the Tax Administration under its jurisdiction, initiated a forced collection procedure even before the final decision of the court.<\/p>\n
Ju\u017ene vesti\u2019s founder and director, Vitomir Ognjanovi\u0107, considers that penalising this portal on the basis of a regulation that relates exclusively to the public sector represents a dangerous precedent that could break all small media outlets working in the public interest. He believes that Ju\u017ene vesti has become a \u201cthorn in the side\u201d of the state due to its reporting.<\/p>\n
Ju\u017ene vesti considered that this is about a tried-and-tested recipe for shutting down media companies, pointing to the case of Vranjskih novina [Vranje newspapers], which ceased publishing following tax controls conducted last year. Over the past few months, the Ni\u0161 portal has warned that tax inspectors are also checking their business partners and intimidating partners\u2019 family members.<\/p>\n
In the six-monthly report of the European Commission reviewing the situation in chapters 23 and 24 of Serbia\u2019s EU accession process it is stated that numerous media representatives have stated \u201cclaims that fiscal inspections are disproportionately used to exert economic pressure on media outlets\u201d.<\/p>\n
Serbia\u2019s three largest journalists\u2019 associations (UNS, NUNS and NDNV) emphasised that the Tax Administration is used to pressure the media and that they will seek, in a meeting with representatives of the Serbian government, that this case be re-examined and that the torture of Ju\u017ene vesti by tax officers be halted.<\/p>\n
Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabi\u0107 said that if \u201cJu\u017ene vesti thinks that the Tax Administration isn\u2019t working well, they can complain\u201d. She was already familiar with the intensive tax controls over Ju\u017ene vesti, because the problems of this portal were pointed out to her several months ago by OSCE representative Harlem D\u00e9sir. The Prime Minister then called on the Tax Administration to end its controls if there was no reason for them. However, instead of being suspended, these controls were immediately intensified.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
August 15, 2018 Ni\u0161-based Ju\u017ene vesti [Southern news], one of the most important local media outlets in Serbia, must pay a fine of more than a million dinars, even though tax inspectors have confirmed following six months of controls that the Ju\u017ene vesti has not committed any acts of financial misconduct in its operations since it was established in 2010. The fine, however, has been determined due to the employment status of Editor-in-chief Predrag Blagojevic. Referring to the nomenclature of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3044,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-content-en"],"yoast_head":"\n