INTRODUCING ORDER ON THE AIR

New Law on Broadcasting

AIM Skopje, 9 May, 1997

After almost five years of "anarchy" on the air with more than 200 private radio-television stations, on the eve of the traditional first-of-May holiday, the Macedonian parliament adopted the long expected Law on Broadcasting. The first impression made by this Law is that it will mark the end of radio-television stations seated in the attics of new family homes in which the founder, the editor-in-chief and the main announcer is one and the same person. The new Law at the same time means the end of a specific civil disobedience concerning paying of the subscription fee which has brought state television on the verge of survival. Since this issue was not regulated by any law, judges with no exception released the citizens who did not wish to pay. In the future each household connected to the mains, regardless of whether it has one, two or even no RTV set, along with the bill for electric power will receive the additional bill for television. The amount of the subscription fee is agreed to be equal to 2.5 per cent of the average salary in the country, although the state had demanded that it be three per cent, and the opposition asked a limitation to one per cent only.

This part of the law concerned the broad public the most, and that is probably the reason why an intense discussion was led between the authorities and the opposition about this provision. The Social Democrats who by nature of their position should have been on the defensive, won a point by reminding the public that the Liberals who are now in the opposition, at the time when their member was director general of state television, had demanded introduction of this system of subscription which would have amounted to 4 per cent! In any case, a new tax will be imposed on all citizens of Macedonia, including those who do not possess a RTV set, which must be paid because the sanctions are equal to those for tax evasion! As concerning money which will be collected in this way (approximately 10 German marks per household in a country of about 400 thousand households), they will entirely be given to the state radio-television station, and ten per cent will be allocated to private radio-television stations. They will be entitled to this money only under the condition that they apply for it at the public competition for programs of general significance.

The Law prescribes that a legal or physical person may be a founder "of only one broadcasting company" (i.e. private RTV station) and a co-founder of just another one, but with 25 per cent of the founding capital at the most. If more than one legal or physical persons appear as co-founders of a single broadcasting company, their total investment must not exceed 49 per cent.

The provision which bans legal or physical persons engaged in the press to found a RTV station, and vice versa bans RTV stations to work in the press is especially surprising. Although there were various reactions to this provision from different directions, especially in the parliament, the proposer of the law, i.e. the Government of Macedonia did not abandon its original intention.

The part of the Law on Broadcasting which has also aroused great interest in the public is with no doubt the one which refers to the broadcasting council. At the time when the law was announced, this part raised expectations in development of journalism in electronic media, especially due to the fact that about two years ago the government had initiated a broad operation of "introducing order on the air". This government operation carried out by the ministry for transportation and communication resulted in sealing of doors of ten odd private RTV stations. To questions of the public why this was done and why only to certain stations, the ministry answered that they were the ones which did not "meet the standards". This stand caused great doubts because nobody knew what standards they were talking about and how they were established. Pursuant the Law, this is exactly the role of the broadcasting council. In order to do its duty as expected, the parliament of Macedonia is entrusted with the duty to elect 9 well-known personages from the sphere of public information who will be able to competently evaluate numerous issues in this field. Members of the council will be the ones who will decide who meets certain standards to be given a channel and at the same time when somebody has ceased to meet these standards. However, the council will not be entitled to issue permits for the use of channels, which is one of the main reasons why the public is disappointed. The only authority entitled for issuing permits will the the government of Macedonia. The only consolation for the public is that the government will not be able to deprive anybody of the permit for work without the proposal of the council, but since the parliament elects members of the council, this is not very satisfactory for the sceptics.

The manner of election of members of the Council is also interesting. Three out of nine members are elected for the mandate of two years, three for a mandate of four years, and the remaining three for a mandate of 6 years. The members have the right to be re-elected, and they make decisions by a majority of votes. It is planned to elect representatives of ethnic minorities to the council, but since decisions will be made by a majority of votes, members of the minorities believe that "their" representatives will have rather a "protocolar" than an actual role.

It is nevertheless believed that the new Law, especially the council, will play an important role in "introducing order in the air". RTV stations which wish to get a permit to continue to use a channel (which they use already) will have to submit a program of their work with the planned contents, in which they will not be allowed to have "borrowed" programs, without any translation as they did so far. At least 40 per cent of the program of a RTV station must be original, authentic, although they will be given a transitional period of three years to achieve this. The fact which should brighten up private RTV stations is that time for commercials on state television is limited to 7 per cent of the broadcasting time, while this percentage for private stations will be 20 per cent of the broadcasting time.

Despite everything, the fact that the law was adopted is no guarantee that from now it will be roses, roses, all the way on the air of Macedonia. At least not right away. The government asked for two months to determine parametres based on which it will be able to get concessions which will be offered through public competetion. In the meantime, the council will be established (within 45 days), and it will have to prepare a proposal for issuing concessions within six months after adoption of the law, after which the government will consider who to issue the permit for work to.

It should be expected that this part of the process will be the most troublesome, especially if the government decides to close down some private stations. The first time it tried to do it(before the law was existed), it did not succeed and the public was more than excited about it. Since the role of the "Pilate" will this time be played by the council and not the government directly, it is easy to assume that the attacks will go in its direction, which enables the government to work peacefully in this field.

IBRAHIM MEHMETI