Newsroom
OSCE opens office within Radio-Television Serbia
BELGRADE 21 February 2002
BELGRADE, 21 February 2002 - Ambassador Stefano Sannino, the Head of the OSCE Mission to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, today opened an OSCE office in the main building of Radio Television Serbia (RTS) on Abardareva street in the centre of Belgrade.
Both the OSCE Mission Head and the General-Director of RTS, Aleksandar Crkvenjakov, expressed at a meeting their belief that having an OSCE office in RTS will make it easier for the OSCE to work closely together with RTS's management and editorial staff in the process of transforming the station into a public broadcasting company. It also testifies to the RTS management's commitment to achieving this goal, they said.
This is especially important now that an international audit of RTS, commissioned previously by the OSCE Mission according to European standards, has started. The audit, funded by the European Agency for Reconstruction, will be performed by a team of 12 international auditors of the Andersen consulting company.
"This is the first time in the Balkans that a state-owned media [body] is undergoing an international audit of such magnitude prior to its transformation into a public broadcasting company", Ambassador Sannino said.
Paul-Herve Vintrou, the leader of the auditing team, explained that the auditors involved - all of them experts with similar experience in other countries in south-eastern Europe - would diagnose the entire structure of RTS. This would include a financial review of its assets, an inventory of the technical and technological systems, as well as a strategic and operational analysis.
"Since the new RTS management is in place, changes are already visible", Mr. Sannino said. "But in order for RTS to become an economically viable and highly professional public broadcasting service, we need to know what further remedies are needed".
In this respect, the OSCE Head of Mission also underlined the need for a clearly defined legal framework: the adoption of the draft Law on Broadcasting prepared under the auspices of the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the FRY Ministry of Telecommunications with participation of the Belgrade Media Centre, could no longer be postponed. But the Head of Mission is encouraged by the statement of the Serbian Deputy Prime Minister, Zarko Korac, that the Serbian Government would review this piece of legislation next week so it can soon enter the parliamentary procedure.
Both the OSCE Mission Head and the General-Director of RTS, Aleksandar Crkvenjakov, expressed at a meeting their belief that having an OSCE office in RTS will make it easier for the OSCE to work closely together with RTS's management and editorial staff in the process of transforming the station into a public broadcasting company. It also testifies to the RTS management's commitment to achieving this goal, they said.
This is especially important now that an international audit of RTS, commissioned previously by the OSCE Mission according to European standards, has started. The audit, funded by the European Agency for Reconstruction, will be performed by a team of 12 international auditors of the Andersen consulting company.
"This is the first time in the Balkans that a state-owned media [body] is undergoing an international audit of such magnitude prior to its transformation into a public broadcasting company", Ambassador Sannino said.
Paul-Herve Vintrou, the leader of the auditing team, explained that the auditors involved - all of them experts with similar experience in other countries in south-eastern Europe - would diagnose the entire structure of RTS. This would include a financial review of its assets, an inventory of the technical and technological systems, as well as a strategic and operational analysis.
"Since the new RTS management is in place, changes are already visible", Mr. Sannino said. "But in order for RTS to become an economically viable and highly professional public broadcasting service, we need to know what further remedies are needed".
In this respect, the OSCE Head of Mission also underlined the need for a clearly defined legal framework: the adoption of the draft Law on Broadcasting prepared under the auspices of the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the FRY Ministry of Telecommunications with participation of the Belgrade Media Centre, could no longer be postponed. But the Head of Mission is encouraged by the statement of the Serbian Deputy Prime Minister, Zarko Korac, that the Serbian Government would review this piece of legislation next week so it can soon enter the parliamentary procedure.