At the sitting held on 17 November, the Culture and Information Committee discussed the particulars of the Bill amending and modifying the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance. The sitting was chaired by Vesna Marjanovic, Committee Chairperson.

The deputies submitted 20 amendments to the Bill, and the Ombudsman submitted one amendment. Although the Government had rejected the proposed amendments, after the discussion the Committee members decided to accept the amendment to article 10 of the Bill submitted by deputy Vlatko Ratkovic, and the amendment to article 17 submitted jointly by deputies Vesna Pesic, Judita Popovic and Nebojsa Randjelovic.

Minister of Culture Nebojsa Bradic attended the sitting on the behalf of the submitters.

At the sitting, the Committee also considered the Information on the re-election of Members of the Council of the Republic Broadcasting Agency from the ranks of broadcasting media in the Republic of Serbia, journalists’ associations, professional associations of film and drama artists and professional associations of composers.

The Committee noted that the proposed candidate lists submitted by the authorised proposers, had been submitted contrary to the provisions of article 23, paragraph 2, item 4 of the Broadcasting Act, since they contained more candidates than stipulated by the Act.

In the re-election proceedings for RBA Council members, the Culture and Information Committee received the following nominations: Association of European Journalists of Serbia nominated Dragomir Brajkovic, Academy of Performing Artists of Serbia nominated Bozidar Zecevic and Dragomir Brajkovic, Union of Drama Artists of Serbia nominated Srboljub Bozinovic and endorsed the nomination of Bozidar Zecevic, Association of Film Artists of Serbia nominated Bozidar Zecevic and Dragomir Brajkovic, Association of Journalists of Serbia nominated Branko Zujovic, and the Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia and Independent Association of Journalists of Vojvodina nominated Gordana Susa (endorsed by ANEM and APRES).

Concluding the debate, the Committee invited the nominators to submit a joint list containing two candidates within 15 days.

The Committee ascertained a candidate list for the election of three members of the Council of the Republic Broadcasting Agency based on the nominations by the Assembly of AP Vojvodina, traditional Church and religious communities of Serbia and Conference of Universities. The Assembly of AP Vojvodina nominated Goran Karadzic and Velimir Kostadinov for the office, the traditional Church and religious communities nominated His Grace Bishop of Jegar Porfirije Peric and Vladan Tatalovic, and the list of candidates submitted by the Conference of Universities contained Prof. Dr Natasa Gospic and Prof. Dr Svetozar Stojanovic. The Committee proposed that the National Assembly consider and adopt the proposed candidate list for RBA member.

At the end of the sitting, the Committee members requested that the RBA submit an explanation on the instructions sent to the broadcasters on the occasion of the Day of Morning due to the death of Patriarch Pavle.