Details of the 3rd meeting between authorities and opposition to discuss election conditions

The topic of the third roundtable between the authorities and opposition - to be held on Monday, August 19 at the Faculty of Political Sciences (FPN) - will be "Access to the Media and Their Control," the organizers, the Open Society Foundation and the FPN, announced today.

The conversation will be dedicated to access to and control of the media, which, as stated in the invitation to the meeting, are crucial for ensuring fair and free elections.

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Representatives of relevant political parties and alliances, media associations and civil society organizations dealing with elections, and experts from faculties and institutes studying the topic of elections have been invited to participate in the dialogue.

The agenda for the gathering states that at the dialogue will be opened at 10 a.m. by FNP Dean Dragan Simic and Executive Director of the Foundation Milan Antonijevic. After this, representatives of CRTA, CeSID, Transparency Serbia, Media Association and Local Press will present analyses of the situation in the field of media access and media control, in the context of election campaigns, focusing on issues that can be solved in the run up to the next election.

Photo: Tanjug/Dragan Kujundzic

That panel will be recorded and broadcast to the press room.

The plan is to then, from 10:30 until 12:30 organize a debate on the presented analyses and proposals of political parties. This panel will be organized according to the Chatham House rules, without the presence of reporters.

Participants in the dialogue are scheduled to address the media from 12:30 until 13:00.

Earlier, Liberty and Justice Party Vice-President Marinika Tepic said that party would not participate in the roundtable on Monday, nor in any subsequent meetings - "as long as they are closed to the public."

The Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (NUNS) announced yesterday that it had accepted the invitation to participate in the meeting - but only in the first part, which will be public.

"The NUNS Executive Board has decided to accept the invitation to once again reiterate the Association's views on the dangers to freedom of information and expression, the safety of journalists and other media workers, the unequal position of the media and other topics and problems that directly threaten the right of citizens to full, objective and comprehensive information," said a statement from that association.

The Foundation and the FPN began organizing a series of roundtables dedicted to parliamentary and local elections, which are due to take place by the spring 2020 at the latest.

In addition to the two meetings already held, as well as the dialogue on the media, two more are planned - on electoral rolls and electoral administration, and on the citizens' electoral rights.

(Telegraf.rs)