Today, MANS filed three more complaints against the media that published political advertisements contrary to the Law on Financing of Political Entities and Election Campaigns. Meanwhile, the Agency for Prevention of Corruption (APC) still has not done anything to stop further violations of the law ahead of the parliamentary elections to be held in two weeks.
The complaints we filed today relate to Antena M, Skala radio and the portal Borba. An advertisement of a political entity was published on Antena M portal as well as on that radio station, although that media did not publish a price list in accordance with the Law on Financing of Political Entities and Election Campaigns. In the case of Antena M, MANS has already warned APC of the fact that they did not submit the price list in accordance with the law, but that institution has not yet made a decision upon that complaint, or removed the price list from its website. This has led to political entities using this media for political advertising, contrary to the law.
When it comes to Skala radio and the portal Borba, these two media did not submit price lists for political advertising to APC at all, which was required by law. Despite that, Skala radio has a special commercial break for this year’s parliamentary elections as part of its regular programme, within which it has already started publishing political ads.
Portal Borba also started publishing advertisements with political content, although they never submitted their price list to APC, thus, the public does not know how much such ads cost.
These examples are a direct consequence of APC not doing its job and show that it does not have the political capacity to effectively and firmly sanction violations of the law. None of the media price lists submitted after the expiration of the legal deadline were removed from the APC website, and this institution persistently ignores initiatives related to the work of media campaigns and thus actively contributes to making these elections non-transparent.
For now, it is not clear why the new director of APC, Jelena Perović, did not move away from the practice of her predecessor, which has been criticized from almost all relevant international addresses since the establishment of the Agency.
MANS once again urges APC and director Perović to stop ignoring and covering up obvious violations of election laws instead of writing absurd statements aimed at justifying complete inactivity and lack of willingness of this institution to seriously deal with the control of these elections.
MANS
