Problems on the Air

“Everything was done haphazardly in two-three days and that’s why things are the way they are,” VREME was told by a source close to the FRY telecommunications ministry after the public tender for frequencies was published. Haste was the thing to fear because when someone says his intentions are pure you should fear his haste. Someone is trying to push something through in a hurry. The only continuity that exists there is the continuity in breaking federal competencies which has become a tradition ever since the Serbian constitution was introduced in 1990.

The federal telecommunications ministry should know that a federal law on communications systems exists and is still in force (a new one is being drafted). That law does not include a proviso on tenders. Article 64 of that law (which the tender quotes) includes a very generalized proviso under which “radio frequencies can be allocated out of the frequency cycles that are allocated to certain services under international laws”. Article 66 says “one or more frequencies can be allocated” within a certain allocation plan. Article 72, which is quoted in the tender ad, covers the way requests are filed for radio station permits, not frequencies. Under international and domestic regulations, the permit for a radio station is an unavoidable element of regulations on radio traffic; a frequency is just one of the things covered by the permit. So the allocation of frequencies is not a valid category under the existing law. Whoever placed the ad seems to have thought of that and the ad’s title speaks of temporary frequency licenses. That temporary category is covered in existing laws only in the form of temporary permits (article 75) and only for radio stations whose quality is being examined or researched. Those permits are valid for only 60 days and serve primarily a technical not a regulation function. It isn’t clear why the authors of the ad are breaking the law even in terms of temporary licenses. The ad said the temporary permits will be issued for periods of 12 months for radio and 24 months for TV.

The strangest part of the ad covers compensation payments. The electromagnetic spectrum is a natural resource and has to be equally accessible to all, but it does require regulation to make optimal use of it. The cost of that regulation is relatively low. The fact that legal regulations have been disregarded over the past few years is the fault of the telecommunications ministry. That ministry deals mainly in planning, examining, control and administration. If a parliament existed and a government was formed, and if that government asked experts what the cost of regulating the radio waves is, we might get some system of reference. The ad did not specify the compensation payments; it indicated some differences based on the power of transmitters and coverage of urban or rural zones which raises the question of definition. The cash figures remain unknown.
All radio and TV station owners, outside the state radio and TV (RTS) system, face an interesting situation with a lot of unknown elements. They’re already in that situation because all the radio and TV stations in the country have been operating thanks to the negligence of the federal radio communication administration; they’ve invested money in equipment and staff to begin operating. Now, following the scandal that broke out when several stations were shut down during last winter’s protest and after President Milosevic promised to allow stations that aren’t in the RTS system to continue operating, the station owners are caught in the trap. There is cause for fear that the authorities here learned a lesson from Croatia’s ruling HDZ about how to trick and rob radio stations who are formally not part of the informal power structure. Croatia charges concessions for the use of radio frequencies under similar terms as the ad (transmitter power and population) but at prices twice what developed European countries charge. Radio and TV stations which are not part of the Croatian state system are forced to earn twice as much as radio or TV stations in Berlin for example.

This isn’t just an effort to shut down independent radio and TV stations financially and that is shown by one more thing in the ad: requests filed with incorrect data will not even be considered. This is a methodology trick: the technical calculations on the power of the transmitter signal can be calculated in different ways. That means you can file a request based on calculations under one method which give a transmitter power of 1.5 decibels less than what the authorities assume and the request will be rejected. The ad does not state which method should be used.

The ad said the deadline to file requests is 30 days. the ad was published on Friday; on Monday, the legal service of the Association of Independent Media (ANEM) tried to contact the telecommunications ministry and were told to call back on Tuesday afternoon; on Tuesday, they were told to call on Wednesday morning; on Wednesday they were told that agreement had been reached on everything but the payments. During all that time the deadline was approaching and the ministry might be in consultation for 20 days which wouldn’t be surprising since the ad was published hastily and under political pressure.

Interestingly, Branka Micic, a Sremska Mitrovica judge, ruled in a law suit filed by Ozon, a local radio (a new station, without a proper permit), against the telecommunications ministry. She ruled that the ministry had to return the station’s transmitter which was confiscated immediately. On Tuesday, February 10, Vukoje Lukic from the Serbian information ministry claimed the allocation of frequencies was under the sole jurisdiction of the republics although the regulating of radio traffic is under state jurisdiction, not in the competence of the federal units. That means Serbia has usurped something that is solely under federal competence and that federal laws and regulations are not in accord with republican laws. So what now? The republic regulates the registry of public media which is something else altogether, but obviously confusion is being created, systematically in this case. There’s a catch here: no registration without a frequency and no frequency without registration.

That brings us to the essence of the issue: ever since the radio waves chaos began with Studio B in 1990, there was no mention of regulating that resource based on accessibility to all. This is a political battle. Everything that is not part of the RTS system has been achieved through a fierce political struggle. All means available were used, including police raids (at B 92 and Studio B), robberies (Radio Pancevo’s transmitter), confiscation, sabotage (B 92 and Radio Index), street demonstrations, opposition pressure, pressure from the international community and great powers, forced concessions, infiltration through deals with the opposition (Studio B) etc.

The latest maneuver with the ad is obviously another strategic step, taken without thinking it through or analyzing the consequences. That is completely in accord with the behavior of the telecommunications ministry which has systematically and deliberately created chaos for political reasons. Ways exist to regulate the issue in a satisfactory way with respect to the state’s interest in having a national radio and TV network along with regional networks and local private stations. Physical limitations do exist in terms of the number of stations which can operate anywhere, but a compromise can be found. The important thing is to establish the rules of the game which will exclude monopolies, greed, corruption and intentional chaos. There are experienced experts who can do this.

Montenegrin reactions to the ad showed that all this is not accidental: the Montenegrins calmly said they would ignore the ad, maybe because they know it is aimed primarily against them, because they weren’t consulted. The whole thing is clear to them: take from Montenegro what Serbia holds. That’s another step towards majorization and imposing the will of the larger partner on the smaller partner. A precedent exists: the federal court declared itself incompetent to rule on election fraud in Serbia but willingly ruled on election fraud in Montenegro.

As in 1990 and 1991, federal regulations are being broken and ignored based on the balance of forces. If this issue is anything to go on, this federation will break up like the previous one because Milosevic’s federal partners won’t obey him.