Serbia: Regulatory Bodies

Republic Broadcasting Agency

The Republic Broadcasting Agency (RBA) is the main broadcasting regulatory authority. It was created by the Law on Broadcasting in which Article 6 defines it as “an autonomous i.e. independent organization exercising public competencies pursuant to this Law and regulations passed on the basis of this Law to secure conditions for the efficient implementation and improvement of the set broadcasting policy in the Republic of Serbia in a manner befitting a democratic society”.

The Agency monitors the implementation of the law; it also issues broadcasting licenses and monitors the work of broadcasters in the country; it receives and examines complaints and emanates sanctions for violations of the law or of the licenses’ conditions. Furthermore, the RBA can pass by-laws to implement the Broadcasting law in practice. The Agency is also responsible for monitoring ownership concentration as defined by the Law on broadcasting (Chapter VI).

Republic Agency for Electronic Communications

The Republic Agency for Electronic Communications  (RATEL) was created by the 2010 Law on Electronic Communications. Article 7 of the Law defines the agency as an autonomous organization with the status of a legal entity which is in charge of regulations for the communication and the ICT market. Within the Agency there is a managing board composed of five members in charge for a five-year term.

Members are currently selected with a two-step process: at least 180 days before the renewal of the staff, a public competition starts for the election of the new members. The government draws a list of applicants and submits it to Parliament which must vote to select among them. The Agency has its own statute (pdf here) where its main characteristics, its functioning and its competencies are defined.

The Commissioner for Information of Public importance and Personal Data Protection is an autonomous independent body created by the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Importance. It monitors the implementation of the law and function as an appeal body for citizen requesting information to public authorities in the country. The Commissioner’s decisions are binding and the Commissioner can also ask the government to enforce them.

The more recent Law on Personal Data, adopted in October 2008, assigned new responsibilities to the Commissioner in the area of private data protection and gave the Commissioner its actual title.