Šabić: Decision on REM status to be made after Assembly's statement

Members of Serbia's Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM) council, who resigned in December, will wait for the National Assembly to officially rule on an authentic interpretation of the Law on Electronic Media before making any further decisions about their status. Rodoljub Šabić, one of the resigned council members, told FoNet that they will officially state their position on their membership in the REM council only after seeing the Assembly's definitive clarification. "We will respond, in any case, but only after we officially see what they have done and how. I expect that, whatever the answer, it will be unified," Šabić said. The parliamentary Committee on Constitutional and Legislative Issues previously assessed the proposal for an authentic interpretation of the Law on Electronic Media, related to the resignations of REM council members, as justified. This interpretation suggests that a resignation has no legal effect if submitted by a council member who has not yet assumed their duties. The Assembly is scheduled to convene on Monday, July 6, with the authentic interpretation as a key agenda item. The law states that a council member's mandate ends upon submitting a written resignation to the National Assembly, effective the day the resignation is delivered. The parliamentary Committee on Culture and Information had previously suspended the procedure for proposing a new REM council member from national minorities. It invited the four members who resigned, Rodoljub Šabić, Mileva Malešević, Ira Prodanov Krajišnik, and Dubravka Valić Nedeljković, to resume their functions within REM. The committee also accepted that the newly formed REM council would draft a new Statute. The four independent REM council members, who resigned following the controversial actions of the Committee on Culture and Information, stated at the time that they would not return to their positions based solely on that committee's conclusion. They asserted that only the National Assembly, in accordance with the law, could resolve the legal ambiguities arising from their resignations.

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We will respond, in any case, but only after we officially see what they have done and how. I expect that, whatever the answer, it will be unified.