Summary of the 39 th session

Summary of the 38 th session

SKOPJE, 13.09.2012 – On today’s session the members of the Broadcasting Council (BC) analyzed the gathered information on the work and registration of the Australian TV channels Best of Macedonia (BOM) and K-15 Music. Taking into consideration that two separate companies claim that they own these broadcasters – it was decided this topic to be postponed for the next session, scheduled for Tuesday, 18.09, with a beginning at 12:00 o’clock. By then BC will be collecting and analyzing additional data regarding these TV channels.

BC also adopted the Opinion about the Draft National Strategy for Development of the Culture for the period 2012 – 2017. In this document suggestions were given for alignment of this strategy with the Strategy for Development of the Broadcasting Sector of RM for the period 2013-2017.

Summary of the 37 th session

SKOPJE, 04.09.2012 – On today’s 37th session, BC adopted the Information on fulfilling the obligations, determined with the Decision for annulling the Decision on revoking the broadcasting license of the Broadcasting Enterprise DJ-Slave Ltd. Struga and confirmed that this broadcaster had completely fulfilled its obligations, according to paragraph 2, points 1, 2, 3 and 4 from the Decision on revoking no. 07-306 from 21.08.2012.

The BC members reviewed the information about the data gathered regarding the ownership structure of TV Alfa Ltd. Skopje, TV Skopje, Ltd. Skopje and TV Iris from Shtip, which are holding companies with complex ownership structures, in order to be determined if these broadcasters comply with the provisions from article 11 from the Broadcasting Law. BC decided to continue its activities with an aim to wrap up and re-check all gathered data.

BC reviewed the information on the submission of reports about the aired European audio-visual works on MTV1 and TV Sonce and concluded that these two broadcasters have fulfilled the obligation for broadcasting European audio-visual works.

During the continuation of the 35th session from 4th September, BC concluded that broadcasters Nasha TV – Skopje and Radio Besa – Dolneni have fully paid the broadcast license fee. The following broadcasters haven’t paid the fee for their licenses:

– TV – Skopje – TV Sonce – Skopje – TV AB Kanal – Skopje – Radio MX – Ohrid and – Radio Pehchevo – Pehchevo.

That’s why BC initiated a procedure for revoking of the broadcasting licenses with a last warning to cover all debts they have towards BC within the legal 15-day deadline.

Summary of the 35th session

SKOPJE, 31.08.2012 – On today’s session the Broadcasting Council (BC) approved Nasha TV’s request to change its ownership structure.

The topic on the initiating a license revoking procedure for those commercial broadcasters, which haven’t paid the broadcasting license fee, was postponed for the next session, because the deadline for final payment is today at the end of the day.

BC decided to cease the started misdemeanor procedures against:

– TV -M, because the broadcaster submitted an evidence that it had conducted the measure “written warning with a request for the warning to be aired”;

– Radio Ros Metropolis, because the broadcaster has conducted the measure “written warning with a request for the warning to be aired”.

BC decided to impose two written warnings to Radio Antenna 5, due to non-separation of the advertisements from the rest of the programming and due to surreptitious advertising.

Summary of the 33 th session

Summary of the 32 th session

SKOPJE, 16.08.2012 – At today’s 32nd session, the BC confirmed that Nasha TV and TV AB Kanal have paid the last installment of the debt they had in respect of payment of the fee for the broadcasting license. BC annulled the decisions to revoke the broadcasting licenses of the following broadcasters: TRD Radio Ohrid, TRS Radio Besa Dolneni, TRD Radio PEhcevo, TRD Gaudeamus Radio Klasik FM, TRD Television KRT, TRD Nova, TRD Radio Kiki ILija and TRD Radio Ternipe (Mladost). Regarding the TRD DJ-Slave from Struga, the BC noted that the broadcaster has paid the broadcasting license fee and decided to call this broadcaster to pay costs for publishing of the decision in the Official Gazette and to withdraw the lawsuit against BC before the Administrative Court as a prerequisite for the annulment of the decision to revoke the license. To contribute to the improvement of relations between different ethnic communities, BC decided to ask all broadcasters to provide structure of the employees which could show the percentage of the representatives from ethnic communities. It will also be made analysis of the representation of the programs in languages of ethnic communities, analysis of completed projects of public interest produced in the languages of smaller ethnic communities and the commercial broadcasters who broadcast in the languages of smaller ethnic groups.

Summary of the 31th session

Summary of the 30th session

Summary of the 29th session

Summary of the 28 th session

SKOPJE, 17.07.2012 – On today’s 28th session, BC confirmed that all broadcasters have paid the annual broadcast license fee, except of the commercial broadcaster Miss 2008 from the Village of Preglovo, Plasnica, thus BC started a procedure for revoking of its broadcast license. BC reviewed the reports from the program monitoring of Radio Life, Radio Ravel, Radio Fortuna, Radio Club FM and Radio Folk and issued the following measures and notifications:

– Radio Life: 1 written warning and 2 notifications; – Radio Ravel: 1 written warnings; – Radio Fortuna: 3 written warnings and 1 notification; – Radio Club FM: 3 written warnings and one notification; – Radio Folk: 2 written warnings.

BC also adopted the following documents:

– Analysis of all issued measures, information and notifications against the broadcasters and most often breaches, made by the broadcasters for the period 1 January 2012 – 30 June 2012; and

– Semi-annual analysis of the courts’ misdemeanor proceedings, aimed on assessing the effectivness of the initiated misdemeanor procedures in front of the courts (for the period: until 30 June 2012);

These documents contain recommendations for improvement of the broadcasting legislation, so BC will share its findings with the Ministry for Information Society and Administration. These analyses are also available in the Service Centre of BC’s website under the link “publications”. As regards the request from SIZ MK NET – Skopje (association of cable operators) for allowing retransmission of four channels, which belong to the Pink Media Group from Serbia (Pink Plus, Pink Extra, Pink Folk and Pink Music), BC decided to allow registration of these TV channels in the cable TV packages, only if the Pink Media Group fulfills the following preconditions:

1. Apologize for the insulting and humiliating behavior towards Republic of Macedonia and apologize for the usage of the “FYR Macedonia”, when referring to the Republic of Macedonia; 2. Pay all debts to BC, in height of 1.921.582 MKD Denars for the broadcasting license of Pink 15 Ltd. Skopje, which has been revoked; and 3. Pay the debts to the former employees of Pink 15 Ltd Skopje;

As soon as these conditions are met, the Serbian Pink Media Group will have to regulate the copyrights of the four channels jointly with the Macedonian cable operators, which will mean their legal re-transmission on the territory of Macedonia.

In order to improve the cooperation with the national educational institutions, BC decided to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Faculty for Electrical Science and Information technologies, Skopje (FEIT), part of the UKIM- University.