Accountability for the Former REM Council Takes Priority Over Electing a New One

Without determining the accountability of the chairwoman and members of the previous REM Council for violations and circumventions of laws regulating the media sphere, it is unrealistic to expect that a new Council, whose selection is set to be announced in the coming days, will bring about the necessary changes.

The REM Council consistently acted in contradiction to its legal obligations, implying not only professional and moral, but also criminal responsibility for its members.

CRTA demands that the prosecution investigates the responsibility of the previous Council members for the drastic failures of REM, which have compromised the public interest for years.

The experiences brought from REM operations during the two previous mandates of the Council clearly demonstrate that this institution was, as a rule, part of the problem rather than the solution. It frequently contributed to, or even caused – the dramatic decline in the quality of public information and media content, the disappearance of media pluralism and the suppression of public interest in favor of media tycoons.

REM consistently dismissed hundreds of complaints against broadcasters who misinformed the public, spread violence, incited hate speech and violated human rights. Moreover, REM rewarded TV stations leading in unlawful and unprofessional behavior by renewing their national broadcasting licenses for up to eight years or granting them local “frequencies”.

The “crown” of illegality as REM’s modus operandi lies in the fact that the legal deadlines for electing a new Council were violated, while the initiation of the current procedure seems to erase the memory of previous legal violations, which is under the authority of dedicated parliamentary committee.

We firmly believe that lawlessness cannot serve as the foundation for reviving a compromised institution, and fear that the election of a new REM Council will merely be a performance simulating democratic procedure, leading to a “new old” REM.

Only by abolishing the principle of impunity and lack of accountability can the institution regain its capacity to fulfill its critical role in protecting democratic standards.