Minister of Information and Telecommunications Boris Bratina he stated that he "has knowledge" that the complete procedure for electing members will Council of the Regulatory Body for Electronic Media (REM) to be repeated by voting in the Assembly.
Bratina stated that no one is responsible for the fact that the REM Council was not completed, adding that it was seen "how it played out in the Assembly".
When asked who is responsible for the fact that the state does not have a body that protects the auditorium, he said that "no one is responsible, because REM is in charge of that", noting that he would like his ministry to be in charge of that area.
The Committee of the Serbian Parliament for Culture and Information put it on January 19 invalid decision on the initiation of the procedure for nominating candidates for the election of four members of the REM Council who resigned on December 19, 2025.
Voting without negotiation
"I think that this next procedure will go without any negotiations, but only with a vote. That would be the most fair, if the members of the REM Council are already elected in the Assembly, then the Assembly should elect them by free vote, right?", said Bratina.
He stated that the government has a majority for the election of the Council of the REM, but that previously offered talks led to "requests that are not correct".
What exactly are these two minorities?
Speaking about why a candidate was not chosen on the proposal of minority communities, among which were representatives of the Bosniak and Albanian communities, Bratina said: "What about those two minorities? Why should they be the proposal? We don't have to adopt every proposal. Why not someone from another minority, why not a Roma?"
He added that, in case of obstructions, the REM Council could almost never be elected, because "every time a procedure is done, someone can be dissatisfied and withdraw".
Bratina also stated that in the event that Serbia has REM, without sanctions it would not be possible to air the children's show "Važne styri" on RTS. In one of the episodes of this show, a child praised the students and their protests, which caused violent reactions.
The REM program monitoring and analysis service later concluded that there was no abuse of minors for political purposes in that show.
The Saga Around the REM Council
A new but truncated REM Council was elected on November 12, 2025, more than a year after the expiration of the mandate of the previous convocation. At that time, the ruling coalition did not vote for the candidates of the Bosniak and Albanian national councils, so eight members were elected instead of nine.
Two days later, Rodoljub Šabić, Ira Prodanov Krajišnik, Mileva Malešić and Dubravka Valić Nedeljković announced their resignations, which they submitted on December 19, stating that they do not agree to be part of the process "that puts politics above the law".
Criticism of RTS
The minister used his appearance on RTS to criticize the work of the Public Service. "I think that, in principle, RTS works as it did in 1966. So, you have to grow another 60 years and start behaving like modern television," said Bratina.
He added that "RTS has gone from blue to red" and has moved closer to the BBC. "You see how the BBC behaves professionally, so it will pay a fine to Trump. And you behave somewhat differently," he concluded.
Source: RTS
