Legal lacuna

Editor of “Serbian Legal Review” , Vladimir Todoric, says there is a certain “legal lacuna” situated in the way the media have been handling the referendum campaign. This void can be abused for “deregulated campaigns”.

“The Law on Referendum Procedures includes a legal lacuna which points to the Law on Election of Members of the Parliament; the latter is applied when the former renders a provision incomplete. During the referendum in Montenegro, the international community expressed great interest in campaign rules, while it avoids to interfere in pre-referendum process”, says Todoric.

Neither does the Constitution nor the law – the referendum is mentioned in Article 86 of the Law on Public Announcements of State Institutions (and political organizations), where it is treated the way humanitarian actions, emergency measures or school enrolment announcements are treated. This article comes in handy to those radio and television stations which advertise the referendum free-of-charge. The time used for pro-referendum campaign will not be counted as part of 12-minute-advertisement by hour.

The Montenegrin referendum held in May is remembered by Belgrade’s insistence on equal space to be given in the media to both referendum parties (those pro-independence and those advocating against it). The block in favor of boycotting the referendum on the Serbian Constitution, composed of LDP, GSS, SDU and LSV, some of which are represented in the Parliament, demanded from Predrag Markovic, President of the Serbian Parliament, be visible during the referendum campaign, but received a no in reply. RIK too rejected these parties’ demands.