CONFLICT WITHIN REM OVER INFORMER: Four Council members warn Europe of decision-making gridlock and challenges to expert findings!

Four members of the Council of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) have informed international officials about what they described as the body’s inability to fulfill its legal responsibilities during the election campaign, as it failed to issue decisions on two complaints against Informer television within the 72-hour deadline.

In a letter addressed to representatives of the European Union and international diplomatic missions, Dubravka Valić Nedeljković, Ira Prodanov Krajšnik, Mileva Malešić and Rodoljub Šabić stated that on October 6, the REM Council initiated two investigative proceedings against Informer over suspected violations of election campaign rules. However, no decisions were adopted at the October 9 meeting because none of the proposals received the required five votes.

They pointed out that the Law on Electronic Media stipulates a 72-hour deadline for adopting and delivering a decision concluding proceedings in cases involving violations during an election campaign, and concluded that REM had failed to act within the legally prescribed timeframe.

According to data presented at the meeting, REM received dozens of complaints against media service providers between October 5 and 9, most of them concerning Informer.

The REM Council members also stated that the television station is still not included in systematic monitoring of the election campaign, linking this to the conduct of pro-government Council members at the September 28 meeting.

The letter states that reports prepared by REM’s professional staff were subjected to sharp attacks and challenges during the October 9 meeting by Informer’s editor and Council members whom the signatories describe as pro-government, even though, they claim, those same findings had not been challenged when the proceedings were initiated.

The four Council members also assessed that decisions in several other proceedings initiated over suspected serious violations of the Law on Electronic Media, to the detriment of opposition participants in the electoral process, were blocked at the same meeting.

They asked international officials to take note that REM is failing to conclude election-related proceedings within the legally prescribed timeframe, to assess the body’s actual ability to make and enforce decisions in their ongoing monitoring, and to take these circumstances into account when evaluating the fairness of electoral conditions, media pluralism and the integrity of the electoral process.

The signatories also reiterated their request that the European Commission’s previous assessments of the process for electing REM Council members be reviewed, including the statement in a July 2026 information note that the authorities had adopted a “constructive approach.”

They concluded that the consequences of the problems within REM are no longer merely a risk of institutional gridlock, but are directly affecting the conduct of a lawful and fair electoral process.

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