Update
Independent REM members return after parliament’s disp...
On 10 July 2026, the National Assembly adopted an authentic interpretation of Article 18(4) of the L...
As of Tuesday, 14 July 2026, the governing boards of both national public broadcasters are left without the numbers required to function. According to the Journalists' Association of Serbia (UNS), five members of the RTS governing board saw their five-year mandates expire on Monday, 13 July. With one seat already vacant since December 2025, the RTS board is now down to three of nine members - one third of its full composition.
The situation is similar at RTV. UNS reports that the mandates of five of its nine board members also expired, leaving the Vojvodina broadcaster's board with fewer than half of its members from 14 July.
RTS board chair Branislav Klanšček told UNS that three members cannot take decisions: there is no simple majority, let alone the two-thirds majority some decisions require. He added that the question of how the body will operate is not for him to answer, but for REM - and, since the REM Council does not exist, presumably for the National Assembly or its Committee on Information. RTV board chair Marko Ćalić struck a more relaxed tone, saying he expects no problems during the low-activity summer period.
The root cause is the blockade of the media regulator. Under the Law on Public Media Services, it is the REM Council that appoints and dismisses board members - by a two-thirds majority - and that must announce the public competition to fill their seats six months before their mandates expire. Because the REM Council has not been constituted for more than a year and a half, no such competition could be called, and the boards have been left to empty out with no mechanism to replace their members.
There may be movement. The four members who resigned from the REM Council in December 2025 announced they will after all take part in its work, after the National Assembly adopted an authentic interpretation declaring their resignations without legal effect. Whether this restarts appointments to the public broadcasters' boards remains to be seen. CRTA documents how the paralysis of the media regulator now cascades into the institutions it is meant to oversee.
The situation is similar at RTV. UNS reports that the mandates of five of its nine board members also expired, leaving the Vojvodina broadcaster's board with fewer than half of its members from 14 July.
RTS board chair Branislav Klanšček told UNS that three members cannot take decisions: there is no simple majority, let alone the two-thirds majority some decisions require. He added that the question of how the body will operate is not for him to answer, but for REM - and, since the REM Council does not exist, presumably for the National Assembly or its Committee on Information. RTV board chair Marko Ćalić struck a more relaxed tone, saying he expects no problems during the low-activity summer period.
The root cause is the blockade of the media regulator. Under the Law on Public Media Services, it is the REM Council that appoints and dismisses board members - by a two-thirds majority - and that must announce the public competition to fill their seats six months before their mandates expire. Because the REM Council has not been constituted for more than a year and a half, no such competition could be called, and the boards have been left to empty out with no mechanism to replace their members.
There may be movement. The four members who resigned from the REM Council in December 2025 announced they will after all take part in its work, after the National Assembly adopted an authentic interpretation declaring their resignations without legal effect. Whether this restarts appointments to the public broadcasters' boards remains to be seen. CRTA documents how the paralysis of the media regulator now cascades into the institutions it is meant to oversee.
