Tanjug files complaint against Pristina's decision denying it accreditation for polls

BELGRADE - The Tanjug News Agency on Friday filed a complaint with Pristina's electoral panel for complaints and submissions against a decision by the central electoral commission to deny it accreditation to cover Sunday's local elections in Kosovo-Metohija, and said the decision was unfounded.

In the complaint, Tanjug noted it had fully complied with the provisions of electoral rules and had timely submitted an accreditation request for five observers, accompanied by full documentation, as required by Article 3 of the electoral rules.

The agency noted that, according to an explanation provided by the commission, a registration office had verified the submitted documentation and established that the accreditation criteria had been met, but that, on October 9 - after a discussion in which some members of the commission had expressed suspicions about the authenticity of media outlets requesting accreditation, including the origin and the legitimacy of documentation - the commission had decided to deny Tanjug's request for accreditation.

The decision is contrary to the provisions of the electoral rules, under which, in case of any problems with documentation, the submitter of an accreditation request is sent a written request to amend the documentation by a specified deadline, the complaint said.

"The Tanjug News Agency never received notification of any flaws in the submitted documentation, or correspondence requesting that it be supplemented," it said.

The decision, which gives no clear reasons for the refusal of accreditation and was made following a faulty procedure in which the submitter was not allowed to remediate any potential problems with the documentation and supplement it, is evidently "voluntaristic and not based on regulations," it also said.

No Serbian-language media outlet has received accreditation to cover the local elections in Kosovo-Metohija.

On its website, the electoral commission said the first group of accredited media outlets consisted of 29 local and 13 foreign media companies.

Besides Tanjug, the media outlets that have been denied accreditation are the RTS, Kosovo Online, RTV PULS, TV Most, Kontakt Kosovska Mitrovica, Plus radio, Prva TV, Radio KiM, Gracanica Online, TV Gracanica, Mondo/Kurir TV, Insajder TV, Nina Media Clipping, RTV Vojvodina, Hungarian state television MTVA, Radio KM, Alternativna, TV Herc, VideoPlus, Nova, Medija centar Caglavica and Danas.

The central electoral commission in Pristina did not respond to phone calls and text messages from Tanjug after the decision was announced on Thursday.