Only RTS and RTV have the right to propose new management and staff changes at Serbia's two public broadcasters, Prof. Rade Veljanovski, a retired lecturer at the Faculty of Political Sciences, told RTS. He was replying to an open letter from the Student List, which wants to propose RTS's interim leadership itself.

In the letter, the Student List insists that it should put forward the interim leadership, in agreement with the representative trade unions.

RTS director general Manja Grčić has resigned. Before that, she dismissed some of the editors. Veljanovski says she had the right to do so, because the director general appoints and replaces editors-in-chief.

The professor says Grčić's resignation has no one to be handed to. It goes to the Managing Board, and no such board actually exists at the moment. Even so, her decision must be treated as fact and she is no longer director, he said.

The Managing Board said it would vote on staff changes the next day. Veljanovski says that decision carries no weight and would be illegal.

"It is better not to go on with the staff changes, because they could cause more confusion than there already is," the professor warned.

He says Managing Board members whose terms have ended are still being paid. He thinks this is wrong, because they are no longer members. Only those whose terms have not yet run out are entitled to pay, he said.

He says the handover will take two to three weeks, or a month. Veljanovski expects new people to fill all top posts at RTS and RTV.

Public media need professionals with knowledge and courage, he added. Some journalists and programmes already show that they know how to do the job, and Veljanovski asked why they had not done so earlier, ten days, a month or a year ago.

The public media operator must belong to all citizens, not to the centres of power, the professor says. Asked whether an RTS that reports critically on the government reforming it is possible, he said Serbia has not yet understood what public media are. In his view, neither the politicians, nor the people who work in the media, nor the citizens have understood.

If people have argued until now that politics must not directly influence public media, or the media in general, that must not change after 25 October either, Veljanovski said.