(ANEM/IFEX) – The following is ANEM’s media update for the week of 1 to 7 December 2001: ANEM WEEKLY MEDIA UPDATE DECEMBER 1 – DECEMBER 7, 2001 SERB MPs REFUSE TO LEAVE AIRPORT AMID PRISTINA SECURITY ROW PRISTINA, December 3, 2001 – Serb members of Kosovo’s new parliament have refused to leave Pristina airport amid […]
(ANEM/IFEX) – The following is ANEM’s media update for the week of 1 to 7 December 2001:
ANEM WEEKLY MEDIA UPDATE
DECEMBER 1 – DECEMBER 7, 2001
SERB MPs REFUSE TO LEAVE AIRPORT AMID PRISTINA SECURITY ROW
PRISTINA, December 3, 2001 – Serb members of Kosovo’s new parliament have refused to leave Pristina airport amid a security dispute with the UN administration in the province.
The 22 members of the Return coalition, returning from Belgrade this morning, were due to make their first visit to the Kosovo parliament ahead of its inaugural session on December 10.
The members of parliament (MP) however refused to leave the airport after UNMIK said it could not guarantee the security of the accompanying journalists and personnel. Airport security prevented journalists from leaving the airport to enter the city. The Return members asked to be flown back to Belgrade.
Oliver Ivanovic, one of Return’s two parliament presidency members, said the coalition would not attend this week’s preparatory workshops until UNMIK guarantees the safety of all MPs, staff and journalists.
Ivanovic claimed the UN administration had been informed of who would be arriving 48 hours in advance. He described their failure to provide security as “scandalous and shameful.”
The arrival of the MPs marked the first time a Yugoslav airways plane had touched down at Pristina airport since before the arrival of international peacekeepers in June 1999. (B92/Srna)
AGENCY CHIEF AGAINST MULTI-MEDIA HOLDINGS
BELGRADE, December 3, 2001 – Media companies should not be permitted to own a daily newspaper as well as radio and television operations, the editor-in-chief of the Beta news agency said today.
Dragan Janjic was speaking in support of a state government decree to forbid multiple media ownership.
He also said that he believed that television operators Pink, BK and B92 should apply for a national network licence.
“Pink is wealthy and such television networks exist in every country: we are no exception. However, I believe that not everything should be under state control and represent cheap entertainment. Of course I am not against Pink being given a frequency licence, but national programs should have to meet certain criteria first and this station should introduce some changes in its programming,” said Janjic.
He added that all national television broadcasters should be obliged to rebroadcast independent productions. The level of these, he said, was poor at the moment but could be expected to improve.
RELATIONS BETWEEN AUTHORITIES AND MEDIA
BELGRADE, December 3, 2001 – After more than a year, the democratic authorities in the country still see no importance in adopting new broadcast and information legislation, obviously fearing that the democratisation of public information could endanger some of their privileges, B92 commented today.
This is only one of the problems media face in countries in transition and is among the many such problems under discussion at a two-day conference in the Belgrade Media Center of representatives of the majority of news agencies in the region, together with journalist associations, media and local and foreign scientific institutions.
The editor-in-chief of Television Belgrade’s current affairs programming, Bojana Lekic, said that she faces informal pressure from the new authorities almost everyday.
Lekic, who took up the position a month ago, said that she would describe the telephone as the symbol of the relations between media and the authorities.
The political editor of daily Politika, Milo Vukelic, described the democratic authorities in Serbia as trying various means to get control of the paper.
“On June 25 and 26, after the scandal broke about the excess profit tax, not because the law was bad but because a certain lift of excess profiteers emerged, I was invited to visit a bureau within the Serbian Government, an institution close to the Serbia Government, or, should I say, the Serbian Interior Ministry, as a political journalist. I was received by a man who asked me to write against the excess profit tax law and offered me good money for the job,” said Vukelic, saying this was only one of many such examples.
European Media Institute researcher Dusan Reljic told the conference that political control of media in the region still existed and that this was particularly prominent in Eastern Europe.
JOURNALIST THREATENED
NOVI SAD, December 3, 2001 – The editor of Kepes Ifijusag, a Hungarian-language magazine published in Novi Sad, has claimed to have been threatened after publishing an article from the Feral Tribune on Eduardo Flores, the commander of the International Platoon which was active at the beginning of the war in Croatia.
Attila Szabo Palocz claims that Flores sent him an offensive letter describing him as a Hungarian traitor and a Hungarian Chetnik.
Several days later, Palocz said he received another letter, this time with death threats.
A journalist for the London daily The Observer also claims to have received death threats after the broadcasting of a documentary on Channel 4 television in which he made allegations about Flores.
The allegations concerned two unexplained deaths.
Feral Tribune, in its article, wrote that Croatian journalists had had no problem whatsoever with Flores because they had made sure to erect a monument to him.
TAXPAYERS TO PICK UP TAB FOR POLICE LIBEL SUITS
BELGRADE, December 5, 2001 – “Members of the police whose names are on the list published by Reporter are to decide for themselves whether they will file criminal charges for libel against the magazine. We know that many of them have decided to do that and that a significant number of police officers from the list are interested in filing charges. The Ministry will provide the necessary legal assistance for all of those who wish to bring criminal charges,” Police Administration chief Milorad Simic said today.
Asked whether the taxpayer would still pick up the bill if the police lost their cases, Simic said that this was for the court to decide.
REPORTER STICKS TO ITS GUNS
BELGRADE, December 5, 2001 – There is no doubt about the authenticity of the list of police officers in whom the Hague Tribunal is interested, the director of Reporter said yesterday.
Perica Vucinic told media that the backlash from the state over the list was reminiscent of the days when journalists had to “go to certain places” to get information.
A scandal had been created merely by the magazine performing its function, said Vucinic, adding that the most important message emerging was that the media should return to the days of self-censorship.
“We stick to this information and the story and it is not the problem of the media that there is a division in the political structure. This state’s judiciary is under the minister’s control because the prosecution responded just half an hour after his press conference,” said Reporter’s director.
The magazine’s layer, Srdjan Sisic, added that no crime of disseminating false information was committed where there was no intention of jeopardising peace and creating a public disturbance.
“Without proof of intention, there is simply no crime,” he said, adding that just eighteen months ago the Milosevic regime had seized entire issues of Reporter in the same way, making the same claims.
BROADCAST BILL RECIPE FOR CHAOS
NOVI SAD, December 5, 2001 – The Vojvodina Parliament and the province’s independent Media Committee for Information claims that broadcasting legislation due to be tabled in the Serbian Parliament this month is flawed because it does not recognise the characteristics of the province.
Those flaws, which the two bodies say could lead to chaos in the province, include a reduction in the number of frequencies allocated to Radio Television Novi Sad and the difficulties in obtaining frequency licences, because the draft legislation envisages licences being given only to electronic media which held such licences before February 1998.
Radio Belgrade director Rade Veljanovski, a member of the working group which drafted the legislation, claims that the problem does not lie in state media subscriptions collected in Vojvodina but the idea that the entire sum collected should be expended on the needs of RTV Novi Sad. If this were the case, he said, subscribers in Vojvodina should be given a choice as to whether they only wanted access to programs broadcast by the provincial service.
PROVINCIAL MEDIA APPOINTMENTS TO BE LOCALLY APPROVED
BELGRADE, December 5, 2001 – The appointment of senior executives to Radio Television Novi Sad will be carried out according to the law, but the Vojvodina Parliament will be given an opportunity to approve them, Deputy Serbian Prime Minister Zarko Korac said today.
Korac said that this meant the provincial assembly would have the opportunity either to assent to the appointments made in Belgrade or to call for new applications.
LEKIC “THINKING OF RESIGNING”
BELGRADE, December 5, 2001 – Bojana Lekic is considering quitting her position as head of current affairs for Radio Television Serbia after just a month in the job, according to the People’s Justice Party, quoted by Reporter today.
The party’s “reliable” source says that Lekic is unhappy about not being given a free editorial hand and about resistance to her efforts to change the state media’s sycophantic attitude to the government.
RESEARCH AGENCY REPORTS BIAS IN MEDIA
BELGRADE, December 6, 2001 – Electronic media in Yugoslavia have shown the Democratic Party of Serbia, led by Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, in a mostly negative light, while maintaining a neutral attitude to the Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic’s Democratic Party, media monitoring by the Media Center and Strategic Marketing shows.
Strategic Marketing spokesman Darko Brocic said that Kostunica’s party was mentioned in a negative context on nearly all television channels, led by Studio B and TV BK, both of which broadcast more negative than positive reports on the party, while most reports on the Democratic Party were neutral.
The most negative reports on Kostunica himself are in reports on TV Montenegro, followed by TV B92 and Studio B. The most negative commentary on the Yugoslav Government appears on TV Montenegro and BK TV.
REPORTER CONFIDENT ON LIST CHARGES
BELGRADE, December 6, 2001 – Weekly Reporter is sure to defeat charges to be laid by Serbian police officers over the publication of a list purporting to be of interest to the Hague Tribunal, the magazine’s director, Perica Vucinic, said today.
“Knowing that we are not a wealthy company, after two weeks of wondering what to do the authorities have come up with the idea of hitting us in the wallet. I’m not even concerned about whether we can pay; I’m certain that we’ll defeat the charges and that’s that,” said Vucinic.
He commented that the allegations said more about the authorities than about the magazine.
“The police have been manipulated and I don’t want us to think about police in the light of the jokes we all know about them. They understand very well, or they will understand soon, who is manipulating them and that is not the press,” said Vucinic.
MONTENEGRO JAILS JOURNALIST OVER DJUKANOVIC ALLEGATIONS
PODGORICA, December 7, 2001 – The former editor of Podgorica daily Dan was today jailed for three months after being convicted of libelling Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic.
The court ruled that Vladislav Asanin had committed the crime of “slandering through the press” with premeditation and over an extended period.
The charges arose from a private prosecution brought by Djukanovic.
The conviction relates to Dan carrying reports from Zagreb weekly Nacional on the “Balkan Tobacco Mafia” in which Djukanovic is alleged to have been involved in illegal business dealings.
CHURCHES FORM ECUMENICAL LOBBY GROUP
BELGRADE, December 7, 2001 – The Serbian Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church in Yugoslavia have formed a joint group of legal experts which will present an analysis of the Broadcasting Bill.
Under the draft legislation, churches have no right to operate radio and television stations.
Archbishop Stanislav Hocevar told media that in a truly democratic society, churches have the right to operate media.
Bishop Lavrentije of Sabac and Valjevo recently wrote to both the Federal and Serbian governments, protesting over the legislation.
AWARD FOR B92 JOURNALISTS
BELGRADE, December 7, 2001 – Radio B92 journalists Svetlana Lukic and Svetlana Vukovic have won the 2001 Konstantin Obradovic Award for the development of the culture of human rights.
The award was given for their weekly program Pescanik (The Hourglass).
The Konstantin Obradovic Award was established by the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights in memory of its founder, one of the greatest Yugoslav and international figures in international humanitarian law and an active fighter for human rights.
The jury for the award was Filip David, Vesna Pesic and Vojin Dimitrijevic.
Lukic and Vukovic will receive the award on Sunday night at a ceremony to mark Human Rights Day on December 10.
The ceremony will include the launch of a Serbian translation of the book “Lustration” by Czech author Andras Zadar.
NEW PROGRAM CONCEPT AT BELGRADE 202
BELGRADE, December 7, 2001 – Radio Belgrade 202 is to change its program concept as of Monday, editor-in-chief Nebojsa Spaic announced today.
Spaic told media that the station’s daily program would be divided into appropriate blocks for the time of day.
Programs on homosexuals, drug addicts, alcoholics and all “different and lonely” people would air during the evening.
Spaic was appointed editor-in-chief of the Radio Television Serbia station on September 1.
JOURNALISTS REACT TO JAILING OF EDITOR
PODGORICA, December 7, 2001 – Journalists should not be jailed for slander, the head of the Association of Montenegrin Professional Journalists said today.
Danilo Burzan was commenting on the jailing of Dan editor Vladislav Asanin for three months after being convicted of slandering the Montenegrin president.
Burzan said he would strive to ensure that such crimes could not be punishable by prison sentences.
Budo Simonovic, who leads the Alliance of Yugoslav Journalists, described Asanin’s conviction as “the twilight and stumbling of the Montenegrin judiciary.” He added that the jailing had nothing to do with the court or justice, but was a political trial.
The head of the Association of Montenegrin Journalists, Vlatko Vujovic, described the jailing of Asanin as the most shameful decision passed by the Montenegrin judiciary in the past half century.
“Asanin’s conviction, on no legal basis, put every Montenegrin journalist behind bars,” said Vujovic, adding that he hoped the situation would not last long.
RADIO YUGOSLAVIA TO COLLABORATE WITH RFI
BELGRADE, December 7, 2001 – YU Radio, the local program of Radio Yugoslavia, is to rebroadcast current affairs programs of Radio France International.
The broadcasts, which are to begin on December 10, will be the first collaboration between the two broadcasters.
Radio France International and Radio Yugoslavia are expected to develop other forms of business and technical cooperation in the near future.
Radio Yugoslavia is part of the Federal public broadcaster, Radio Television Yugoslavia.
