(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to the federal minister of information and telecommunications, Goran Matic, RSF protested the Serbian authorities’ decision to ban the broadcast of four foreign television stations’ and one Montenegrin station’s news programmes on the cable network in Novi Sad (northern Serbia). The organisation asked that the measure be cancelled and the […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to the federal minister of information and telecommunications, Goran Matic, RSF protested the Serbian authorities’ decision to ban the broadcast of four foreign television stations’ and one Montenegrin station’s news programmes on the cable network in Novi Sad (northern Serbia). The organisation asked that the measure be cancelled and the five affected stations be allowed to resume their cable broadcasts. “With a view towards the 24 September federal presidential and legislative elections, the Serbian authorities are multiplying their efforts to neutralise the non-governmental press. In addition to the constant harassment which they inflict on Serbian media, they are now openly attacking the foreign and Montenegrin press,” said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard. The organisation also denounced the use of the Law on Information to silence opposition press. The controversial law was adopted in October 1998.
According to information collected by RSF, on 29 August 2000 the Federal Ministry of Information ordered Novi Sad cable network stations to stop broadcasting the news programmes of five non-Serbian television stations: RTV Crna Gora (Montenegro), HRT 2, HRT 3 (Croatia), OBN (Bosnia-Herzegovina) and Duna TV (Hungary). The authorities also forced the stations to broadcast a message informing viewers of this measure. Article 27 of the Law on Information prohibits Serbian media from “broadcasting, in whole or in part, or later broadcasting, politico-propagandist television and radio programmes, in Serbian or minority languages, of media whose founders are foreign governments or their organisations”. About 200,000 persons in Novi Sad have access to cable programmes.
