(AMARC/IFEX) – The following is a 28 October 1998 statement by the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) distributed in its entirety by AMARC: **Updates IFEX alert of 9 October 1998; for background on Radio Index, see IFEX alerts of 3 September and 5 August 1998** On 28 October 1998, Belgrade district public prosecution brought […]
(AMARC/IFEX) – The following is a 28 October 1998 statement by the
Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) distributed in its
entirety by AMARC:
**Updates IFEX alert of 9 October 1998; for background on Radio Index, see
IFEX alerts of 3 September and 5 August 1998**
On 28 October 1998, Belgrade district public prosecution brought criminal
charges against Nenad Cekic, Radio Index’s chief editor, for unauthorised
use of a radio station.
The charges come in the wake of the ban on Radio Index by the Yugoslav
Telecommunications Ministry, after the station was evicted from its premises
and taken off the transmitter it had used under a still valid contract with
state Radio Television Serbia. Radio Index tendered in the Yugoslav
Telecommunications Ministry’s frequency allocation competition and still
awaits a decision by that ministry, although all legal deadlines for such a
decision have long expired.
Radio Index’s is not a lone case. Similar shutdowns have affected City Radio
in Nis, Radio Kontakt in Pristina, RTV Pirot and Radio Senta (See IFEX
alerts of 20 October, 13 October, 20 August, 18 August and 3 July 1998).
ANEM has appealed the banning orders against its affiliates, and protests
the hypocritical behaviour of the Yugoslav Telecommunications Ministry,
which not only fails to issue licences to stations that satisfy all
requirements in the frequency allocation procedure but moreover bans them
and initiates criminal charges against their chief editors.
