(AMARC/IFEX) – The following is an IFEX members’ joint action condemning the closure of Radio B92 and the crackdown on independent media in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia: The World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) and other members of the international freedom of expression community condemn the closure on Friday, 2 April 1999 of […]
(AMARC/IFEX) – The following is an IFEX members’ joint action
condemning the
closure of Radio B92 and the crackdown on independent media in the
Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia:
The World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) and
other
members of the international freedom of expression community condemn
the
closure on Friday, 2 April 1999 of Radio B92 and the increasing
crackdown on
independent media in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. We are
gravely
concerned by reports of journalists being killed in Kosovo and other
threats
to the safety of staff of independent media organisations.
On 24 March, four hours after the Secretary General of NATO issued the
order
to attack Yugoslavia, Radio B92’s transmissions were banned and
essential
transmission equipment confiscated. The editor-in-chief of Radio B92,
Veran
Matic, was detained by police for eight hours. Despite the ban, Radio
B92
continued to broadcast news and information via satellite and the
Internet.
Radio B92, the leading independent radio station in the region, has
been the
main source of alternative information in and from Serbia since the
beginning of NATO air strikes on 24 March.
In the early hours of 2 April, Yugoslav police officers arrived to
seal the
offices of Radio B92 and ordered all staff to cease work on the
premises
immediately. A court official who accompanied the police told the
station’s
manager of six years – Sasa Mirkovic – that he had been dismissed, and
replaced by Aleksandar Nikacevic, a member of President Milosevic’s
ruling
Socialist Party of Serbia, thus bringing Radio B92 under effective
government control.
The closure of Radio B92 is the latest in a series of crackdowns on
free
media in the past week. The wave of media repression has resulted in
the
closure of a large number of members of ANEM, the Association of
Independent
Electronic Media, a network of 35 radio and 18 television stations, as
well
as all independent press.
We call on the Yugoslav authorities:
– to immediately withdraw the order for the closure of Radio B92, to
return
all radio equipment seized, and to allow the radio station to continue
to
broadcast under its original management
– to ensure the safety of journalists and other media staff
– to repeal the Public Information Law, to annul all convictions under
the
law and to prepare new media regulations which guarantee freedom of
expression in the print and broadcast media
Signed:
AMARC – World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
Freedom House
Greek Helsinki Monitor
Institute for the Studies on Free Flow of Information
International Press Institute
Pakistan Press Foundation
World Association of Newspapers
