(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ has documented several alarming new developments for the press in Yugoslavia. **Updates IFEX alerts of 13 April, 12 April, 9 April, 7 April, 2 April, 1 April, 29 March, 25 March, 24 March 1999** 15 April – Independent Media Commission Orders Kanal S Television Off the Air – The Independent Media Commission […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ has documented several alarming new developments for the
press in Yugoslavia.
**Updates IFEX alerts of 13 April, 12 April, 9 April, 7 April, 2 April, 1
April, 29 March, 25 March, 24 March 1999**
15 April – Independent Media Commission Orders Kanal S Television Off the
Air
– The Independent Media Commission (IMC), a body comprised of local and
Western “media experts” established to set media standards for
Bosnia-Herzegovina under the Dayton Accords, has ordered Kanal S, often
referred to as “Karadzic TV”, to stop broadcasting. The IMC ruled that Kanal
S’s coverage of the Kosovo conflict was “inflammatory and systematically
inaccurate.” The Pale-based Kanal S, which serves a largely Serbian
audience, has focused on the NATO air campaign as aggression against the
Serbian people, and given no coverage to the plight of the ethnic Albanian
Kosovars.
14 April – NATO Bombs Serbian TV Transmitter in Cacak; Funeral in Belgrade
for Slain Independent Publisher
– NATO continued its policy, initiated on 8 April, of targeting Serb
television transmitters as purveyors of propaganda, by bombing the TV
transmitter in Cacak.
– More than 2,000 people attended the funeral of Slavko Curuvija, the
publisher of the independent newspaper “Dnevni Telegraf” and the independent
magazine “Evropljanin”, who was assassinated on a Belgrade street on 11
April. While state-run Serb television and radio failed to cover the murder,
the city-run Studio B in Belgrade broadcast the official police statement
announcing an investigation into the murder. Yugoslav Vice President Vuk
Draskovic, leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement, who oversees Studio B’s
operations, also issued a statement, saying that Curuvija “is the first and
let?s hope the last victim of retaliation in an ideological and unreasonable
fight.”
13 April – Serb Troops Force TV-Montenegro to Broadcast Serbian TV’s News
Programming; Independent Radio B92 Staff Refuses to Work for Milosevic
Appointees
– Federal troops entered the offices of TV-Montenegro and demanded that the
state-run Montenegrin station broadcast news reports produced by RTS, the
state-run Serb television network. In order to avoid the implicit threat of
a takeover, the TV-Montenegro management acquiesced and provided RTS with a
half-hour of air-time in prime time, although it continues to broadcast
programming from the U.S.-based CNN, the British Sky news, the Italian RAI,
and the Spanish TVE.
– The 45 full-time and 30 part-time employees of the Belgrade-based
independent radio station B92 announced their resignations from the newly
reconstituted station, now run by Milosevic loyalists, which began
broadcasting on Monday. An official statement released by ANEM, the
independent broadcasters’ network, said that the original staff
disassociated itself from the “usurping management.” The independent
journalists formerly comprising B92 intend to remain in Serbia “out of
loyalty to their listeners,” and hope to restore B92’s independence and
integrity after the war.
For background information on the media crackdown in Yugoslavia, visit CPJ?s
website at http://www.cpj.org or call Chrystyna Lapychak at (212) 465-9344,
x101 Paul LeGendre at (212) 465-1004 x115, or Elina Yuffa at (212) 465-1004,
x115.
