(RSF/IFEX) – In a 7 July 1999 press release, RSF protested the sentencing of Ivan Novkovic, a technician of the television station in Leskovac (in Serbia’s southern region), to a thirty-day prison term. The organisation stated that “this sentence illustrates the lack of press freedom in Serbia” and demanded the technician’s release. On 1 July, […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a 7 July 1999 press release, RSF protested the sentencing of
Ivan Novkovic, a technician of the television station in Leskovac (in
Serbia’s southern region), to a thirty-day prison term.
The organisation stated that “this sentence illustrates the lack of press
freedom in Serbia” and demanded the technician’s release.
On 1 July, Novkovic, an employee of Leskovac’s official regional television
station, had gone on the air, urging his fellow citizens to demonstrate and
demand the resignation of the chief of police, Zivojin Stefanofic, a member
of the Socialist Party (SPS, the ruling party). That very evening, 20,000
people responded to his appeal. Novkovic was arrested on 6 July and
sentenced to a thirty-day prison term.
“The fact that such an appeal is necessary in order to express an opinion
contrary to the regime’s interests illustrates the state of press freedom in
Serbia,” suggested Robert Ménard, RSF’s secretary general. Recalling the
authorities’ control of the airwaves, RSF called for the “technician’s
immediate release and the opening of audiovisual media to all opinions and
political leanings in the country.”
Despite the ending of the war on 23 June, all independent electronic media
continue to be limited to broadcasting official state television (RTS) or
radio news bulletins, under threat of punishment for those who disobey. As
such, three regional television stations, Devic, TV Soko and Mladenovac,
were closed for refusing to rebroadcast RTS programmes. The private radio
stations Dzoker, of Cacak (in the country’s south), and VK, of Kikinda (in
the west), were also closed. The administration of B92, the most important
independent radio station in the country, closed by authorities on 24 March,
was taken over by individuals considered close to the regime, and most of
its journalists were dismissed. Nebojsa Ristic, the director of the TV Soko
television station, who was sentenced to a one-year prison term on 23 April
for having displayed a sign demanding press freedom in Serbia, is still
being detained (see IFEX alert of 27 April 1999).