SENSE, South East News Service Europe 6/11/01 www.sense-agency.com

DJINDJIC IN WASHINGTON D.C.: NO PRIVILEGES FOR MEDIA VETERANS

Serbian Prime Minister denies accusations according to which the present-day situation the Serbian electronic media find themselves in is worse in some aspects than during the former regime. Djindjic: B92 may receive a medal but it cannot be awarded with a TV channel for its contribution in the struggle against Milosevic.

(picture B92)

Washington, November 6 (SENSE)  - In his address at the Institute for Peace panel discussion, Prime Minister Djindjic described the question on why the position of some independent media in Serbia today was less favourable than during the Milosevic regime as "irritating". Djindjic reminded the public that one of the first steps taken by his government was to repeal the notorious Public Information Act and return the money paid in fines by independent newspapers. He went on to say that independent journalists in Serbia were assassinated, persecuted and exposed to all sorts of pressure.

 “As far as the electronic media are concerned, we inherited a real chaos with more than 700 private radio and TV stations. The question was to what to do with it ­ to wait for the new legislation regulating the frequency allocation which would reduce by half the number of broadcasters and, in the meantime, offer the independent journalists' association to prepare the draft the Public Broadcasting Act? The work on the new media legislation is currently underway which means that no previously granted broadcasting licences would  be revoked nor new ones issued to anyone", said Djindjic going on to say that about 2 per cent of the pro-Milosevic media were still on the airwaves while the remaining 98 per cent were under control of the people supporting the democratic forces in Serbia.

 In reply to the concrete objection of B92 and ANEM regarding the (non)allocation of new frequencies, Serbian Prime Minister said the following:

“Some are demanding privileges. They don't want a new law, but a licence which would enable them to become a national TV channel, even though they've got their own TV channel without proper broadcasting licence. Consequently, their broadcasting operations are illegal… However, we accept that because all others (independent electronic media) operate in the same way in Serbia. Some independent journalists have voiced their criticism loud and clear, but we, as the government, cannot do anything either in the positive or negative sense with respect to the journalists. We have no legal basis to exert  pressure on the independent media, or, for that matter, any other media in Serbia. We do not finance them nor do we have a law in place to do anything against the media. The only thing we actually do is not to grant privileges to some media. Some of them are our friends, but now, we have a new system in Serbia which should grant everyone an equal access to national resources. If someone was extremely courageous during the Milosevic era, we'll give him a medal, but not a TV channel. Channels will be granted to broadcasters through public competition for frequency allocation and everyone will compete on equal terms as others. I'm sorry, but this is the mainstay of democracy and market economy".

 Slobodan Pavlovic

source: MHxJU
published by: Roland Brunner rbr@medienhilfe.ch date of release on this site: 8-11-2001

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