BETAWEEK, E November 4

Serbia: A year after Law on Information

PERMANENT REPRESSION

A year after the authorities in Belgrade adopted the new Serbian Information Law, pressure exerted by the state and its organs on Serbian independent media has become stronger and more brutal. The implementation of the law, termed as the most repressive in the long history of media repression in Serbia has deepened the gap between state-run and independent media in the republic, and allowed more leeway for the state to intervene in the media sphere.

The law was smoothly adopted by the legislature in October, 1998 without a debate, due to the comfortable majority the ruling coalition enjoys in the legislature. The new law made it possible for the media to be accused of slander, lies and offenses, and to be fined in summary legal proceedings, instead of the usual court proceedings that include meticulous analysis of both sides' arguments. In fact, the law was meant to support a showdown with the alternative media in Serbia, which were the only to give room to arguments differing from those of the authorities to be heard or read in the past months.

During the past year, as the result of the implementation of the letter of the law, or in the period of its preparation, four independent papers and a dozen radio and TV stations in Serbia were closed, while the independent media, burdened by their weak financial status and small circulation, were forced to pay heavy fines. One publisher, punished several times in accordance with the law, was murdered in front of his apartment building in downtown Belgrade.

Nasa Borba, Dnevni Telegraf and NT Plus dailies can no longer be bought on newsstands, nor can the Evropljanin weekly. The owner of Dnevni Telegraf and Evropljanin, Slavko Curuvija, was murdered in broad daylight, on April 11, the Orthodox Easter. His killer has not been found to date, and there is no information about the investigation. Before his death, Curuvija had fought for the survival of his paper for months. On different charges, the paper was fined found million dinars.

The most respected independent daily in Serbia, Nasa Borba, had stopped it publishing activities shortly before the adoption of the Information Law, when it was fined on the basis of a decree specifying the behavior of the media during the state of imminent war danger (which was not declared on Oct. 8, when the decree was issued). The decree temporarily closed down Dnevni Telegraf and Danas. Both papers continued their regular activities later, after they had registered in Montenegro. Danas now has a Belgrade issue. Dnevni Telegraf had failed to consolidate its financial situation until after its owner was killed.

Enormous penalties (ranging from 50,000 to 80,000 dinars) envisage by the Information Law financially threaten almost all important independent print media. Just to establish a balance, the same law was even invoked to punished some state-controlled media (Politika and Borba). However, the general opinion is that the punishment of the state-controlled media was to serve as an argument in favor of official claims that the law was not adopted to settle scores with the unlike-minded. It was impossible to receive any unofficial confirmation whether the state media had paid the fines.

However, the authorities were not the only ones to resort to charging the independent media. Three Belgrade papers, Blic, Danas and Glas Javnosti, were sentenced on March 13, following a legal suit initiated by actress Ljiljana Blagojevic, Belgrade's city culture secretary. Belgrade city hall is ruled by the (opposition) Serbian Renewal Movement. The party had strongly criticized the draft information law in the legislature, and, unable to prevent its adoption, walked out of the session at which the law was adopted.

Utilizing the Information Act to pass down stiff fines did not even skip the poorer media in central Serbia, nor Albanian papers in Kosovo or those published by ethnic minorities. Cacanski Glas was fined 350,000 dinars, while Parlament weekly of Novi Pazar was handed down a fine of 60,000 dinars. The Pristina-based Koha Ditore was fined 520,000 dinars. Leskovac-based Prava Coveka was fined 220,000 dinars, Pancevac 61,000 dinars, Kikindske Novine 200,000 dinars and Gazeta Schiptare 1.6 million dinars.

Pozarevac-based Radio Boom, Nis-based Radio City, Radio Senta, Kikinda-based Radio VK, TV Cacak, TV Pirot, TV Negotin, TV Barajevo and Pristina-based Kontakt Radio, the only multi-ethnic radio station in Kosovo, closed their doors.

A day ahead of the NATO air strikes against Yugoslavia, on March 23, a popular Belgrade radio station, Radio B92, was shut down. The Youth Alliance of Belgrade, a pro-regime youth organization, took over the radio's offices and equipment, changed its editorial policy and transformed it into a pro-regime media outlet. At the same time, the alliance took over the offices of the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), chaired by B92. In this case, the closure can hardly be ascribed to the Information Act, but rather a political decision to close down the independent radio once the air strikes were a certainty and the severance of diplomatic and other links between Belgrade and the West practically accepted.

A few months later, B92 managed to restart a somewhat shortened version of its program by using Belgrade-based Studio B's frequencies and premises. The radio kept the same concept and editorial team, but changed its name to B2-92.

Radio Index, which was closed twice, experienced a similar fate. The station was first closed in the autumn of 1998. The authorities claimed it did not possess a license, despite the fact that such a license existed. The radio had a clearly independent editorial policy and enjoyed great popularity in Belgrade, which placed it on the regime's bad books. Just like Radio B92, Radio Index managed to recover. It decided to broadcast its program from Montenegro, which has a liberal information law and a climate favorable to independent media. Last summer, Radio Index also used Studio B's frequencies. Studio B is controlled by the opposition Serbian Renewal Movement. The fact that two independent broadcasters enjoy the Studio B 's hospitality does not mean that they are now safe, since the Serbian Renewal Movement is a party that maintains a certain distance from the opposition and repeatedly opens itself to some new deal with the authorities. If the party loses control of Belgrade and consequently Studio B, Index and B2-92 will be threatened again. The two radio stations had their own frequencies and broadcasting licenses.

Western pressure on the authorities in Belgrade, along with international ostracism of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and increasingly persistent demands for a new vote, have affected the Serbian media as well. The state-run media and representatives of the authorities strengthened their criticism of the opposition and independent media, claiming that they have continued the job NATO was doing during the bombing of Yugoslavia. Quasi-patriotic rhetoric used in the attack is supposed to support the regime's thesis that all those who are not engaged in the "reconstruction of the country" are traitors, meaning servants of the West. In a bid to deal with a different opinion, the authorities resorted to the Information Law again this autumn. They flatly refused opposition demands that the law be revoked. Almost all parties comprising the otherwise disunited Serbian opposition agreed that the law should be withdrawn, and made this one of the central demands for free election terms and democratic elections in Serbia.

The information ministry brought 52 legal suits against ABC Glas printers (26 against the printing office itself, and 26 against its director, Slavoljub Kacarevic) before the Belgrade misdemeanor court. The ministry claimed that the printing office and its director violated the Information Law by printing the Promene bulletin for the opposition Alliance for Change, which it had not included in the Media Registry.

The court refuted arguments offered by the defense that the Promene bulletin was not a media outlet, but a party bulletin, one of many published by the printer. The bulletin is distributed free of charge in Serbia's cities, where opposition protests have been organized since Oct. 21, seeking the ouster of the authorities in Belgrade.

What makes the legal suit against Kacarevic and the printer unique is that charges were brought in accordance with Information Law, court proceedings carried out in accordance the Misdemeanors Law, and sentences pronounced according to the Information Law. Unlike earlier cases, the strict regulation stipulating that a fine must be paid within 24 hours was not applied. Instead, a 15-day deadline was set in accordance with the Misdemeanor Proceedings Law. So far, ABC Grafika and Kacarevic have been fined 1.65 million dinars in 21 counts stemming from 52 legal suits.

At the end of October, the editor in chief of Belgrade-based Danas daily appeared in the same court, in a suit filed by Serbian Vice Premier Vojislav Seselj, who is also the leader of the Serbian Radical Party. Seselj accused the daily of violating the Information Law and tarnishing his reputation. The Danas trial lasted hardly more than than an hour, and the paper was fined 280,000 dinars. The charges were brought at 8.30 p.m. on Oct. 25, the trial was held at 11 a.m. on Oct 26, and sentence was pronounced at around 5 p.m. on the same day.

On Oct. 27, assistant to the Serbian information minister Radmila Visic brought charges against Cedomir Jovanovic, who heads a media team formed by the Alliance for Change, which organizes the ongoing protests in Serbia. Jovanovic was fined as the person in charge of the Promene bulletin on charges brought against him by Radmila Visic, an official in the Yugoslav Left. Jovanovic was fined 350,000 dinars.

The same law was invoked against Nis-based Narodne Novine, which was fined 200,000 dinars. In Kikinda, Kikindske Novine weekly was fined the same amount, on charges brought by a local official of the Socialist Party of Serbia.

In all of these cases, sentences were pronounced for slander or tarnished reputation. Courts failed to establish whether the allegations published by the media were accurate. In the year-long history of the Serbian Information Law, in only case did the courts throw out the charges. Serbian media firmly believe that to be charged in accordance with the law means to be automatically punished. The fines levied on the media are extremely stiff having in mind the local financial situation, in which independent media have to cope with small circulations, low and irregular wages and general poverty. The fines the independent media have to pay go directly to the Budget of the Republic of Serbia.

(Beta)

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