MEDIA IN BIH

SPREADING DEMOCRACY (Zoran Udovicic)

Two years after the signing of the Dayton Agreement, media in BH are no longer at war, but nor are they yet at peace. The language of hatred has largely disappeared, although messages of tolerance and trust by no means rule supreme in the media arena. The media are, however, more disposed than before to call for peace and forgiveness: following the instructions of the international community grudgingly, but, in the main, conscientously. Editors are pressured by their readership into playing contradictory roles: they are beset by demands for nationalist and political crusading, but they are also required to be providers of trustworthy and balanced information. The process of transformation being undergone by the most influential media - the state radio-TV networks - has started late. RTV Srpska (the network of the Republika Srpska, or RS) has been compelled to acquire an international supervisor, while RTV BiH (the network of the BH Federation) is blockaded by conflicting interests and the failure of the Federation partners (Bosniaks and Croats) to cooperate with each other. The ideal of independent journalism is still upheld by a small group of brave and nonconforming journalists, with support from the international community. The spread of democracy and professionalism is happening more slowly than many people hoped. But it is happening. The end of the war found 272 media active (203 in the Federation; 69 in the RS). The number has doubled: today there are 270 media in the Federation, and 220 in the RS. 156 radio stations and 52 TV stations are on air. Five daily papers are published: three in the Federation, two in the RS, and 20 periodicals. The media scene is far from stable. The market is undeveloped, and political barriers persist. A series of employment crises, and dependence on donors, does little to assist the building of a stable future. In BH as a whole there are more media than the market can realistically sustain. Only those who can consistently attract readers and audiences will have a chance of survival. The spread of democracy, the development of professionalism and the acquisition of marketing skills - these three processes go hand in hand. The service SAFAX tries to contribute to all three.

WHAT IS THE MSAG?

The Media Support Advisory Group (MSAG) was founded in late summer, 1997, in an initiative led by the Office of the High Representative (OHR). It was founded partly in response to the escalating crisis in Republika Srpska Radio-Television (SRT), the loudspeaker for increasingly hardline politicians of the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) in Pale. The propaganda attacking BH as a state was a faithful imitation of the network's wartime efforts, and in summer 1997, in the eyes of the International Community (IC), it reached a peak. Simultaneously, the flood of propaganda aimed at the IC increased to such an extent that the security of IC representatives in BH, in particular that of members of SFOR, was seriously in doubt. The trend culminated in August 27 with an incident in Brcko. Early in the morning several hundred people surrounded the station of the International Police Task Force (IPTF) responding to a call made by Srpska Radio Brcko. Following repeated warnings from officials of the IC, and flagrant violation of the Udrigovo Agreement, which pledged the SDS Government to obey media regulations, the High Representative (HR) wrote a letter to the Serb Member of the BH Presidency, Momcilo Krajisnik. This warned him that the government must respect the articles on media behaviour contained in the Sintra Declaration, made by the countries of the BH Contact Group. With the aim of upholding the Declaration, the High Representative, Carlos Westendorp, envisaged the establishment of the MSAG, a body which should 'set standards for journalists in BH, on the basis of internationally acccepted norms'. Agreement was reached in the OHR that the representatives of the four leading international organisations charged with the implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement in BH: SFOR, the OSCE, the UN Mission in BH (UNMBH), and the OHR would be MSAG members. The MSAG was established on two levels: a committee and a working group. The working group is a combination of the Media Crisis Group (MCG), and the JIC (Joint Information Centre) The MCG was the predecessor of the MSAG, and was formed to deal with the crisis presented by SRT. The JIC was a group which engaged in general discussion and coordination of media issues. The working group can refer problems, options and recommendaitons for actions to the OHR for further consideration. The committee level is the higher level and consisted in a way and manner to act promptly in behalf of the IC. This level is in charge to take an immediate action following the IC decisions. First meeting took place September, 9. 1997 and was presided by late Ambassador Gerd Wagner. Aside of setting program of activities, violations of media rules were on the meeting agenda. The criteria used to judge the work of media, the committee decided, would be those developed by the MEC, as set down in the rules and regulations of the OSCE Provisional Election Commission (PEC) concerning media. The members of MSAG meet once a week in the OHR office in Sarajevo. The latest meeting, held on 23 February, withh OHR spokesman Simon Haseloc as the chair, was also attended by Alex Ivanko (UNMBH), Emil Koffman (European Commission) Linwood Todd (OSCE), and Lieutenant Colonel Cole Routh (SFOR). OHR announced that Dragan Gasic, former spokesman for the OHR office in Mostar, had been nominated for administrator of the SRT studio in Banja Luka; and that the current situation in SRT is satisfactory.

BRIEF NEWS SUMMARY

SRT REUNITED

All transmitters of SRT have again been connected into a unified system, and SRT is functioning as a united network with its headquarters in Banja Luka. This was the content of an announcement by SFOR spokesman Major Peter Clark. According to Clark, all equipment earlier removed from the Veliki Zep and Komar transmitters had been returned, so that the programme of SRT could be received by way of the terrestrial network, and not only by way of a satellite signal. SFOR is continuing to control approach to the transmitters (which were taken into SFOR custody in September 1997, at the request of the OHR, to prevent the Pale studio of SRT from continuing its flow of inflammatory propaganda. SFOR will retain control until the new, more moderate RS government is ready to ensure their safety. The restoration of the SRT Banja Luka infrastructure was preceded by an agreement on the reconstruction of SRT, signed by RS President Biljana Plavsic, and Principal Deputy HR, Jacques Klein. The RS Government has nominated Andjelko Kozomara, formerly a reporter for the Belgrade daily Vecernje Novosti as the new Director General of SRT. In accordance with the agreement, which specialises an international supervisor for the network, who is to be placed in Banja Luka, the OHR nominated its Mostar office spokesman, Dragan Gasic.

HRT AGGREGATE

Croat Radio Soli, in Tuzla, on the eve of last year's September elections, installed an aerial for the Zborista region, in the Celic municipality. This enabled the Tuzla-Podrinska Canton to receive the signals of all three channels of Croatia Radio-Television (HRT). At the end of the year the Cantonal authorities put a stop to the transmission of HRT by turning off the power supply to the Zborista transmitter. They justified this action on the grounds that Radio Soli had no satisfactory licence, and that 'there is no international agreement between BH and Croatia on the transmission of TV channels.' The radio, which is controlled by the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) applied for a licence in the meantime, and resolved the problem of electricity supply for the Zborista transmitter by forming a larger aggregate with access to the transmitter. As of recently, you can now watch all three HRT channels once again, undisturbed.

BUDGET USERS

Only three media - all electronic - are named as users of the Tuzla-Podrinska Canton budget for 1998. RTV T-PC will receive, this year, 604 000 KM (Convertible Marks); Bosniak Radio Hayat (Tuzla) will receive 134 000 KM; and Croat Radio Soli will receive 112 800 KM. Interestingly, two private stations appear on the list as well, both the media of the ruling nationalist parties: one is controlled by the HDZ, the other by the Bosniak-dominated Party for Democratic Action (SDA).

PROTOCOL FOR COOPERATION

Amila Omersoftic, director of RTV BH, and Zoran Kalinic, director of Independent TV Banja Luka, signed a protocol for cooperation on 19 February. They agreed on a regular exchange of information which affirms peace, human rights, and economic development. Both sides agreed on the need to solve the technical problems hampering direct communication, and on joint investment with the goal of improving connections between BH media.

STOPPING CIRCULATION

Krajiske Novine, from Banja Luka, a fortnightly, has ceased production for want of material resources. While waiting for expected donations, the ediatorial team is preparing for a new issue, to cover the entire area of the Bosnian Krajina, including areas in both the Federation and the RS.

MUSIC FROM THE FEDERATION

Alternative Radio Studio A, from Banja Luka, which mostly programmes music, has decided to lift its ban on playing music from the BH Federation and from Croatia. This private station, as of February, has become open to music from neighboring communities.

'SERIOUS ACCUSATIONS'

The magazine Slobodna Bosna published an article accusing an interpreter working for OSCE's Human Rights Department in Sarajevo, of having been involved in the killing of Hakija Turajlic, former Prime Minister of BH. Turajlic was killed at the beginning of 1993, when he was being escorted to the airport by UN troops, by a Serb gunman. The OSCE BH mission sent an answering letter to Slobodna Bosna, in which they expressed great concern over the 'serious accusations' carried in the article published on 20 February. The OSCE intends to discuss the issue with the Cantonal police and the prosecutor's office to verify whether any legal action is currently being taken against any employee of OSCE. The OSCE also said in the letter that they will, if the accusations are unfounded, seek a full retraction and apology, and will also lay the issue before the Media Experts Commission.

RADIO FOR UNITED MOSTAR

The first post-war radio station for the whole of Mostar will soon be on air, individual IC officials have confirmed. The idea of creating such a station for the ancient city on the Neretva river is more than a year old. Discreet talks are still continuing, mainly in IC circles, for the moment for publicising the idea must be chosen carefully. According to current information the station is awaiting the full establishment of the joint city administration, and for last year's municipal election results to be implemented fully in all six municipalities of the city. However the issues preventing the formation of the local government have been, largely, resolved, meaning that the united Mostar station can probably go on air this spring. The studio of the envisioned station will, in all likelihood, be located in the city's central district zone.

NEW JOURNALISM EDUCATION

BH has acquired another school for journalism. Together with the department of journalism at the Sarajevo University Political Science Faculty, the academic year 1997-1998 has seen the start of the Centre for the Study of Journalism, in the Mostar University (Mostar West). In the first year of its activities the Centre has enrolled 21 full-time and 20 external students. It is worth mentioning that three of the full-time students, who are also at present students at the Political Science Faculty, are finalising their studies at the new Centre. The course is organised in the frame of a two-year teaching programme. Candidates can be students who have completed high school, or completed their fourth semester at any faculty - those with the latter qualification apply for the school by way of completing their fifth semester (third year), or can simultaneously continue their chosen course of study while attending the Centre. The course incorporates 25 disciplines drawn from journalistic science. As the Centre has not yet secured a full team of staff, it cooperates with institutions with a similar line of study. In particular it has built up a fruitful relationship with the Economic Faculty of the Mostar Univrersity, three teachers from which hold classes at the Centre. A similar relationship has been formed with the Journalism Department of the Faculty for Political Science, at Zagreb University. The Centre has already started collaborating with the Bavarian Academy for Journalism in Munchen. Two teachers from this academy, Doctors Ulrich Behrmann and Joerg Wolgemuth, experts in electronic media, work with the Mostar Centre. Other European colleges are also showing interest, because of which the Centre has strong hopes of being recognized as the European educative institution for journalism.

ATTACK ON MEDIA FREEDOM

The violation of media and journalism freedom in BH has never created the dramatic impact it would make in societies accustomed to pluralism and democracy. The bloody circumstances of war, the ruthlessness of the political (nationalist) confrontation, and the absence of democratic tradition in this region all meant that the public ear was deaf to the frequent violations of media and authorial rights and freedoms. The Dayton Peace was accompanied by a significant advance in the scheme for protecting the freedoms of journalists and media, but there still remain an immense number of habitual war-time repressions: physical attacks, restriction of movement, demands for ideological correctness. These combine with subtler forms of peace-time repression, and covert political threats.

ADVENTURES OF TWO BRITISH JOURNALISTS

Jeffrey Pickett and Michael Grimes disappeared from Bijakovaci, near Medjugorje (in West Hercegovina) on Friday 27 February 1998, during the evening, to be found by Croatian police of the Hercegovina-Neretva Canton in the settlement of Buna in Mostar on Saturday, 28 February. This twenty-four hour odyssey undergone by the journalists, from the independent production studio Network Five International based in Liverpool, aroused considerable excitement in Hercegovina, and drew the attention of a large proportion of the international public. The colleagues of these two journalists, Alexander Maurice and Philip Kronzer, who reported their appearance promptly on Friday evening, described how the two were physically attacked in Bijakovici, beaten up, and threatened with pistols, by a group of unknown persons. The terrified Picket and Grimes, having been stripped of their cameras and video tapes, ran. They spent the night and the next day wandering over the hills of Hercegovina. The Croat police confirmed the attack, and the taking of their cameras and tapes. The police report claims that Pickett and Grimes were filming private houses in Medjugorje, citing this as a possible reason for the taking of their cameras and tapes. However, in several public appearances, Alexander Maurice gave further details of the background to the case. He stated that his colleagues had been researching into the story of the disappearance of money collected in Britain and the United States for humanitarian aid for children and refugees in BH. According to Maurice, Franciscan brothers Jozo Zovko and Slavko Barbaric were involved in the fundraising, collecting on behalf of the poor in Medjugorje (orphanage), and a British millionaire was also involved, the owner of the Bernard Ellis steel factory. This British industry baron, according to Maurice, is alleged to have bought arms for the Croatian Military Council (HVO) with the collected money. However, Brother Slavko Barbaric, who serves in a monastery in Medjugorje, rejected all such accusations, maintaining that the money 'never had any kind of connection with buying arms for anyone.' It would appear that the case of the two British journalists, and their hike in Medjugorje, is still a mystery. Individual journalists have tried to contact the independent Liverpool production studio Network Five International, and have located, up till now, nothing but a PO Box number.

THE MUNICIPAL REPRESENTATIVE AS A TARGET

According to the Sarajevo daily Oslobodjenje, of 28 February, the government of the Posavska Canton have, through the Cantonal Prosecutor Boris Juric, demanded that the editor of the paper Posavski List, Miko Damjanovic-Avdo, must deliver each new copy of the paper to the prosecutor before going to press. The message added that 'it is the right of the Public Prosecutor to prohibit, by this method, or to prevent, distribution.' A report of Juric's instructions alleges that Posavski List tends to criticise the government and its allies, and that this kind of 'public information represents an abuse of freedom of expression.' The paper Posavski List started up in the second half of last year, as a bi-weekly. It became critical of the government whenever it infringed the law. It frequently aimed its sights at Cantonal government members. It would appear that the article which went too far was one written by journalist TihomirBijelic, on 'the machinations of the Cantonal Minister of Police, Mate Jozic, and the head of the criminal service, Dragan Lukac.' Bijelic gave the text to Damjanovic, but he subsequently asked for it to be returned, because he was receiving threats 'from above', including his dismissal from Radio Brcko, and his family's return from Germany was being obstructed. But, Damjanovic went ahead and published the article, his action being followed by a burst of criticism, threats, provocations... Damjanovic forwarded Juric's letter to the regional office of the OSCE in Tuzla. The Media Experts Sub-Commission (MESC) decided to support Damjanovic, since he had not violated the standards which apply to freedom of expression. According to Miko Damjanovic, who is an independent representative of the municipal assembly of Orasje, the government of Posavska Canton first tried to make him 'see reason', and when this failed they resorted to blackmail, threats, and 'buying' his journalists. Five journalists stopped working with him. Simultaneously his business ties started to snap, and suddenly his sources of business opportunity in Orasje and 'Herceg-Bosna' ran dry. Requests arrived from people who had sent advertisements or letters for the paper: 'Don't publish our messages even if we paid in advance.' But, in spite of everything, Damjanovic has announced that Posavski List will be coming out 'when it can', rather than bi-weekly.

GERMAN TV TEAM ROBBED

United Nations Mission to BH spokesman Alex Ivanko announced that on Wednesday 18 February, on the road between Sarajevo and Pale, unknown persons stole the TV cameras from a German TV team. He added that the local police were working on the case, and the public would be informed when further details were known.

(DIS)OBEDIENT MEDIA

WHOSE IS RTV BH?

The central committee of the Party for Democratic Action (SDA) sent an open letter to the Director General of RTV BH, and the chief editor of its newscast, and to the OSCE Media Experts Commission, on 13 February. This claimed that for a long time, although gradually, RTV BH has 'step by step, but openly, transferred its backing to just one political option in BH - the opposition. In this country, where we are the biggest party, we must fight for minimum media equality', says the letter. The SDA letter was the unexpected response to theTV programme 'Arguments', broadcast the previous day. In its letter the SDA claimed that the presenter, Vlastimir Mijovic, was guilty of 'naive manipulation in asking selected members of the public selected questions,' and preparing the way for 'obviously pre-arranged tirades' from opposition leader Sejfudin Tokic. This, with its many unexpected criticisms of the ruling SDA, did not produce any significant echo among other political parties, nor in the media, including RTV BH. Who does RTV BH actually belong to? - is the question which is constantly being dinned in the public ear. With the arrival of the Dayton Peace Agreement this RTV network lost its founder, the original BH Parliament. The new Parliament had no desire to take on the role of founder, and the Federation Parliament is not considered competent to do so. All in-house discussions of the orientation of RTV BH have halted. Even the Programming Council, formed during the war together with the laws which formally governed the network, has not, for a long time now, bothered to analyse the editorial policy of RTV BH.

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