|
| |
VREME NEWS DIGEST
No. 285, March 24, 1997
Low Blow Against BK TV
ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT
Although Serbia's new information law hasn't been adopted yet
its heavily disputed article six which prevents owners of the
electronic media from covering over one-fourth of the population
is seemingly being implemented at least in regard to BK TV, the
biggest privately-owned station in the country
On Tuesday, March 18, the Serbian PTT telephone-telegraph traffic
department sent BK a short fax message saying it can no longer
provide a relay link through its Avala and Jastrebac transmitters
``due to the needs of the PTT system.'' That means the private
station can no longer be seen south of Mt. Avala in Nis,
Kragujevac, Leskovac, Jagodina, Aleksinac, Paracin and Cuprija.
BK TV has bee limited to Belgrade and Novi Sad. For now. ``Our
contract with the PTT public company states that we are going to
jointly build a modern, digital radio relay system,'' BK's
technical director, engineer Velimir Zugic told VREME. ``Until
that system is built we agreed to use their old equipment which
dates back to 1961. We secured the spare parts, repaired the
equipment and things were fine until they sent a message saying
they were canceling the contract within 24 hours. We called them,
invoked the contract and explained the extent of the damage the
decision will inflict on us and our viewers. Right now
(Wednesday, March 19 in the morning) the link still hasn't been
cut but we'll se what happens.'' The attack on BK TV was
announced two weeks ago when the Serbian state TV (RTS) suddenly
canceled a contract on BK's use of RTS transmitters, giving the
station 15 days instead of the contractual obligation of six
months to evict those premises. Someone thought even that was too
long and a quicker solution was found through the PTT, leaving
the RTS on the sidelines for the moment. BK TV, owned by the
Karic Brothers corporation, covered some 60% of the population
but will now be cut down to 20-25% just as the new law
proscribes.
Also, the attack can be viewed in the context of the cordon being
tightened around the BK business empire. The moment BK TV opened
its eyes to events in Serbia over the past few months and
especially after Bogoljub Karic's interview with VREME, when he
failed to deny that he would run for president and clearly stated
his opposition to the regime, the Karic Brothers came under
attack. BK TV lost some of its frequencies, there are rumors of
attempts to snatch BK Telekom's share of the mobile phone system,
and former RTS director Dusan Mitevic, known for his close ties
with the Karic's and the Milosevic family, stated publicly that
there have been efforts to move Bogoljub Karic out of his home in
Belgrade's Dedinje suburb where the Serbian president lives.
U. Komlenovic
|
P.O. Box, CH-8031
Zürich, Switzerland