ANEM'S WEEKLY REPORT ON MEDIA REPRESSION

APRIL 22-28, 2000

PROPOSAL FOR STATE MEDIA PROTESTS

BELGRADE, April 22, 2000 -- The unified opposition bloc will next week discuss an initiative to demand that the media lift their blockade of state-run and state-controlled media. Social Democracy Vice-President Slobodan Orlic said yesterday that he would propose the initiative, demanding that "Radio Television Serbia, TV Politika and other regime media immediately cease propaganda aimed at defining citizens as either patriots or traitors and immediately bring a halt to the practice of defaming and vilifying the regime's political opponents".

Orlic told media that the opposition bloc should also demand that regime media present opposition parties and their views. "State television belongs to the people," said Orlic, "It doesn't belong to Milosevic, Seselj, Milovanovic or Hadzi-Dragan Antic. All of us pay subscription fees and we have the right to demand something like this. If the authorities don't accept our demands then we should organise daily protests in Makedonska and Takovska Streets and in all other cities and towns throughout Serbia where Radio Television Serbia offices are located".

RENEWAL MOVEMENT TO SUE FOR LIBEL

LESKOVAC, April 22, 2000 -- The Leskovac branch of the Serbian Renewal Movement has announced that it will press criminal charges against the president of the Leskovac branch of the Socialist Party of Serbia, Jablanica district head Zivojin Stefanovic, over accusations made against the opposition party. The Renewal Movement also announced that it would press charges against local newspaper Nasa rec and Radio Leskovac unless they carried a retraction of what they described as Stefanovic's slanders and libels. Stefanovic labelled the Leskovac opposition bloc as "subjects and servants of the NATO alliance".

The Leskovac branch of the Democratic Party had also earlier said it would bring criminal charges against Stefanovic and charges under the Public Information Act against the Nasa rec.

TV PIROT DIRECTOR APPEARS IN COURT

PIROT, April 22, 2000 -- A magistrate in the southern Serbian city of Pirot yesterday heard evidence from Boban Nikolic, the director of the public information company Sloboda, on charges brought against the company, which is the operator of TV Pirot, by the Federal Telecommunications Ministry. The charges relate to the broadcaster operating without proper licences. Nikolic's lawyer, Srdjan Mitic, told the court that the stations owner had decided it should commence broadcasting. He added that the company had not breached any existing legislation. "Our station has been denied a broadcast licence for political reasons," said Nikolic. Nikolic pleaded not guilty, saying that complete documentation had been submitted in March 1998 within the deadline announced by the Federal Telecommunications Ministry for its public frequency competition.

MEDIA REMEMBER STATE TELEVISION BOMB VICTIMS

BELGRADE, April 22, 2000 -- All independent electronic media will mark the anniversary of the death of sixteen state television employees at 2.06 p.m. on Sunday April 23 with one minute's silence in their programs, the Association of Indpendent Serbian Journalists announced today. The Association, together with the student movement Otpor will hold a commemorative service at the memorial in Belgrade's Tasmajdan Park. The inscription on the memorial reads "Why?". Belgraders are invited to attend the service.. The Radio Television Serbia employees were killed in a NATO rocket attack on the state television building in Aberdareva Street on April 23 last year.

CHARGES AGAINST WEEKLY DROPPED

KRAGUJEVAC, April 22, 2000 -- The secretary of the Kragujevac City Assembly, Milan Petkovic, yesterday dropped charges against local weekly Nezavisna svetlost. Petkovic, a member of the Serbian Renewal Movement, had brought the charges over an article entitled "Give Me a Car Please" which dealt with the misuse of vehicles belonging to the local city government.

Magistrate Slavica Tomic said that Petkovic had explained that he had reached an agreement with Nezavisna svetlost to publish a retraction of the information in its next issue.

MEDIA WAR FILM TO PREMIERE

BELGRADE, April 22, 2000 -- Two films produced by a group of ten people connected with the Belgrade Media Centre will be launched this month. The feature-length "Bombs and Words" and a television film, "First Victim", tell the story of media in Yugoslavia under NATO bombing.

"We wanted to send a message that the moment the bombs started falling on our country, the truth inevitably perished on both sides," said Vladan Radosavljevic, one of the film-makers, together with Aleksandar Mandic.

Both films deal with the central topics of the Radio B92 takeover, the personal story of the widow of murdered newspaper publisher Slavko Curuvija, the bombing of the Radio Television Serbia building, the unveiling of the memorial to victims of the state media bombing and the destruction of the transmission tower on Mt Avala. A special segment focuses on the "hate speech" extensively used by the majority of media companies during the NATO bombing.

"Both films will be launched on April 23 to mark the anniversary of the bombing of the Radio Television Serbia building," said Radosavljevic. "We shall try to have the television film broadcast on May 3, World Press Freedom Day. We'll offer the film to every station in the country and a large number of foreign television stations. I expect that the films will become a testimony to that difficult period for the media and all the problems truth had to overcome during the aggression so that someone may find it useful five or ten years from now."

The feature-length film will be screened at 8.00 p.m. this Sunday at the Dusko Radovic theatre and the television film will be presented at the Media Centre at 2.00 p.m. on Monday.

BELGRADE MARKS ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEATHS OF SIXTEEN STATE TELEVISION EMPLOYEES

BELGRADE, April 24, 2000 - A commemorative service was held at 2.06 p.m. yesterday in front of the gutted Radio Television Serbia building in Aberdareva Street to mark the anniversary of the deaths of sixteen RTS employees killed in the NATO bombing on April 23 last year. The bereaved family members and friends of the deceased lit candles in front of the monument near the TV station in Tasmajdan park on which the word "why" is written. Priests from the nearby church of Saint Mark conducted a religious service.

Zanka Stojakovic, whose son Nebojsa was one of the victims, accused the country's leadership of the deaths of the sixteen Radio Television Serbia employees and went on to say that those deaths had been in vain: "We're not asking them why any more, we're accusing them from today onwards. They committed a crime and there's no redemption. There are many counts in our indictment. They're celebrating their 'success' on the graves of thousands of young people and bereaved families".

Mirjana Stoimenovski, the mother of 25-year-old Darko, also killed in the bombing of the RTS building, asked the people running the state television and senior state officials why the whole of the RTS technical crew had been sacrificed on the night of April 23, 1999, going on to say: "One month ago both sides celebrated their victories -one in Brussels and one in Belgrade, while we, the people in mourning, are condemned to witness the boasting of those 'victorious' warring parties and to keep asking ourselves for the rest of our lives whether the world has become a better place since our children's untimely deaths. We live for the day when justice will be done so we call on those people in power who decide whether someone is to live or die to bear in mind that the time may come when some other powerful people will decide whether they themselves are to live or die just as they condemned our loved ones to death".

No representative of the television management attended the commemoration service. However, at a separate gathering, RTS Director Dragoljub Milanovic and Board of Management Chairman Vukasin Jokanovic unveiled a commemorative plaque on the wall of RTS building. The president of Belgrade Board of the Socialist Party of Serbia, Ivica Dacic, Palilula Municipal Board President Zlatan Perucic, Yugoslav United Left and Association of Serbian Journalists representatives were present at this gathering and placed wreaths on the memorial. "They say that it is human to forget and that Christians should forgive, but there are things which we mustn't forget and forgive", Milanovic said adding that the murderers of the RTS employees had been NATO pilots, Wesley Clark and Bill Clinton. Milanovic also said that the NATO servants by means of whom the enemy has protracted its aggression on our country think that everything's permitted today, they think that they could manipulate even with the most innocent victims of NATO villains. Therefore, Milanovic added, it is high time that they left the heroes to rest in peace without speculating on their heroic deaths, tainting their memory and their work or reopening unhealed wounds.

On the initiative of the Serbian Independent Association of Journalists (NUNS) all independent electronic media marked the occasion with a minute's silence in their programming at 2.06 p.m. yesterday. The Serbian Independent Association of Journalists (NUNS) together with the student organisation Otpor paid tribute to their colleagues at 10 p.m. yesterday by lighting candles in front of the monument near the television station in Tasmajdan park.

TV PINK FOLLOWS INDPENDENT MEDIA LEAD

BELGRADE, April 24, 2000 -- Belgrade television station TV Pink yesterday observed a minute's silence during its broadcast. Thus this station, whose proprietor, Zeljko Mitrovic, is a senior official of the Yugoslav United Left, joined the independent electronic media in Serbia which, at the proposal of the Independent Association of Serbian Journalists, marked the anniversary of the death of sixteen state television staff. The Radio Television Serbia employees were killed in a NATO attack on the state media building in Belgrade's Aberdareva Street last year.

FOURTH INDEPENDENT MEDIA PROTEST IN BELGRADE CENTRAL SQUARE

BELGRADE, April 25, 2000 - The fourth protest against the Public Information Act monument organised by the Serbian Independent Journalists' Association was held yesterday in front of Branislav Nusic monument. Gordana Susa, the association's president, said that during the first three weeks of April six draconian fines were imposed on media outlets - Kikindske novine was fined twice while other fines were imposed on Nis daily Narodne novine, TV Studio B, weekly Vreme and Beta news agency. The amount of fines totalled 1,890,000 dinars.

Kikindske novine, which had been fined twice during April, in a statement read at this gathering, said no one would succeed in closing down that newspaper by means of fines of the Public Information Act. "The citizens of Kikinda have pledged their support for Kikindske novine and they are the ones because of whom we still do exist", said Kikindske novine.

Nis Narodne novine Editor-in-Chief Jovica Vasic expressed his hopes that his newspaper which had refused to pay the fine would survive and outlive the regime.

Studio B Director and Editor-in-Chief Dragan Kojadinovic voiced his protest over the jamming of TV Studio B signal from fifteen locations in Belgrade. Kojadinovic reiterated that Studio B would refuse to pay the fines because, in his words, there was no point in financing this judicial circus. He added that Studio B had been fined 1,100,000 dinars in total, its management 520,000 dinars and that this television station owed 300,000 dinars which was why the state organs were collecting the fine from Studio B's bank account. Kojadinovic also said that Studio B received an official note from the state organs so that this media outlet "could expect anything - from confiscation of broadcasting equipment to arrests". Kojadinovic called on all the alternative and independent media to co-operate more closely and added: "We are not here to defend a particular media outlet; this is a life-and-death struggle for the independent media and, unfortunately, for some of us, the journalists, as well".

Belgrade weekly Vreme Editor-in-Chief Filip Svarm said that the struggle of the independent media would continue while the current regime was in power. He called on all media outlets to persist in their struggle.

Beta news agency Editor-in-Chief Ljubica Markovic thanked all the people who had showed their solidarity with Beta after this agency had been fined, and particularly Belgrade daily Blic which had paid part of the fine. When we were eventually fined, Ljubica Markovic said, we felt a sort of relief because we had been on the waiting list for quite a long time. She also called on the media to continue their struggle against the Public Information Act.

The names of the magistrates who handed down the most recent guilty verdicts under the Public Information Act were read as follows at the end of this protest: Nada Petrov, Dragisa Todorovic, Nebojsa Zivanovic, Vera Rakovic, Branko Bjelobaba and Miroslav Perez.

NOVI PAZAR WEEKLY PUBLISHES AGAIN, A YEAR ON

NOVI PAZAR, April 25, 2000 - Novi Pazar weekly Sandzacke novine resumed publishing yesterday after almost one-year suspension. This weekly had been fined 600,000 dinars under the Public Information Act on April 17 last year. Editor-in-Chief Amir Numanovic said that this fine had not been paid going on to say that weekly Sandzacke novine was seeking ways to pay the fine as soon as possible.

CITY GOVERNMENT DEMANDS END TO STUDIO B JAMMING

BELGRADE, April 26, 2000 -- The Executive Committee of the Belgrade City Assembly yesterday demand that Serbian authorities prevent the jamming of transmissions of Studio B Television. The committee sternly condemned "the intensified jamming of Studio B TV's signal and the outrageous fines imposed on this broadcaster as part of the campaign of repression carried out on the orders of the Serbian regime".

The city government also noted that Studio B had received an official note saying that a 300,000 dinar fine imposed under the Public Information Act would be collected from its bank account. The broadcaster had earlier refused to pay the fine. Studio B's telephone lines were cut two days ago.

In its press release, the city government demanded that the regime immediately cease its persecution of Studio B and warned that, despite repression of the independent media, the regime would not succeed either in imposing an information blackout or in suppressing public discontent, adding that such actions would only accelerate and contribute to the regime's ultimate defeat in the coming elections.

ZAJECAR APHORIST IN COURT

ZAJECAR, April 27, 2000 - The hearing of charges against Knjazevac aphorist Boban Miletic Bapsi, resumed in the Zajecar District Court before Judge Veroljub Cvetkovic, yesterday. The charges allege that Miletic having mocked and ridiculed Yugoslavia and its President Slobodan Milosevic by reading his aphorisms published in the book "Weep Mother Serbia, Weep" on December 18, 1998.

Bapsi did not deny that he was the author of the book "Weep Mother Serbia, Weep", but he emphasised that there had been no promotion of the book that night and that at issue had been public reading of his aphorisms. I don't recall, Bapsi said, having read the aphorisms - 'Beware Milosescu, you'll end up like Ceausescu' or 'Only Slobo could save Serbia - if he were to resign' and other aphorisms. Other witnesses Branislav Milosavljevic, an employee of Serbian Ministry for Agriculture, and Zvonimir Pavkovic, literature teacher, could neither recall which aphorisms Bapsi had read that night.

Defence lawyers proposed new witnesses including the president of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic who should give his testimony on whether he perceived Bapsi's aphorisms as mockery and slanderous statements about himself. The defence also suggested that Milovan Ilic Minimaks, a former radio show host who had read Bapsi's aphorisms in his radio show Tup-tup broadcast by Radio Belgrade, be summoned before the court as a witness.

Zajecar District Court ruled that all the witnesses proposed by the defence team, except for President Milosevic and Minimaks, be summoned for the hearing scheduled for May 11.

MOTHER OF STATE MEDIA BOMB VICTIM ACCUSES DIRECTOR

BELGRADE, April 27, 2000 - The mother of one of the sixteen state media employees killed when NATO bombed the Belgrade network centre last year, Zanka Stojanovic, has accused Radio Television Serbia of being responsible for the death of her son. Zanka Stojanovic left a message, under the title, "Indictment" at RTS offices today, refuting state television statements that her son, Nebojsa, and his colleagues gave their lives as an example of their love for their nation and freedom.

Precisely 365 days have passed since Ms.Stojanovic was officially notified of the death of her son, an RTS employee. "I personally accuse RTS director Dragoljub Milanovic and RTS management of the crime they have committed against my son and myself on April 24, 1999", Ms. Stojanovic has stated in her 'Indictment'. "I accuse them of failing to take precautions at the workplace of my son and his colleagues given the state of war which was in effect at the time; I also accuse them of having provoked the enemy; I accuse them because of the improper way in which they informed me of my son's death and because of politicisation of the incident and my son's death intended to promote particular persons among TV management; I accuse them of their having said that my son was a hero; and finally, why haven't you sacrificed your lives to defend the country instead of my son's life", the mother of Nebojsa Stojanovic stated in her 'Indictment'.

NEW TELEVISION IN BELGRADE

BELGRADE, April 27, 2000 - Television Srbijasume 92, founded by public company Srbijasume and Radio B-92 of Belgrade Youth Council, is to begin broadcasting today. "We're the only media outlet with all necessary licences. Our programming is focused on ecological issues and improvement of the quality of life in urban centres, and it will be soon covering the whole of Serbia", Aleksandar Nikacevic, RTV Srbijasume 92 director, told a press conference yesterday.

The new television station will be broadcasting from the premises and by means of the antenna mast erected by the former Radio B-92 team, i.e. the present Radio B2-92. When asked by a Radio B2-92 journalist which broadcasting equipment was being used to broadcast the program, Nikacevic retorted that every journalist must observe certain rules as regard to decency and manners when asking questions so that this Radio B2-92 journalist was not allowed anymore either to ask any questions or receive any answers. Thus, Nikacevic refused to reply what had happened with television equipment usurped by the Belgrade Youth Council in April last year. Criminal proceedings pertaining to this contentious issue are currently underway in the First Belgrade Municipal Court.

BULATOVIC: MEDIA CHAOS REIGNS IN FRY

BELGRADE, April 28, 2000 - Federal Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic said in his interview for TV YU INFO, run by the federal government, that 'media chaos' was reigning in this country because some media outlets 'were relying on foreign centres of power' and were 'financed to publish things far removed from reality'. A number of journalists, added Bulatovic, who had built their reputation in the former system were selling themselves cheaply, forgetting all about the basic principles of professionalism and patriotism in the process.

VALJEVO WEEKLY FINED

VALJEVO, April 28, 2000 - Valjevo weekly Napred was fined 16,500 dinars by local magistrate Aleksandar Jovanovic under the Public Information Act on charges brought by the labour union organisation of Valjevo Grammar School.

During the strike of teachers and pupils when director of Valjevo Grammar School Goran Bojcic was dismissed in September last year, the weekly Napred published a letter from 'a concerned parent' containing defamatory remarks about a teacher, Miroslav Pantovic, the president of Valjevo Grammar School labour union. The charges were originally dismissed, but a court of appeal subsequently ruled that the case should be reheard.

AVID KIKINDA LITIGATOR MOVES ON BELGRADE MEDIA

KIKINDA, April 28, 2000 - Nikola Markov, a lawyer representing the editor-in-chief of state media weekly RTS Komuna from Kikinda, Socialist Party of Serbia official Rajko Popovic, said that he had completed and further elaborated on charges previously brought against Belgrade weekly NIN acting on orders of the magistrate Nada Pandurov.

Rajko Popovic has sued Belgrade weekly NIN over an article entitled "Indictment against a Dead Journalist" published on March 30. Charges have also been brought against NIN director Todor Bjelica, editor-in-chief Stevan Niksic and the author of the article Ivana Jankovic. Ivana Jankovic had provided an analysis in the contentious article of court proceedings on charges brought by Popovic against Kikindske novine under the Public Information Act. Kikindske novine were actually fined on several occasions and the amount of fines totalled almost 1,080,000 dinars.

Popovic's lawyer said that the contentious article contained at least seven instances of inaccurate information.

INTENSIFIED MEDIA REPRESSION IN FRY

BELGRADE, April 28, 2000 - An organisation engaged in advancing and promoting democracy, political rights and civil freedoms around the world, the Washington-based Freedom House, has listed Yugoslavia among four countries in which media repression is rapidly intensifying.

Yugoslavia, Peru, Russia and South Africa gave rise to caution and concern in the field of media repression, Freedom House said in its press release, going on to say that 'the Yugoslav authorities were more frequently resorting to the 1998 Public Information Act intended to suppress independent journalism".

According to Freedom House, this legislation had introduced a presumption of guilt for each accused media outlet without allowing them to defend in a court of law. Also rebroadcasting of foreign programmes in Serbian and minority ethnic groups' languages had been banned by this media law. In Freedom House's view, the amount of fines imposed so far under the Public Information Act totalled almost 2,000,000 dollars. The Freedom House report also cited 'at least three bans of the work of daily newspapers and ten radio and television shut-downs.

MASSACRE DOCUMENTARY BROADCAST BY LOCAL TELEVISION

SOKO BANJA, April 28, 2000 - Following the recent premiere of a documentary entitled "Srebrenica - Recipe for a Fall" at the Belgrade Centre for Cultural Decontamination (CZKD), the film was broadcast two days ago by TV Soko from Sokobanja. Afterwards, Borka Pavicevic, CZKD director, was a guest on a live program of TV Soko studio and answered the questions of the audience. Viewers' responses ranged from praise commenting on this possibility of seeing what we were really like in this documentary to statements that at issue was Muslim propaganda and that General Mladic was a Serb war hero. If you don't show what's truly happened, Borka Pavicevic said, it still does not mean that it hasn't happened at all.

FOREIGN JOURNALIST FINED, DEPORTED: VREME

BELGRADE, April 28, 2000 -- Belgrade weekly Vreme reports in its most recent issue on the case of Taro Konishi, reporter for the Japanese daily Yomiuri Shimbun, the world's highest-circulation newspaper. Konishi was fined 6,000 dinars on April 22 by a Belgrade magistrate who also ruled that the journalist be deported from Yugoslavia. The court found that Konishi had breached the Act on Movements and Residence of Foreigners by having no stamp in his passport to prove that he had entered the country legally.

Konishi crossed the border near Presevo to enter Yugoslavia from Macedonia on April 21, but a police officer forgot to stamp his passport. When Konishi attempted to catch a flight for London from Belgrade airport the following day, a customs officer noted that there was no record in his passport having entered the country. He was detained and taken before a local magistrate. Despite Konishi offering a witness, the Belgrade taxi driver who had driven him from Skopje to Belgrade and crossed the border with him, who could corroborate his story, neither the magistrate nor the customs official showed any interest in checking the veracity of his statement.

After almost ten hours in police stations and courtrooms, and interventions by Knish's newspaper and the Japanese embassy in Belgrade, it was revealed that the state had erred at the border crossing. Konishi was permitted to buy another ticket to London and spend the night at a Belgrade hotel. He may also lodge an appeal within eight days demanding that a court of appeal dismiss the magistrate's ruling.

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