ANEM'S WEEKLY REPORT ON MEDIA REPRESSION IN SERBIA

JUNE 3 - JUNE 9, 2000

THREE MONTHS FOR NEWSPAPER DIRECTOR

BOR, June 3, 2000 - The director of the Bor newspaper Borske Novine, Dusica Radulovic, was sentenced to three months imprisonment today in Zajecar Court for publishing an article on Socialist Party of Serbia spokesman Nikola Sainovic going to the Hague Tribunal. Her husband, the paper's editor, Slobodan Radulovic, who is himself facing charges for publishing a photomontage of the Yugoslav president, told Radio B2-92 that they had tried to show that the Zajecar Court was not valid, but had not succeeded.

ANEM LAWYER GAINS ACCESS TO BEOGRADJANKA PREMISES

BELGRADE, June 3, 2000 - A legal representative from the Association of Independent Electronic Media managed to enter ANEM's offices on the seventeenth floor of the Beogradjanka building on Friday. ANEM lawyer Branislav Zivkovic said that after the head of the police stationed at Beogradjanka had seen the contract with the City Business Premises Bureau for the offices he expressed a certain surprise at learning that the space did not belong to Studio B. Police referred the lawyer to Studio B's new government-appointed director who was too busy to see him. He was referred by the director's secretary to Studio B's legal representatives.

INDEPENDENT MEDIA THROWN OUT OF SERBIAN PARLIAMENT

BELGRADE, June 3, 2000 - At today's session of the Serbian Parliament, the president of the Administrative Committee, Dragan Ljubojevic, who is a member of the Serbian Radical Party, asked "representatives of traitor media" to leave the session, and went on to name the offending publications as Blic, Danas and Glas Javnosti and the news agencies Beta and FoNet. A journalist from one of the independent media asked why they had not been arrested if their treachery was so obvious. Ljubojevic declined to reply.

The editor-in-chief of Danas, Grujica Spasovic, wrote to the head of the parliamentary information service, Zoran Djumic, in protest. "A share of the shame for this act falls on you because you are supporting those parliamentary bodies who have decided unconstitutionally and illegally to support the bullying of party leaders," said Spasovic in the letter.

NIS JOURNALISTS APPEAL FOR RELEASE OF FILIPOVIC

NIS, June 3, 2000 - A group of Nis journalists and associates working for local, Belgrade and foreign media today appealed to the military court in the city to release France Press and Danas correspondent Miroslav Filipovic from custody. Filipovic has been charged by Kraljevo police with espionage and disseminating false information. He has been in custody since May 22, while the Nis Military Court investigates the charges. The letter to the court notes that while Filipovic was on remand without custody he had made no attempt to flee the country nor had he shown any intention of becoming a fugitive. On the contrary, said the journalists, he had responded promptly to the summons from the Nis Military Court which had resulted in the launch of the investigation and his new custody.

DANAS CHARGES DROPPED

ZRENJANIN, June 3, 2000 - Proceedings against Belgrade daily Danas were dropped in a court in Zrenjanin today after the deputy public prosecutor of the District Court in Zrenjanin, Jovan Prljic, who brought the charges, decided to withdraw them, Danas Editor-in-Chief Grujica Spasovic told Beta. Spasovic said that Danas had received a telegram saying that the prosecutor had withdrawn the charges.

DON'T REPORT OPPOSITION DISUNITY: RENEWAL MOVEMENT

LESKOVAC, June 3, 2000 - The vice-president of the Renewal Movement's branch in Leskovac, Bojana Ristic, today appealed to the independent media not to report on disunity among the united opposition but rather to focus on what the government was doing. The media, she said, was not the place for the quarrels of opposition leaders.

PANCEVO PETITION

PANCEVO, June 3, 2000 - President of the Pancevo Municipal Assembly Srdjan Mikovic said today that Pancevo citizens would present a petition to the police consisting of questions as to how and why Radio Pancevo had disappeared from the airwaves. He said the assembly would demand an investigation if the transmitter had disappeared, because it was the property of Pancevo citizens, who had paid 50,000 DM for it.

B2-92 FOUNDER SHARES JOURNALISM AWARD

BELGRADE, June 4, 2000 - The founder of Radio B2-92 and present chairman of ANEM, Veran Matic, has shared this year's Iliria Alpi Award for investigative journalism and freedom of speech with BBC journalist Julie Flynn and Italian state television correspondent Enio Remondo who reported from Belgrade on last year's NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. Accepting the award, Matic called attention to the international community's lack of response to the wave of repression now afflicting independent media in Yugoslavia.

The award is named for Italian journalist Iliria Alpi, who was killed in Mogadishu in 1994 while researching the role of Italians in arms smuggling.

KOUCHNER BANS NEWSPAPER

PRISTINA, June 4, 2000 - International police in Pristina on Saturday closed the Albanian-language daily Dita for violating a decree by UN administrator Bernard Kouchner banning ethnic vilification. UN mission representative Susan Manuel told Beta that the banning would last eight days.

The daily had published an article at the end of April about a Serb, Petar Topoljski, employed in the UN administration in Pristina, accusing him of being a prominent member of paramilitary forces in Pristina during last year's war. Topoljski was found dead near Pristina ten days after the article was published.

The United Nations mission accused Dita of being responsible for the murder and international police on several occasions detained the author and Dita editor Behljulj Becaj for interrogation.

Police yesterday sealed off the eighth floor of Press House in Pristina where Dita's offices are located.

ALBANIAN NEWSPAPER SUES KOUCHNER

PRISTINA, June 5, 2000 - The Albanian-language daily Dita in Pristina has announced that it will sue UN mission head Bernard Kouchner over a temporary ban on publication because the proper procedure had been violated, Beta reports. Dita's staff today held a press conference outside the paper's premises, which are occupied by police, demanding that Kouchner reconsider his decision. They denied the UN mission's claims that the paper had published incited ethnic hatred in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1244.

STUDIO B SEIZED AFTER CALLING FOR CHANGE OF POWER: FOREIGN MINISTER

BELGRADE, June 5, 2000 - The Serbian Government seized control of Belgrade City broadcaster Studio B because the station had called for a change of authorities in Serbia, Federal Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic has told South African daily Business Day. Jovanovic, who is visiting the Republic of South Africa is quoted as saying "We have never wanted either NATO bombs or NATO propaganda in this country and we don't need to apologise to anyone for the measures we have taken."

FILIPOVIC APPEAL TURNED DOWN

NIS, June 6, 2000 - The Nis Military Court today turned down an appeal to free Kraljevo journalist Miroslav Filipovic, defence lawyer Goran Draganic told Beta today. Draganic said that the court had justified the decision by saying that all the evidence against his client had not yet been presented. The lawyer said that the evidence would be finished tomorrow and he would then lodge a new appeal.

Filipovic, who is the Kraljevo correspondent for France Press and Belgrade daily Danas, was last week remanded in custody for a second term of thirty days on criminal charges of espionage and dissemination of false information.

SOCIALIST PARTY ATTACKS TV PANCEVO

BELGRADE, June 6, 2000 - The Municipal branch of the Socialist Party of Serbia, in a statement reported by state news agency Tanjug, has accused Radio Television Pancevo of having directly called for the overthrow of the legally elected authorities and political order. The statement alleged that the station's editor-in-chief, Ofelija Backovic, was under the direct influence of party leaders from Belgrade, ANEM and the Independent Association of Serbian Journalists, as well as certain suggestions from outside the country.

JOURNALISTS ASSOCIATION DEMANDS RELEASE OF FILIPOVIC

BELGRADE, June 7, 2000 - The Independent Association of Serbian Journalists has demanded the release of the Kraljevo correspondent for France Press and Belgrade daily Danas from custody, the Belgrade press reports today. "Filipovic is in prison because of the absurd allegation that he was spying," says the association in its statement, adding "Miroslav Filipovic was publishing all his articles under his full name. Spies don't do that".

NEWSPRINT MANUFACTURE OUT OF GAS AND WOOD

NOVI SAD, June 7, 2000 - The chief engineer of Yugoslavia's only domestic newsprint manufacturer said yesterday that the company was without supplies of wood and gas, both of which were essential to paper manufacture.

Milan Utvic told a meeting at the Vojvodina Chamber of Commerce that Matroz had only a single machine working on paper production and that demand for the company's product exceeded the supply. He added that raw materials had been obtained but that if production ceased because of the gas shortage they would go to waste because they had a shelf life of only one month.

RTV PANCEVO JAMMING CONTINUES

PANCEVO, June 7, 2000 - The crisis headquarters of the Pancevo Municipality has failed to give police a petition demanding an explanation of the disappearance of Radio Pancevo's transmitter on Milica Hill in the Belgrade municipality of Palilula. The same petition had been given to Pancevo police by Mayor Srdjan Mikovic on June 5 but no response has been received. The transmitter ceased operating on May 17 but Radio Pancevo staff had been unable to access the facility, which was guarded by police.

"The last time I was on Milica Hill, on about May 25, the police were asleep and the doors were open so I managed to see that the transmitter and other equipment were missing from the premises," the station's technical director, Tomislav Vagner, told Belgrade daily Danas.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ACCUSES NATO OF WAR CRIME

BELGRADE, June 7, 2000 - London daily The Independent in today's issue quotes international human rights organisation Amnesty International in a blistering attack on NATO, accusing the Alliance of committing serious violations of the rules of war, unlawful killings and - in the case of the bombing of Serbia's television headquarters - a war crime. The Amnesty report quotes General Wesley Clark as saying "We knew when we struck that there would be alternative ways of disabling Serbian television. There's no single switch to turn off everything but we thought it was a good move to strike it, and the political leadership agreed with us." Amnesty's comment on this is, "In other words, NATO deliberately attacked a civilian object, killing sixteen civilians, for the purpose of disrupting Serbian television broadcasts in the middle of the night for approximately three hours. It is hard to see how this can be consistent with the rule of proportionality." Amnesty says that Tony Blair "appeared to be hinting [in a subsequent BBC documentary] that one of the reasons that the station was targeted was because its video footage of the human toll of Nato mistakes ... was being rebroadcast by Western media outlets and was thus undermining support for the war within the Alliance".

CAMERA SNATCHED FROM TELEVISION CREW

BELGRADE, June 8, 2000 - Two unidentified young men today snatched a camera from a crew working for the independent production house TV Mreza as they prepared to shoot footage for the "Stop the Violence" series about the Alliance of Independent Zemun Citizens, whose offices are located across the road from the Zemun Municipal Assembly. TV Mreza editor Lila Radonjic said that the men rushed from the Assembly building, jostled the crew members, snatched their camera and returned to the Assembly building. Zemun is governed by the Serbian Radical Party. Radonjic added that police had been called to the scene and interviewed TV Mreza journalist Snezana Stojadinovic. On the night of June 4, the offices of the Alliance of Independent Zemun Citizens were sprayed with nitric acid.

MEDIA INSTITUTE ESTABLISHED IN MONTENEGRO

PODGORICA, June 8, 2000 - The Montenegro Media Institute, a non-government organisation, will soon be registered in Montenegro, Beta learnt today from the Fund for an Open Society in Podgorica. The institute will be part of a regional network with seventeen similar organisations in South-east Europe. It is expected to begin operating in the autumn, training journalists from Montenegro, Kosovo and Serbia. Training for other media vocations will also be provided. The institute will engage teaching staff both locally and from abroad.

SOCIALISTS ESTABLISH PROPAGANDA COUNCIL

BELGRADE, June 8, 2000 - The Central Committee of the Socialist Party of Serbia today established a Council for Information and Propaganda, charged with presenting "the truth about the situation in the country in the proper way in domestic and foreign media". The Council's president, Nikola Sainovic, said that the Party was determined that its members and all citizens should spread the truth and information which would defend the country, state media reported. Sainovic also said that the struggle for truth was part of the struggle for independence and the defence and reconstruction of the country, adding that "in the situation of extended aggression, the aggressors admitted that they were investing enormously in subversive activity with the aim of destroying the psychological, political and every other stability" of the Yugoslav population. It was necessary to design a unique information system which would respond to all challenges, both international and domestic, said Sainovic. Members of the new Council particularly criticised the independent media and accused them of treason. The director of Radio Television Serbia, Dragoljub Milanovic, said that the enemy had been particularly helped by the servants of NATO in concealing and justifying crimes. This, he said, was the reason it was necessary, as soon as possible, to properly expose and punish treason, both in the media and in day-to-day life.

STUDIO B CASE ADJOURNED

BELGRADE, June 9, 2000 - Proceedings being conducted by Studio B and the Belgrade Municipal Assembly against the Republic of Serbia in relation to the police occupation of the broadcaster were today adjourned for the second time. The court ruled that Dragan Kojadinovic could not represent Studio B because the present director was Ljubisav Aleksic. The court also demanded a document from the Register for the Belgrade Commercial Court which Studio B representatives were unable to obtain for the hearing. Studio B Radio Director Milos Rajkovic said that the station's radio program would be broadcast on the Internet next week and television crews were preparing a program which would begin in the near future. He declined to give details.

NO PUBLISHERS REFUSED PAPER: MATROZ

BELGRADE, June 9, 2000 - The director of the paper manufacturer Matroz in Sremska Mitrovica, Dragan Lazic, today denied that the manufacturer had reduced the supply of newsprint to certain independent newspapers. Beta had earlier been told by Glas javnosti, Blic and Danas that they were experiencing difficulties in publishing because of reduced newsprint supplies from Matroz, which the company had explained by citing problems in production. Asked why certain independent papers had been getting less paper, Lazic said that nobody had asked Matroz for increased deliveries, adding that everybody was getting as much as they asked for.

FILIPOVIC HEARING CONCLUDES

NIS, June 9, 2000 - The defence lawyer for Kraljevo journalist Miroslav Filipovic told Radio B2-92 today that the Nis Military Court yesterday finished hearing evidence in the case. Goran Draganic said that he had asked for Filipovic to be released from custody during the proceedings and for the military prosecutor to declare himself on the matter. He added that he expected that Filipovic would be released on bail tomorrow, adding that if the prosecutor refused to declare himself on the matter it would be decided by the Criminal Council of the Military Court. Filipovic has been on remand in custody for more than a month on charges of espionage and dissemination of false information.

JOURNALIST BARRED FROM LOCAL COUNCIL MEETING

KRUSEVAC, June 9, 2000 - Security guards at the Krusevac Municipal Assembly today denied access to journalist Miroljub Arsic, a correspondent for Belgrade daily Danas, Podgorica daily Vijesti and Montenegrin Television, preventing him from reporting on an Assembly meeting. Arsic told Beta that this was the second time he had been barred from attending a session of the Assembly. "I submitted all the necessary documents and the municipal secretary, Budimir Simic, told me that I had been granted accreditation," said Arsic, adding that when he arrived at the entrance of the building he was told that he would not be able to attend. Arsic described the behaviour of the security guards as part of the general repression of journalists from the independent media.

For further information, contact Veran Matic, Chairperson, or Marija Milosavljevic at ANEM, Masarikova 5/XVII, 11000 Belgrade, FR Yugoslavia, tel: +381 361 9228, fax: +381 361 9428, e-mail: veran.matic@opennet.org