ANEM'S WEEKLY REPORT ON MEDIA REPRESSION IN SERBIA

JUNE 17 ­ JUNE 23, 2000.

FOUNDING MEETING FOR COMMITTEE TO PROTECT JOURNALISTS

NOVI SAD, June 17, 2000 ­ The co-ordinating body for the protection of journalists against regime repression established within the Independent Association of Vojvodina Journalists, held its first meeting last night. Among other matters, the meeting agreed on ways of defending journalists against repression. Nineteen local media editors, heads of correspondence offices and the Novi Sad correspondents for Serbian and foreign media agreed to engage personal security for journalists who were in any way endangered through their professional duties.

The new body is also preparing to publish a Catalogue of Journalist Repression which will be available in hard copy as well as on the Internet.

The meeting decided that, in addition to personal security, legal representation would be available around the clock in order to allow lawyers to react promptly to calls from journalists in urgent need of help.

KOSOVO ADMINISTRATION ADOPTS MEDIA CODE

PRISTINA, June 17, 2000 ­ The Kosovo Temporary Administration Council today adopted a code for the behaviour of print media in Kosovo which is intended to prevent the publishing of "unofficial wanted posters" in the Albanian press.

UNMIK representative Susan Manuel said that the code was expected to prevent incidents such as the death of UNMIK worker Petar Topoljski who was murdered several days after Pristina daily Dita published allegations that he had been involved robbing Albanians and expelling them from Pristina.

The code prohibits the publication of details, addresses or other information which might endanger someone’s life, in that way preventing media from becoming a kangaroo court.

MOTHERS OF STATE MEDIA BOMBING VICTIMS WRITE TO DEL PONTE

THE HAGUE, BELGRADE, June 17, 2000 ­ The Hague Tribunal prosecution office today received a letter from the mothers of those killed in the NATO bomb attack on Radio Television Serbia last year. The letter, addressed to Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte, asked that the prosecution office reconsider its decision to drop of investigation of senior NATO officials for alleged war crimes.

"We are addressing you with a request to reconsider your decision," said the letter, asking which international law gave the powerful the right to take the lives of innocent people. The mothers, in their letter, noted that their children had not been carrying guns and had done nothing to provoke the enemy into killing them.

In response to NATO’s assertion that the victims had been part of the Serbian propaganda machine and thus a legitimate target, the mothers wrote that their children had not been journalists but technical and support staff, adding that as technicians they had enabled foreign journalists to transmit their reports to the world.

The letter also claimed that those who ordered the "crime" knew that at 2.06 a.m. there would be no management or representatives of the authorities in the building.

The mothers of the victims concluded by saying that they believed in the Hague Tribunal’s personal and human responsibility and that the duty of the Hague was to investigate individual responsibility.

BROADCASTERS ADOPT ELECTION CODE

NIS, June 18, 2000 ­ Representatives of private radio and television stations from the Spektar association for the development of private broadcasting last night in Nis adopted a code of behaviour for private radio and television stations during the election campaign. "The code insists on the equality of all participants in the election campaign," the secretary of Spektar, Slobodan Djeric, told Beta agency today. Djeric said he did not believe that today’s meeting had been premature. "Private stations should not wait for somebody else to establish conditions and criteria for covering election campaigns for them," he added.

The Spektar meeting continued today, and is expected to adopts a declaration which, according to Djeric, will demand that radio and television stations decide for themselves whether they want apply professional standards and principles of equality in election coverage.

VOJVODINA JOURNALISTS ACCUSE REGIME OF NEW ATTACK ON MEDIA

NOVI SAD, June 18, 2000 ­ The Independent Association of Vojvodina Journalists said yesterday that the authorities had again attacked independent media and the journalists who work for them. The Association issued a statement saying that fines imposed on the weekly Kikindske had been increased from a total of 150,000 dinars by 225,000 dinars by the Novi Sad Petty Offences Council.

"Over the next few days we shall publish the names of harassed journalists as well as the names of the police who arrest and attack them and the names of magistrates and we shall provide physical protection and legal assistance to the most endangered journalists," said the statement.

The Spektar meeting continues today and is expected to adopt a declaration which, according to Djeric, will demand that radio and television stations decide for themselves whether they want to apply professional standards and principles of equality in election coverage.

MOTHERS OF BOMB VICTIMS IN APPEAL TO DEL PONTE

BELGRADE, June 18 2000 - The mothers of the sixteen civilian victims of NATO's bombing of Serbia's State Media centre last year have written to the Hague Tribunal Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte asking that she reconsider her decision not to investigate senior NATO officials for alleged war crimes in Yugoslavia.

A representative of the parents, Zanka Stojanovic, whose son Nebojsa was killed in the attack, told Radio B2-92 today that while leaders of the international community saw the prosecution of NATO officials as taboo, for the parents it was a matter of premeditated murder of their children. She added that she hoped del Ponte would reconsider the decision because the Radio Television Serbia bombing was a precedent and could now be repeated anywhere in the world.

Stojanovic also said that the parents had been shocked by the promotion of a Radio Television editor, Dusan Vojvodic, to the rank of General in the Yugoslav Army Reserve. Vojvodic, she said, had taken his daughter out of the state television centre on the night of the bombing and left the children of other parents to die there.

RESOLUTION ON PRIVATE BROADCASTERS

NIS, June 19, 2000 ­ The two day conference of private broadcasters from the Spektar Association ended in Nis today with a resolution on the position of private radio and television stations. The directors of about forty broadcasters agreed that the regime was exercising increasing repression on independent broadcasters but also accused the opposition of showing a lack of interest in private local stations and of lacking any concept for a change in the status of private radio broadcasting. The declaration adopted by the conference demanded that the authorities cease repression of the media and grant legitimate status, on a non-selective basis, to all radio stations which submitted documentation in the 1998 public frequency competition. The conference also adopted a code regulating the behaviour of private broadcasters during election campaigns. The code requires signatories to grant equal presentation time to all interested political parties and to provide time for party p!

olitical presentations free of charge, as an investment from media proprietors in a better future for media in Serbia, because in this way they may help ensure that the best parties in the election come to power. The only issue left up to individual stations to decide on was the matter of whether to report on activities on the Serbian Radical Party, because a number of participants expressed disagreement with the boycott already accepted by some members of the Association.

RADIO INDEKS DROPS RADICAL BOYCOTT

BELGRADE, June 19, 2000 ­ Radio Indeks has become the only independent broadcaster to violate the agreement to boycott reporting activities of the Serbian Radical Party after Studio B and Radio B2-92 were banned. In its program on Sunday June 18, Radio Indeks reported a statement of Aleksandar Vucic, the information minister and vice president of the

Radical Party, in which he alleged that Belgrade daily Danas, Radio B2-92 and some Albanian media were being assisted by the same donors, which was argument enough in itself for these media outlets to be punished.

STATEMENT FROM INFORMATION MINISTER

BELGRADE, June 19, 2000 ­ Serbian Information Minister Aleksandar Vucic yesterday described certain media in Serbia, such as Belgrade daily Danas, Radio B2-92 and Albanian-language media has having a common financial source abroad, adding that this was the reason they were fighting for their alleged independence because only in this way could they act against the Serbian state and Serbian national interests.

In last night’s statement for Jagodina television Palma Plus, Vucic claimed that "many of these so-called independent media have no journalists on their staff but, in the majority of cases, politicians, poor and malicious politicians working for foreign mentors, not the interests of their country".

Vucic’s statement was published by Radio Television Serbia, Borba, Vecernje novosti and Ekspres politika as well as Radio Indeks, one of the stations which accepted a proposal from the Independent Association of Serbian Journalists on February 15, 200 not to report on Serbian Radical Party press conferences or statements from the party or party officials, in protest against threats of arrests and execution of journalists by Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj.

"These journalist-politicians work on the instructions and orders of foreign hostile countries which cannot bear to hear the truth about Serbia. In this they behave like the NATO aggressor, who did not believe we would mount a strong resistance in the media field and so attempted to destroy the Serbian information system with bombs," said Vucic.

"These people from the so-called independent media have an assignment from their foreign bosses to constantly attack the Public Information Act at any cost, because their ultimate goal is the destruction of the Serbian state," said Vucic, citing the example of Studio B Television which, he said, "worked for the destruction of the Serbian state through calls for terrorism and armed uprising, which no country in the world would allow".

"It never has and never will be a problem in Serbia for somebody to publicly say what he thinks, but democracy does not include the overthrow of the state and destruction of nationals values. Such behaviour must be punished, as it is everywhere else in the world," said the information minister.

Vucic also claimed that the Public Information Act had not closed down a single television or radio station, but had only punished lies and libels by individuals who were, first of all, "foreign mercenaries and enemies of the county".

He also alleged that the Act had not destroyed "any freedom of public speech" and claimed that there was no country in Europe which had as many non-government and anti-government print and electronic media.

PUBLIC INFORMATION ACT TO BE REASSESSED BY COURT

BELGRADE, June 19 2000 - Serbia's notorious Public Information Act is to be re-evaluated by the Federal Constitutional Court at the end of June, Belgrade daily Blic writes today. The paper reports that a large number of individuals, non-government organisations and professional associations have demanded that the constitutionality of the legislation be reassessed. A number of legal experts questioned the legality of the Act when it was adopted by the Serbian Parliament in October 1998. Since the Public Information Act came into force, fines totalling thirty million dinars have been imposed for breaches of its regulations.

MINISTER CALLING FOR A LYNCHING: B2-92 CHIEF

BELGRADE, Monday -- The editor-in-chief of Radio B2-92, Veran Matic, today described allegations by Serbian Information Minister Aleksandar Vucic about independent media as an open call for lynching. Vucic had earlier accused Radio B2-92 and Belgrade daily Danas of working for NATO in the service of attacking Yugoslavia.

Matic said that in recent months the Milosevic regime had attempted to brand independent media as terrorists and that the leader of Vucic's party had recently accused independent media of being responsible for the assassination of the Federal minister for defence. He added that Vucic's statement was typical of regime attempts to discredit independent media.

Commenting on accusations that the majority of independent media did not employ journalists but bad politicians working under foreign orders, Matic said, "It’s absurd to accuse such a thing about a radio station which has received so many domestic and international awards for professionalism, which hasn’t changed its team of journalists for years, and which works every day on the improvement of its professional qualities." Matic claimed that this kind of statement showed that the regime wanted to "create an atmosphere in which future laws against terrorism and similar repressive laws it was preparing would be able to work regardless of any evidence or the truth of the accusation".

COURT FINISHES HEARING EVIDENCE IN RADIO PANCEVO CASE

BELGRADE, June 20 2000 ­ The First Municipal Court in Belgrade yesterday concluded hearing evidence on charges brought by Radio Pancevo against the Serbian government for disruption of property, in that police had prevented the station’s technicians to approach their transmitter on Milica Hill. The legal representative of the Republic did not submit to the court the decision which officially confiscated the station’s transmitter, pleading a short deadline, and magistrate Vesna Dimitrijevic concluded the hearing and announced she would rule on the case within the legal deadline.

"NO ENTRY, YOU WORK FOR ANEM"

KRALJEVO, June 20 2000 ­ Radio Globus journalists Ljudmila Cvetkovic and Aleksandar Jelesijevic were not permitted by head of the Raska district’s national defence, Radojica Kocovic, to cover negotiations of the four-member delegation of the Federal and Republic governments with representatives of the Association of War Army Invalids who had been on a hunger strike in Kraljevo, with the explanation: "No entry, you work for ANEM". The crew of the private television station "10", which is operated by the Socialist Party of Serbia, was permitted to cover the negotiations.

The group of army invalids went on hunger strike on Monday at about 10 a.m. demanding improvement of their position. They put up a tent in front of the Municipal Assembly building, which also houses the Raska district administration. The delegation from the Federal and Republic governments arrived for negotiations with the invalids yesterday afternoon.

SVEDOK ON QUITTING RADICAL PARTY BOYCOTT

BELGRADE, June 20, 2000 ­ The newspaper Svedok in today’s issue published a lengthy article on the possibility that private electronic media in Serbia would bring their boycott on reporting activities of the Serbian Radical Party to an end. Writer Zoran Marjanovic emphases that last weekend’s assembly of the Spektar Association of private broadcasters in Nis had heralded the return of Seselj to independent media.

"At that gathering," wrote Marjanovic, "it was decided that the 72 members of the association would declare themselves individually in the next few days on whether they should abolish the boycott on the Radicals in the name of fairness for the coming elections". The majority of Spektar’s members had joined the boycott suggested by the Independent Association of Serbian Journalists on February 15 in protest at party leader Vojislav Seselj’s public threat of arrests and executions of journalists.

"There is no doubt that reconsideration of reasons for the extension or abolition of the private boycott would instigate unavoidable polemics," said Marjanovic, adding that the problem was the same for everyone but that it was obvious in Nis that there would be opposing points of view.

KOSOVO SERB RADIO LOOTED

GRACANICA, 20.6.2000. - A Kosovo radio station belonging to the Serbian Orthodox Church was broken into last night and the bulk of its equipment stolen, Beta's Gracanica correspondent reported today. The break-in at Radio 106, in the village of Caglavica near Pristina, occurred after midnight when no staff were on the premises. The thieves made away with transmission equipment, a mixing console and other broadcast equipment. UN police are investigating the burglary. Radio 106 was established by a donation from the Greek Orthodox Church and began broadcasting in March this year, carrying news programs from Radio B2-92, The Voice of America and the BBC.

GLAS JAVNOSTI FINED 280,000 DINARS

BELGRADE, June 21, 2000 - Magistrate Zorica Rakic has fined daily Glas javnosti 200,000 dinars under the Public Information Act, and Director and Editor-in-Chief of the paper Slavoljub Kacarevic, 80,000 dinars. The charges against Glas were brought by Zoran Andjelkovic, president of the Kosovo Temporary Executive Council, because of an article published on June 14 in which Rada Trajkovic, member of the Serb National Council of Kosovo was quoted as saying that "people know who betrayed Kosovo and fled to deep shade of their Kopaonik apartment". Glas javnosti lawyer Aleksandar Petrovic said at the trial that Zoran Andjelkovic had not been mentioned in the disputed article and that the statement had been published as a reaction to Andjelkovic's claim, quoted in the same text, that Rada Trajkovic "was looking for an excuse for her betrayals and crimes against her own people".

GLAS JAVNOSTI PARENT COMPANY EVICTED

BELGRADE, June 21 2000 - ABC Produkt, the parent company of Belgrade daily Glas javnosti was given eight days to move out of its premises by the Higher Commercial Court in Belgrade today. Company director and editor-in-chief of Glas javnosti, Slavoljub Kacarevic, told Beta that the court had dismissed an appeal against the eviction order issued by a lower court on demand of the official receiver of the company's bankrupt printing subsidiary, ABC Grafika.

ABC Grafika was forced into bankruptcy by the Belgrade Commercial Court early this year after drastic fines were imposed on the company under the Public Information Act for printing the protest bulletin Promene. Today's decision effectively wipes out any property rights acquired by ABC Produkt over ten years of investment in the privatisation of the former publicly-owned printing firm.

The Vlajkoviceva Street premises in central Belgrade also houses the print firm which produces daily Blic, the weeklies NIN and Vreme, the Serbian Orthodox Church bulletin Pravoslavlje and the periodicals Srpska rec and Knjizevne novine.

Kacarevic commented that it now appeared that someone would acquire the building in Vlajkoviceva Street free of charge.

Belgrade Commercial Court bailiffs today handed over storage premises belonging to ABC Produkt in central Belgrade to the director of the public company Udarnik. ABC Produkt issued a statement this afternoon saying that about noon, the bailiffs gained entry to the premises by breaking two doors. The entire premises of 1,700 square metres was handed over to the unnamed director of Udarnik, said the statement, despite the fact that under the lease contract Udarnik held only one office of 26.5 square metres. ABC Produkt also reported that bailiffs acting on the same orders and in the same way, assisted by police, had in addition confiscated from the company a "service and storage facility of more than 3,000 square metres in Visnjicka Street".

In a statement to Radio B2-92, Slavoljub Kacarevic said he expected something of the sort, because he had been warned of it on several occasions, both as an offer and as a threat.

INDEPENDENT MEDIA FINES REACH TOTAL OF THIRTY MILLION DINARS

BELGRADE, June 21 2000 ­ The editor of the Dossier on Repression of the Independent Association of Serbian Journalists, Djura Vojnovic, said yesterday that "strong repression against media in May has grown into open dictatorship" and that the "verbal violence of the regime against media, Otpor and opposition was red-hot and aimed at crushing freedom of expression". At the launch of the third edition of the Dossier in the Belgrade Media Centre, Vojnovic emphasised that the first two volumes were published bimonthly and that events had "forced the Association to switch to monthly publishing of the Dossier". Member of the Executive Board Natasa Bogovic noted that about 40 journalists were arrested in May. She added that "many of them, out of fear, did not want their names to appear in Dossier". "Procedures against three journalists, Dusica Radulovic from Bor, Dejan Radulovic from Majdanpek and Miroslav Filipovic from Kraljevo are in progress, the theft of films and tapes is not!

recorded any more, and a camera has been snatched recently from TV Mreza" said Bogovic. During May Studio B was taken over, a police raid was carried out on the premises of Radio B2-92 and ANEM in the Beogradjanka building, Radio Pancevo was denied one frequency, the work of dailies Blic, Danas and Glas Javnosti was disrupted, and six fines were imposed under the Public Information Act, to a total amount of about three million dinars. "May was marked by police boots," representatives of the Association said today presenting the Dossier. Speaking about the future actions of the Association, they said they were preparing a new Proposal on the Information Act, as well as labelling people who persecuted the opponents and served various political interests. The Association would also next week initiate the signing of a convention which would oblige parties of the democratic opposition to respect the principles of the journalist profession ­ from excluding political and all other p!

ressures on media, to abolition of the Public Information Act and support for demands for responsibility of the journalists who violate professional standards and moral principles.

BATIC AND DJINDJIC SUE POLITIKA

BELGRADE, June 21, 2000 ­ The president of the Democratic Christian Party of Serbia, Vladan Batic, and the president of the Democratic Party, Zoran Djindjic, have filed a complaint with the city magistrate under the Public Information Act. The complaint alleges that Belgrade daily Politika and its director, Hadzi Dragan Antic had published insinuations, insults and libels against them on June 9. The contentious article, under the headline "Staged wounding of Vuk Draskovic", says in part "It is completely clear that Djindjic, Batic and Otpor are not only good at threats but also at deeds, as well as that the executioner himself, Vukasin Maras, the Montenegrin police minister, has involved himself in the whole matter."

SERB NATIONAL COUNCIL ON THE LOOTING OF RADIO 106

GRACANICA, June 21 2000 - The Serb National Council in Kosovo today accused supporters of the Belgrade regime of the Radio 106 break-in. A statement from the Council alleged that the station, along with members of the Council had been subject to pressure from members of the Socialist Party of Serbia for some time, adding that as recently as this week, Socialists had threatened the company which was rebuilding the Cultural Centre building in Caglavica.

"Although the investigation has yet to reveal who broke into Radio 106, it is almost certain that they were Serb, because KFOR controls the entrance to the village and Albanians are unable to enter without a KFOR permit," said the Council in a statement. The Serbs also described the burglary as the latest in a series of attempts by regime representatives to prevent objective information reaching the Serbian population by closing down independent media in line with similar moves in other Serbian towns which were already in complete media blackout.

JOURNALIST IN CRITICAL CONDITION AFTER SHOOTING

PRISTINA, June 22 2000 - Journalist Valentina Cukic from Pristina's multi-ethnic Radio Kontakt is in critical condition after being shot in the chest last night outside the Radio Television Kosovo building in central Pristina. Her companion, Ljuba Topalovic was wounded in the leg and is in a stable condition.

Radio Kontakt said today that the attack on Cukic was a shot at the freedom of journalism, adding that the attack had come because Cukic was visibly wearing a KFOR press card. The station had previously sought protection from UN police, KFOR and the OSCE because of the pressures on the station which promoted a multiethnic community, broadcasting in Serbian, Bosniak, Turkish and Romany. "We expect our colleagues from the Albanian media to join us in strongly condemning this act," said the station in a statement today. Radio Kontakt will broadcast only music and service information until further notice in protest over the shooting.

DIENSTBIR IN BELGRADE

BELGRADE, June 22, 2000 ­ The UN special rapporteur for human rights, Jiri Dienstbir, on Wednesday visited the Independent Association of Serbian Journalists where he was briefed on increased repression of media ­ arrests, close-downs, takeovers and difficulties in newsprint supply. Dienstbir supported the Association’s initiative that he mediate in meetings with the state-aligned Association of Serbian Journalists which would contribute to the lessening of tensions and the advancement of joint professional work, said a statement from the Association. Dienstbir said that from conversations with representatives of the independent media he had drawn the conclusion that they were prepared for dialogue and were refusing violence, although they were often victims of it.

MINISTRY INVITES FREQUENCY LICENCE APPLICATIONS

BELGRADE, June 22, 2000 ­ The Federal Ministry of Telecommunications yesterday issued a public invitation to broadcasters whose frequency licences had expired to submit a request and adequate documentation to the ministry within fifteen days. State media last night reported that the licences of a large number of radio and television stations had expired in the first half of this month and that the majority of these had not yet submitted applications for extension to the ministry.

KOUCHNER PROCLAIMS MEDIA REGULATIONS

PRISTINA, June 22, 2000 ­ The United Nations administrator in Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, has signed two key regulations for Kosovo media, on frequency use for radio and television stations and on rules of behaviour for print media, the OSCE reported yesterday in Pristina. The long-awaited regulation on frequencies defines criteria for the issue of broadcasting licences to electronic media as well as rules of behaviour agreed to by media in applying, said the OSCE statement. The regulation on rules of behaviour for print media, said the OSCE, was necessary because of the particular circumstances in Kosovo and would be a temporary measure adopted because of irresponsible reports which had endangered lives. Both new regulations forbid the publication of information which could put lives in danger.

WE EXPECTED TO BE FINED: KACAREVIC

BELGRADE, June 22, 2000 ­ "It seems that somebody is keen to close the company down," Glas javnosti director told Radio B2-92 today. "I must admit we expected this. I don’t know whether the paper will be closed down but we have never had greater problems and it’s quite possible that Glas will stop appearing on the news stands within a few days. What is certain is that by destroying our print house, several other well-known and influential papers will be stopped from publishing, including Blic, NIN, Vreme and Knjizevne novine," said Kacarevic.

Kacarevic and Glas javnosti were yesterday fined 280,000 dinars under the Public Information Act on charges brought by the president of the Kosovo Temporary Executive Council, Zoran Andjeljkovic. City Magistrate Zorica Prokic fined the paper 200,000 dinars and Kacarevic 80,000 dinars for an article published on June 14 under the title "Serbs don’t believe Americans" in which Rada Trajkovic was quotes as saying "People know who betrayed Kosovo and then fled to the deep shade of their Kopaonik apartments".

GLAS JAVNOSTI TO SELL SHARES

BELGRADE, June 22, 2000 ­ Belgrade daily Glas javnosti announced today in a published advertisement that it would sell up to 49 per cent of equity in the company to improve its financial position and extend its business activities with new publishing projects. The smallest parcel which can be bought is one per cent.

ANTI-TERRORISM LEGISLATION SHOULD BE RUSHED THROUGH: MINISTER

BELGRADE, 22.6.2000. - BELGRADE, Serbia's new anti-terrorism legislation should be fast-tracked in order to prevent "the activities of certain organisations, intelligence agencies and subversive elements" which were "trying to undermine the Yugoslav state and system," Federal Information Minister Goran Matic said today.

"We know that CIA instructors are working not only with NIN, Vreme and Blic News, but with other media in the country too," said Matic. As a proof of this, Matic claimed that the last page of the weekly NIN had published "a large advertisement for the US agency CIA".

CHARGES AGAINST BLIC DISMISSED

BELGRADE, June 22, 2000 -- Belgrade magistrate Kornelija Tatalovic has dismissed charges against Belgrade daily Blic for alleged breaches of the Public Information Act. Tatalovic ruled that there was no evidence to support charges laid by the director of the Savski Venac kindergarten, Brankica Djurisic, of damage to her reputation. Blic director Miodrag Djuricic told Beta that the magistrate had "respected material evidence" and remarked that the "legal state had begun to work".

Djurisic’s charges related to an article published on April 25 under the title "Workers protect the director". That text quoted a statement from the president of the Kindergarten Unions Ljiljana Kikovic that Djurisic "had incurred business losses".

Of particular interest in this case is that the charges brought by Djurisic and a second complaint against Blic by lawyer Milenko Dragojlovic and his son Dejan, according to the claim of Veselin Simonovic, had been filed in April and May respectively but until now no action had been taken on them. Under the Public Information Act, the court is required to schedule proceedings within 24 hours of charges being laid. "The regime uses a combination of pressures: sometimes they do it through the courts, sometimes through print firms and sometimes by manipulating the supply of newsprint. We are now used to that," said Simonovic. Asked whether Blic would survive, he replied "It certainly will, despite everything".

JOURNALIST AND CAMERAMAN ARRESTED IN KRAGUJEVAC

KRAGUJEVAC, June 23, 2000 ­ Blic correspondent Nebojsa Radisic and TV Kragujevac cameraman Milan Jeftovic were arrested in Kragujevac yesterday afternoon along with about twenty Otpor activists and Sumadija Coalition president Branislav Kovacevic as they prepared to cover an Otpor protest "A Nice Day for Terrorism". The planned protest was to include a football match between Otpor and opposition parties. Four minors were among the Otpor members arrested. They were released in small groups from the police station, the last at about 6.30 p.m.

JOURNALIST ACTING IN CIA INSTRUCTIONS: INFORMATION MINISTER

BELGRADE, June 23, 2000 ­ In an interview for Yu Info Television, published also by daily Politika, Yugoslav Information Minister Goran Matic alleged that journalist Ljiljana Smajlovic had been instructed by the CIA to damage his credibility. Smajlovic, in the last issue of weekly news magazine NIN had written under the title "The Way the CIA Kills" that Matic had scored a number of self-goals during the bombing of Yugoslavia. "In an attack of dedication during the bombing, Goran Matic told a press conference that the Albanian refugees in Macedonia and Albania were extras performing for small payments as if they had been evicted from their homes. In the eyes of the world bombarded by images of suffering refugees, Yugoslavs suddenly appeared cynical. This kind of self-goal must not be repeated," wrote Smajlovic in the article.

In last night’s attack on Smajlovic, Matic alleged that the CIA had ordered her to attack him because he had told the public that the US agency had been involved in the murder of Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic’s security advisor, Goran Zugic.

Ina statement for Radio B2-92, Smajlovic said that she would file criminal charges against Matic over the allegations. "I feel a lot less safe today than I did yesterday and I take this kind of accusation very seriously," she said. "I am appalled by this morning’s article in Politika and very scared by it, perhaps because I worked on Evropljanin with Slavko Curuvija and I remember a similar denunciation of him, and we all know what happened to him. In my opinion my article was very professional, fully argued. I think that nothing I said about Goran Matic, or the way I quoted him, was untrue in any sense. I think this fits into a campaign of attacks on media".

DIENSTBIR WARNS OF CRUSHING OF INDEPENDENT MEDIA

BELGRADE, June 23, 2000 ­ The UN’s special rapporteur for human rights in the former Yugoslavia, Jiri Dienstbir, said today that the main reason for his last visit to Yugoslavia was not the situation in Kosovo but the persecution of and violence against independent media in Serbia proper. In an interview for Czech radio, Dienstbir said that during his visit he had met the persecuted representatives of the media and the opposition as well as regime officials who were responsible for that policy. He said he had warned the latter that pushing the opposition and free media into an underground, turning freedom of expression into a crime and liquidating press freedom was inadmissible.

"I emphasized to the Belgrade authorities that the Otpor students and free media and opposition politicians refused to use violence and didn’t want Yugoslavia’s political conflicts to turn into a tragic Romanian scenario," said Dienstbir, adding that police in Serbia were brutally arresting and beating people and that people had been imprisoned over a book of aphorisms. "That must stop," said the UN envoy, who also called on the international community to give assistance to the persecuted media and opposition. Dienstbir also reiterated his appeal to the international community to end Serbia’s isolation by abolishing sanctions and opening the country.

SHOT JOURNALIST RECOVERING

PRISTINA, June 23, 2000 ­ Journalist Valentina Cukic is recovering in a British field hospital from the serious injuries she sustained in a gun attack in central Pristina yesterday, Radio Kontakt reported today. A statement from the station’s staff described them as being unanimous in the opinion that the shooting was an attack on the multiethnic radio station and announced that until they received guarantees of safety for Serbian and Bosniak journalists, the station would broadcast only music and rebroadcast foreign news programs. The statement sternly criticized international organizations and their representatives on Kosovo, saying that on Wednesday, the day after Cukic was wounded, Hague Tribunal Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte and UN Administrator Bernard Kouchner had brought flowers to the site of the shooting and sent messages of reconciliation. "The flowers should have been taken to Valentina Cukic in hospital," said the staff, adding that the wounded journalists had not been visited by any UNMIK or OSCE officials, nor had her attacker been arrested. "There is an impression that by this act Bernard Kouchner wanted to reconcile victim and executioner, but at the time the victim was fighting for her life and the executioner walking the streets of Pristina beyond the reach of the law," said the Radio Kontakt staff statement.

Radio Kontakt asked Albanian journalists from other media not to play the case down but to inform the public accurately and to condemn the shooting. The station also asked international organizations to begin a campaign to create a safe environment for the work of all journalists in Kosovo.

In a statement to Radio B2-92, OSCE representative Clare Trevena said that the organization condemned the attack on journalists from the only station in Pristina broadcasting in Serbian. Asked what the OSCE could do to protect journalists, she replied "The OSCE cannot offer individual protection 24 hours a day, that is the job of UNMIK police and KFOR. What we can do is to gather information from journalists about attacks and intimidation in order to have a larger picture of the problem and at the moment we are working on such a program. We can’t do much to prevent individual incidents. If journalists want we can, together with them, address KFOR, which can offer them assistance, protection and advice."

BANKRUPTCY PROCEEDINGS AGAINST GLAS JAVNOSTI

BELGRADE, June 23, 2000 ­ The Commercial Court in Belgrade has ruled on the launch of bankruptcy proceedings against ABC Produkt, the parent company of Belgrade daily Glas javnosti, company director Slavoljub Kacarevic told Radio B2-92 today. Kacarevic said that the hearing was set down for June 27 and that the company’s lawyers would in the meantime attempt to obtain documents which would serve as evidence that there were no grounds for bankruptcy, despite the fact that the company had been under a financial blockade for the past sixty days. He added that, regardless of the evidence, Glas javnosti expected the court to appoint a receiver.

PROTEST AGAINST BORSKE NOVINE DIRECTOR JAILING

BELGRADE, June 23, 2000 ­ The committee for imprisoned writers of the international PEN writers’ association on Thursday expressed concern over the three-month prison sentence imposed on Borske novine director Dusica Radulovic. Zajecar District Court on June 3 confirmed the three-month sentence after Radulovic was convicted of offending municipal officials in articles published in 1997 and 1998. "International PEN is disturbed by the verdict which it considers a direct attack on independent media in Serbia and appeals that Radulovic not be imprisoned," said the statement.

TANJUG EDITOR FINED

BELGRADE, June 23, 2000 ­ The Belgrade City Magistrate today fined state news agency Tanjug and director Dusan Djordjevic 60,000 dinars for the violation of personal rights. The charges were brought by opposition leaders Vladan Batic and Zoran Djindjic.

The city magistrate however dismissed charges against Tanjug and Djordjevic under the Public Information Act relating to a call for violent overthrow of the constitutional order and violation of the guaranteed rights of citizens, saying that there were no grounds for determining responsibility for misdemeanours.

The proceedings against Tanjug for violation of individual rights was dismissed on the grounds that state bodies could not be responsible for the offence.

Batic and Djindjic had filed a complaint over an article "Treason for Money" published in Vecernje novosti on June 9 and another article "Batic and Djindjic prepare an Otpor Markale" published in Politika on the same day. Both dailies quoted Tanjug as the source.

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