ANEM'S WEEKLY REPORT ON MEDIA REPRESSION IN SERBIA

JULY 1 -- JULY 7, 2000

STATE MEDIA EDITORS ON TRIAL IN NOVI PAZAR

NOVI PAZAR, July 1, 2000 ­ The Novi Pazar Municipal Court yesterday began hearing libel charges against Milorad Komrakov, Radio Television Serbia news editor and Zuhro Mumdzic, the editor of RTV Novi Pazar, which works as part of Radio Television Serbia. The charges were brought privately by the local leader of the Assembled People’s Party, Radenko Jokovic and party member Vukic Radenkovic.

Jokovic and Radenkovic allege that they were libelled by being described as chauvinists in the program "Party Chronicle" broadcast on Radio Novi Pazar on February 2, 1998. Jokovic was also described on the program as a mediocrity. Jokovic and Radenkovic dropped the charges against Komrakov, who failed to appear at the first hearing.

JOURNALISTS BARRED FROM FEDERAL PARLIAMENT

BELGRADE, July 1, 2000 ­ Journalists from Danas, Radio B2-92 and several other ANEM members were barred from entering the Federal Parliament building to cover yesterday’s sitting, despite having lodged applications for accreditation within the required deadline.

PROCEEDINGS AGAINST ABC ON JULY 4

BELGRADE, July 1, 2000 ­ Bankruptcy proceedings against ABC Produkt, the parent company of Belgrade daily Glas javnosti, will resume on July 4, instead of July 11 as previously announced, the company said today. Belgrade Commercial Court and the Higher Commercial Court have dismissed an application by ABC Produkt for the disqualification of the presidents of the Bankruptcy Council, the Commercial Court and the Higher Commercial Court. On Friday the Supreme Court of Serbia also dismissed the application. ABC Produkt reported that the notification from the Supreme Court did not give the date of the decision nor the date of the application being heard.

ABC PRODUKT PRESSES STILL UNDER GUARD

BELGRADE, July 3, 2000 ­ Belgrade daily Glas javnosti today published an inventory of property of ABC Produkt located in Vlajkoviceva Street, Belgrade, in the building from which the company has been evicted by court order. Despite a court order requiring ABC Produkt to move all personnel and property from the building, the company has not been permitted to dismantle printing presses and remove them from the building. According to the inventory published by Glas javnosti today, the value of the equipment in Vlajkoviceva Street, together with spare equipment in storage in Djure Djakovica Street is more than 4.5 million Deutschmarks.

The ruling on ABC Produkt’s eviction from Vlajkoviceva Street was made on the demand of the official receiver for ABC Grafika, ABC Produkt’s subsidiary printer. The 2,000 square metre storage facility in Djure Djakovica Street was handed over to the director of the Udarnik company. Both rulings were made by the Belgrade Commercial Court, which has launched bankruptcy proceedings against ABC Produkt.

FREQUENCY LICENCE APPLICATIONS RESUBMITTED

BELGRADE, July 4, 2000 ­ The majority of members of the Association of Independent Electronic Media have responded to the recent demand of the Federal Ministry of Telecommunications and resubmitted applications for frequency licences or applied for the extension of existing contracts, ANEM legal representative Branislav Zivkovic said today. The secretary-general of the Spektar Association for Development of Private Broadcasting, Slobodan Djoric, said that members of that association had been advised to submit applications for renewal of contracts with the ministry. He noted that the majority of the 72 members of Spektar had not received any response from the ministry in the past two years for applications filed for the public frequency competition in 1998. The majority of ANEM members have also not received any response to these applications, despite full documentation having been submitted. Zivkovic said that those ANEM members would now resubmit their applications with full documentation, including evidence of fees paid for the use of frequencies.

DEMAND FOR RETURN OF STUDIO B

BELGRADE, July 4, 2000 ­ The board of management of Studio B today demanded that the Serbian courts rule as soon as possible on charges laid by Studio B and the Belgrade City Assembly against the Serbian Government for interference with property on May 17, the date the government seized control of the municipal broadcaster. The board also reiterated its demand to the Serbian government to "return the station to its owner, the Belgrade City Assembly".

Today's board meeting, chaired by Aleksandar Cotric, agreed that "the current programming of the broadcaster falls below all professional and ethical standards and that, since the police occupation of the premises on May 17, the station had been turned into a production house for propaganda by the ruling parties, which are in a convincing minority in the Municipal Assembly".

JOURNALIST BARRED FROM LESKOVAC MUNICIPAL ASSEMBLY

LESKOVAC, July 4, 2000 ­ The Leskovac correspondent for Belgrade daily Blic and the Beta news agency, Milica Ivanovic was barred yesterday from entering the Leskovac Municipal Assembly. In response to a demand from the opposition League for Leskovac coalition that Ivanovic be permitted to attend the session, the secretary of the Assembly, Mile Stanisavljevic, said that correspondents from the independent media were banned from reporting the work of the Assembly. An Assembly security guard also said that local Danas correspondent Zoran Rakic was not permitted to attend the session. Rakic was also barred from the previous session of the Assembly.

At the meeting the Assembly adopted amendments to its standing rules which restricted the rights of journalists to report on its sessions. Under the new regulations, the municipal president is permitted to eject journalists and the Assembly may decide to restrict journalists in the execution of their rights as guaranteed by the standing rules. The Assembly also resolved that minutes of meetings and other documentation would no longer be available to journalists and that the Municipal Assembly would no longer publish a bulletin.

The Leskovac Municipal Assembly is dominated by government coalition parties the Socialist Party OF Serbia and the Yugoslav United Left, with opposition parties holding only seven out of the 69 seats.

NEW FINE FOR KIKINDSKE NOVINE

KIKINDA, July 5, 2000 ­ Independent Kikinda newspaper Kikindske novine was again fined under the Public Information Act yesterday. The conviction, and the 90,000 dinar fine, were the third on the same charges brought by local state media editor Rajko Popovic. To date the newspaper has been fined 1,280,000 dinars under the Public Information Act.

BANKRUPTCY HEARING IN ABC PRODUKT’S ABSENCE

BELGRADE, July 5, 2000 - A Belgrade court today heard bankruptcy proceedings against ABC Produkt, the parent company of Belgrade daily Glas javnosti, in the absence of the company's representatives. A representative of the local Public Funds Directorate, which filed for the bankruptcy, said that a decision was expected within the legal deadline.

ALBANIAN-LANGUAGE DAILY DEFIES KOUCHNER MEDIA ORDER

PRISTINA, July 5, 2000 - Pristina daily Dita last Friday published the names and photographs of fifteen Serbs it alleged had committed war crimes against Albanians. The paper was suspended for ten days in June by the UN mission in Kosovo after publishing similar material about a Serb UNMIK employee who was later found murdered.

The paper defied controversial new media regulations proclaimed by UNMIK head Bernard Kouchner and threats of new punishments from acting UNMIK media commissioner, Douglas Davidson. Dita published names, photographs, addresses and employment details of the fifteen Serbs on its front page, accusing them of committing crimes against Albanians during last year’s war.

The bankruptcy proceedings come after ABC Produkt's bank account has been frozen for two months, despite that company having repaid its debts in the meantime. The company has also been prevented from moving presses and other equipment out of the Belgrade premises from which it has been evicted until ownership is established by the court. The presses and other equipment are valued at 4.5 million Deutsche Marks.

INVESTIGATION OF FIRE AT NOVI SAD OPEN UNIVERSITY

NOVI SAD, July 5, 2000 ­ At the demand of the Municipal Prosecution Office in Novi Sad, investigating judge Jadranka Buljevic has launched an investigation of TV Duga Director Dusan Moraca, and cameraman Ivica Kljucar and Novi Sad Open University night watchman Andras Fajin, on suspicion of their having committed the criminal act of causing general danger.

The investigation of charges against the three results from investigations into the cause of a fire in the Open University building on April 6 which destroyed the top six floors of the thirteen-floor building in central Novi Sad. An employee of the TV Duga marketing department, Milica Prostran, died in the blaze. The Novi Sad office of Belgrade daily Danas was destroyed, along with Radio 021 and the correspondent offices of TV Montenegro, TV Melos, Radio Signal and the premises of several private companies. Novi Sad Open University lost valuable equipment in the Centre for Ongoing Education and its computing centre.

Judge Jadranka Buljevic told Danas that the Municipal Public Prosecution Office had not filed a demand for investigationof Open University Director Svetlana Beljanski, the university’s electrician, Milan Loncar, or the fire officer Goran Ugrenovic. All three were interviewed immediately following the fire.

APPEAL AGAINST PANCEVO TRANSMITTER RULING

BELGRADE, July 6, 2000 ­ Radio Television Pancevo yesterday lodged an appeal against the decision of Belgrade’s First Municipal Court dismissing a complaint against the Republic of Serbia for interference with property on Milica Hill, where the company’s radio transmission facility was located.

RTV Pancevo in its appeal argued that the appropriate ministry had presented no explanation for the ban on its transmissions either to the company or the court. "The judge claimed that she was not competent to determine the legality of such a decision but, as stated in the RTV Pancevo complaint, the issue was not that but the legal regulation saying that such a decision must be forwarded to the owner," said the company. The broadcaster demanded that the appeal court overturn or modify they ruling of the First Municipal Court "because of the incorrect determination of facts and violation of court procedural regulations, which imply the erroneous application of the law".

BANKRUPTCY THREATS TO ABC PRODUKT

BELGRADE, July 6, 2000 - ABC Produkt yesterday alleged that the Belgrade Commercial Court had scheduled hearings to discuss the company’s bankruptcy based on the justification that its bank account had been frozen. The company’s statement claimed that the financial blockade had been fabricated by decisions of the court with the obvious intention of causing the company to become bankrupt.

"The court register did not record that the bankruptcy had been launched against a company banned by temporary orders from transferring money over a certain amount from the account. This virtually meant that bankruptcy proceedings were launched against a company with capital of several hundred million dinars over a debt of about 100,000 dinars," said ABC Produkt in its statement.

JOURNALISTS PROTEST AGAINST NEWSPAPER FINE

BELGRADE, July 7, 2000 ­ The Independent Association of Serbian journalists yesterday reported that Kikinda newspaper Kikindske novine had been fined 1,280,000 dinars to date under the Public Information Act. The statement described the Act as farcical, saying that this was best demonstrated by the fact that "the already legendary Raja Popovic can bring an infinite number of charges for the same offence against the same media, which is tried by a politicised judiciary".

"This terrible figure shows that the unconstitutional act was devised not only to destroy freedom of information but also to plunder the property of independent media, which are not going to be free until the act is abolished," said the Association.

HELMANN-HAMMET COURAGEOUS JOURNALISM AWARDS

BELGRADE, July 7, 2000 ­ The editor of Banja Luka newspaper Nezavisne novine, Zeljko Kopanja, Kosovo journalist Hamida Berisha-Latifi and the founder of ProFemina magazine, academic and publicist Svetlana Slapsak are among this year’s winners of the Helmann-Hammett award. The awards are presented annually by the US non-government organisation Human Rights Watch for courage in the face of political persecution.