ANEM'S WEEKLY REPORT ON MEDIA REPRESSION IN SERBIA

JULY 15 -- JULY 22, 2000

Markovic accuses Duve of media aggression

BELGRADE, July 15, 2000 - OSCE representative for media freedom Freimut Duve was involved in US media aggression against Yugoslavia, financed by the Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Telecommunications Minister Ivan Markovic said today. In a strongly worded response to a report recently submitted by Duve on increased state repression against non-government media, Markovic said that freedom did not need a representative and that the Yugoslav authorities would use all possible means to oppose the latest aggression. Markovic also reiterated his earlier allegations that the government of Montenegro and the Republic of Srpska were actively involved in US media aggression against Yugoslavia. The minister signed his reply, "Without respect, Ivan Markovic".

New strategies in store for media: Matic

NOVI SAD, July 15, 2000 - The government was preparing new strategies for settling the score with independent media in Serbia, including seizure of the ABC Produkt printer, probably accompanied by a new strike against the independent electronic media, the chairman of ANEM, Veran Matic, predicted yesterday.

Matic, speaking to Novi Sad Radio 021, said that the regime's attention was at present focused on independent newspapers. Some of these, he said, had been unable to obtain newsprint for some time and were now reduced to printing on paper of a quality no longer seen in newspapers even in the most remote areas of Russia.

"Recent moves by the regime show that repression of independent media will be stepped up as the regime tries to tighten the political space before this year's elections," said Matic.

OSCE warns Dita again

PRISTINA, July 15, 2000 - The OSCE mission in Kosovo yesterday repeated its call to daily Dita to respect the temporary decree on printed media. In a statement, the OSCE the paper had responded to a demand that it publish a response from a person it had identified and denounced on June 26 with a front page article accusing the temporary media commission of being "more interested in the freedom of alleged criminals than in the freedom of the press".

The OSCE statement also said that the organisation believed it was necessary to remind Dita and all Kosovo newspapers once again that the purpose of the recently published temporary decree on print media was to provide protection for all Kosovo citizens from trial by media, which had been obvious in recent articles published by Dita. The organisation also noted that all citizens had the right to have criminal allegations against them investigated by a proper legal body and the right not to have unconfirmed suspicions or published by the press, particularly not when full personal details were also published.

Families of bomb victims to sue European governments

LONDON, July 17, 2000 - The families of five victims of the NATO's bomb attack on Radio Television Serbia last year have laid charges against European governments in the European Court of Human Rights, the Sunday Times wrote yesterday. The Colchester law firm Fisher Jones and Greenwood which has been engaged in the case, said that both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch believed there was sufficient evidence to demonstrate that European governments had committed war crimes by bombing a non-military target.

Protest from human rights lawyers

BELGRADE, July 17, 2000 - The Yugoslav Committee of Human Rights Lawyers yesterday protested to the presidents, governments and parliaments of Yugoslavia and Serbia against recent decisions to prevent independent media from covering the work of state bodies. In a letter, the Committee demanded that this discrimination against journalists cease, describing it as contrary to the Yugoslav and Serbian Constitutions and the Public Information Act and alleging that such a violation of human rights constituted a criminal act.

Bomb victim families charge RTS directors

BELGRADE, July 18, 2000 - The families of Radio Television Serbia employees killed in last year's bomb attack on the state broadcaster are to file charges today against eight senior Radio Television executives including director Dragoljub Milanovic, editor-in-chief Milorad Komrakov and journalist Tatjana Lenard. The families of twelve of the victims allege in the charges that the state media officers are responsible for the deaths.

Press Club forum on government press bans

BELGRADE, July 18, 2000 - The Media Centre Press Club yesterday held a forum on the topic "Authorities versus the public". Speakers at the forum noted that the banning of certain journalists from reporting parliament sessions was unconstitutional and illegal. The forum decided that private media were able to boycott the work of certain parties, but that state media, whose work was financed from public funds were not and that the work of state bodies was public and should be accessible by all media.

Yugoslavia to defend media sovereignty: Markovic

BELGRADE, July 18, 2000 - Yugoslavia's neighbours were involved in media aggression against the country, Federal Telecommunications Minister Ivan Markovic, said yesterday. Markovic, speaking at a Yugoslav United Left meeting in Rakovica, said that the state authorities would defend Yugoslav media sovereignty by every available means.

Independent journalists need help: Yugoslav Left

BELGRADE, July 19 2000 -- The Yugoslav United Left yesterday organised a meeting of the League of Yugoslav Left Journalists, inviting journalists from independent media to attend. Journalists from non-government media were invited at the meeting to join the patriotic front and, in the words of Yugoslav left officials Ivan Markovic, Zivorad Djordjevic and Tatjana Lenard, to "cross over to the side of their own nation".

Markovic, who is also the Federal Minister for Telecommunications, addressed the League's members from throughout Serbia as well as independent journalists at the meeting, describing independent media as being "media of a dark regime in the service of a non-nation, a regime which wants to sidestep elections to replace the authorities elected by the people". He read a list of independent media invited to the meeting, saying that the Yugoslav Left would always invite journalists from these broadcasters and publishers in order to help them, because nobody was so bad that they were beyond help.

Media aggression against Yugoslavia was continuing, said Markovic, "with the use of technical resources from the new millennium supported by people from no millennium," adding that technical resources were easy to handle but that, "when it comes to people, people should be moral, because a moral man is a moral journalist".

The minister then turned his attention to foreign journalists, saying they should do their work professionally and write the truth. However, he added, Yugoslav journalists, in addition to professionalism, should exhibit their patriotic commitment and work on affirming the truth about their country.

The director of state daily Borba, senior Yugoslav Left official Zivorad Djordjevic told the meeting that the division into traitors and patriots was pursued by those on the side of the traitors because they were bothered by patriotism. He described the independent media as a restricting factor in the defence of the country because, he said, they worked on the spread of defeatism, untruths and lies.

MISDEMEANOUR COURT IN NIS PROCLAIMS ITSELF OUT OF JURISDICTION

NIS July 19 2000 - Nis City Magistrate Ivan Milanov today ruled himself incompetent to hear charges filed by Nis Mayor Zoran Zivkovic under the Public Information Act against daily Vecernje novosti. Milanov referred the case to a Belgrade magistrate.

Blic and Glas javnosti running out of paper

BELGRADE, July 20, 2000 - Belgrade's most popular non-government daily newspapers, Blic and Glas javnosti, have still not received supplies of paper from Matroz, Serbia's only newsprint manufacturer, and the Federal Ministry of Telecommunications was still refusing to grant them an import licence, Beta was told by both companies yesterday. Most independent print media, including Danas, Vreme and NIN have had problems with paper supplies for the past two week.

The director of Glas javnosti, Slavoljub Kacarevic, said today that the paper situation was becoming more and more serious and that Glas had received only thirty tons of paper from Matroz since the beginning of July. One issue of the paper requires ten tons of newsprint. "I don't want to predict the worst, but I don't know how we are going to last until the end of the week," said Kacarevic, adding that the daily was in a desperate situation.

The director of Blic, Miodrag Djuricic, also said that the paper supply had not improved but that Blic had managed to secure a small amount of paper from Matroz. He indicated that there were other avenues for the provision of paper, through Yugoslav citizens living abroad who were willing to obtain newsprint for the non-government media.

Matroz management was today unavailable for comment on the amount of paper produced by its factory.

Susa replies to Markovic

BELGRADE, July 20, 2000 - The president of the Independent Association of Serbian Journalists, Gordana Susa, today described as scandalous an invitation from the Federal Minister for Telecommunication and senior Yugoslav United Left official, Ivan Markovic, to independent media to "cross over to the side of their nation" and "join the patriotic front".

Susa told Beta yesterday that the invitation displayed the essential inability to differentiate between the mutually exclusive terms of professional and propaganda journalism. The Yugoslav Left, she said, was "the party which first claimed that the University must not be ideologised and immediately afterwards established the Committee of the University Left". Now, said Susa, the party was trying to do something similar in the field of journalism by calling on independent media to join the "journalists" of the Yugoslav Left. She added that it was understandable if someone wanted to work in propaganda journalism but that Markovic, as the federal minister for telecommunications, should be able to differentiate.

Radio Free Europe refused licence to operate in Belgrade

BELGRADE, July 21, 2000sday -- The Federal Ministry of Information has refused Radio Free Europe a registered office in Belgrade. In his justification of the decision, Federal Information Minister Goran Matic said that any activity of the broadcaster would be considered unlawful, and threatened that 'legal measures would be taken against those working illegally for Radio Free Europe.' He said that such an establishment in Belgrade would be merely an exponent of US official policy, and would have the sole purpose of promoting the US's colonial goals. In summary, said Matic, "this attitude of the US, expressed through constant efforts at endangering the territorial integrity and constitutional order of Yugoslavia, and violently overthrowing its elected authorities and establishing a puppet government, was the reason we considered that there were no grounds for granting a licence for US propaganda media such as Radio Free Europe."

Kragujevac television crew attacked

KRAGUJEVAC, Thursday - A group of unknown assailants attacked a five-member television crew from Radio Television Kragujevac on Sunday night, the broadcaster's director, Radisa Rankovic, said today. Rankovic told media that the incident took place at about 2.00 a.m. in the centre of the city when the journalists and camera crew encountered about ten young men who had been putting up Socialist party posters in the centre of the city. RTV Kragujevac acting editor-in-chief said that the attackers, armed with a baton, poles and brushes had tried to take the cameraman's tapes, on the assumption that he had been filming them. In the ensuing brawl, said Milosevic, the cameraman was struck and a woman journalist was slapped.

The incident ended with the arrival of a police patrol, at which point the assailants dispersed. The station has broadcast a recorded reconstruction of events. The same material has been show to representatives of media associations. ANEM representative Momcilo Djuric warned that the coming days could bring increased attacks on free media throughout Yugoslavia, especially local television stations.

Paper shortage: Glas javnosti cuts Sunday edition

BELGRADE, July 21 , 2000 - Belgrade independent daily Glas javnosti will not publish on Sunday because of a lack of newsprint, the paper's management announced today. "As we have already announced, the only domestic newsprint manufacturer has not delivered the quantities we require and the state has refused us a licence to import paper," said Glas javnosti this morning.

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