ANEM WEEKLY REPORT ON MEDIA REPRESSION IN YUGOSLAVIA

Aug. 5th to Aug. 11th

ARSONIST IDENTIFIED BUT NOT ASSOCIATES

JAGODINA, August 5, 2000 - The publisher of Jagodina weekly Stampa, Goran Milanovic, said today that police had identified the person who set fire to his house on Wednesday night but gave no other details except that the man had worn a camouflage uniform. Milanovic, who is also the editor of Stampa, told media that the police had declined to reveal the identity of the man until they had discovered who had ordered the arson. "They told me that a man in a camouflage uniform had done it and that they had found him with a shirt smelling of petrol," said Milanovic, adding that the police would send evidence to Belgrade for analysis. Milanovic also said that he believed the fire had been politically motivated.

BOMB EXPLODES UNDER JOURNALIST'S CAR

NIKSIC, August 5 2000 - A bomb exploded on Thursday night under a car belonging to journalist Bora Odalovic in the northern Montenegrin city of Niksic. The unoccupied car was parked outside Odalovic's residence. Niksic police said today that the detonation was probably a mistake and that they believed that the journalist was not the intended victim.

RADIO INDEKS DIRECTOR DIES

BELGRADE, August 6, 2000 - The executive director or Belgrade's Radio Indeks, Slobodan Cekiic, has died in a jet-ski accident of the coast of Montenegro, Beta reports. Indeks deputy director Aleksandar Vasic said that only basic information about the accident, which occurred near Herceg Novi, had so far been given by police. Slobodan Cekic's brother Nenad is the station's editor-in-chief. Radio Indeks has made a formal demand for Montenegrin police to investigate the accident thoroughly and urgently.

MEDIA ELECTION AGREEMENT NOT APPLICABLE IN MONTENEGRO

PODGORICA, August 6, 2000 -- The agreement on party political presentations during the election campaign was not binding on Montenegrin media which were operated by the Montenegrin Parliament, the government of the republic has announced. Montenegro's Information Ministry in a statement on Friday said that the state bodies of Montenegro did not recognise decisions of the illegitimate Federal Parliament.

Representatives of political organisations and parties intending to take part in the September 24 elections signed the agreement for political presentations on state media last week.

The Montenegrin government statement described the attempt to impose the agreement on Montenegro as yet another in a series of political, legal and media attacks on the republic.

AUTHORITIES BUYING TIME: ASANIN

PODGORICA, August 6, 2000 - The Montenegrin authorities were buying time by refusing to acknowledge the agreement on election political presentation for federal candidates, the editor of Podgorica daily Dan, Vladislav Asanin, said today. Asanin accused the Montenegrin Information Ministry of being unwilling to take responsibility and waiting for someone else to do so. "If they really wanted democracy they would have to allow Montenegrin state media to cover the federal elections," he added.

SOUTH-EAST EUROPE MEDIA ORGANISATION ESTABLISHED

VIENNA, August 7, 2000 - The Vienna-based International Press Institute, an organisation dedicated to defending and furthering freedom of the media and the raising of standards of journalism, has announced the founding of the South-East Europe Media Organisation, a non-government, non-profit organisation of editors and journalists from newspapers and magazines, radio and television stations and news agencies from Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Greece, Croatia, Yugoslavia, Macedonia and Rumania. The organisation will aim to resist repression of the media freedom and improve the overall status of media in the Balkans and the countries of South-east Europe. Under a Media Law program, the organisation will form a committee of legal experts from the region who would analyse existing media legislation and propose changes and amendments. The founding conference of the organisation will be held in Vienna on November 17.

NEWSPAPER PROPRIETOR CHARGED FOR MARCHING WITH OTPOR

NOVI SAD, August 7, 2000 - Police in Novi Sad have charged director Zoran Gvero and editor-in-chief Zeljko Bodrozic of Kikinda newspaper Kikindske novine with the misdemeanour of appearing at a public assembly of an unregistered organisation, the Independent Association of Vojvodina Journalists announced yesterday. The Association circulated to media a copy of the misdemeanour charges filed by police. The charges claim that Gvero and Bodrozic on May 23 "carried out the activities of unregistered civil conspirators by publicly appearing at a protest rally at about 8.00 p.m. in Novi Sad and carrying flags of the student movement Otpor".

INDEPENDENT STUDIO B RESUMES BROADCASTS

BELGRADE, August 7, 2000 - Television Studio B will begin news broadcasts on the OBN television network from Bosnia-Herzegovina, the station's director, Dragan Kojadinovic, has told FoNet agency. Kojadinovic said that news programs will be broadcast between 9.30 a.m. and 8.00 p.m. on EUTELSAT W2 satellite with the possibility of rebroadcasts by local stations which have time in their program schedules. The programs will be made by staff expelled from Studio B in the police-backed government takeover of the Belgrade City broadcaster on May 17. Kojadinovic added that Studio B would continue the professional work by which it had won the trust of its audience and would present the news which nobody else was publishing.

REGIME DAILY DELIVERED FREE TO HOSPITAL PATIENTS

PANCEVO, August 8, 2000 - The state-run daily Politika has been delivered to Serbian hospitals free of charge since mid-July, Glas javnosti reports today. The paper quotes sources within the health system in Pancevo as saying that under a contract between Politika and the Serbian Public Health Institute, every fifth patient in hospitals receives a free copy of Politika. In this way, says Glas, the Health Institute is helping boost the paper's circulation.

FARMER IN COURT FOR SWEARING AT SOCIALIST

VARVARIN, August 9 2000 -- A farmer from the village of Bacina, Vlastimir Velickovic, was to appear in court yesterday charged with swearing at a member of the Socialist Party of Serbia, Dragoslav Jeremic. The Human rights Committee of Krusevac announced yesterday that Velickovic had already spent twelve days in custody awaiting trial.

STATE TELEVISION SELLS ELECTION CAMPAIGN TIME AT 60 DM PER SECOND

BELGRADE, August 9 2000 -- Serbian state television will charge sixty Deutschmarks for each second of election campaign commercials, the Democratic Party announced yesterday. The party was told by Radio Television Serbia's advertising department that commercials must comply with the Public Information Act. A statement issued by the Democratic Party accuses the regime of planning to use its notorious information legislation to punish parties which produced advertisements criticising the authorities.

SESELJ SUES DANAS

BELGRADE, August 9, 2000 -- Serbian Radical Party president Vojislav Seselj has filed charges under the Public Information Act against the directors of Belgrade daily Danas and the Dan Graf company. The charges relate to the paper publishing a claim by the Democratic Alternative that Seselj had promised his coalition partners he would not run against Slobodan Milosevic at presidential elections and that he had paid two million Deutschmarks to a private printing company for eight million posters. In his charges Seselj claimed these claims were damaging his personal rights. The charges are due to be heard by the city magistrate in Belgrade at noon today. Danas has to date been fined 2.2 million dinars under the Public Information Act.

FILIPOVIC TRANSFERRED TO BELGRADE MILITARY HOSPITAL

NIS, August 9, 2000 - Jailed journalist Miroslav Filipovic was transferred yesterday from a Nis prison to the Belgrade Military Hospital. His wife, Slavica, told media that Filipovic had lost weight and was suffering from heart problems. Filipovic was suffering from arrhythmia but was feeling well, his lawyer, Zoran Ateljevic, said today after visiting his client. Ateljevic also said that Filipovic had not complained about his treatment in prison. Filipovic was sentenced two weeks ago to seven years' imprisonment on charges of espionage and disseminating false information after a trial which provoked world-wide protest.

FINANCIAL INSPECTORS RAID NGO

BELGRADE, August 9, 2000 - Financial inspectors yesterday burst into the Belgrade Centre for Cultural Decontamination, removing the majority of equipment, including computers and disks and videos. They also photocopied an office address book. Most senior staff were on vacation and the one employee on duty described the inspectors as very unpleasant, saying they had questioned him about the staff scale of salaries.

SERBIAN MINISTRY INSPECTORS IN STV NEGOTIN

NEGOTIN, August 9, 2000 - Inspectors from the Serbian Ministry of Transport and Communications on August 4 investigated the business dealings of ANEM member STV Negotin. After the investigation, the inspector reported on the legal status of STV Negotin, confirming that the station was still in the process of obtaining a permit from the Federal Ministry of Telecommunications and that it was regularly paying the fee for the frequency it used. This was the first case of this kind of inspection being carried out by Serbian state bodies. The station was not issued with a banning order, which is usual in the case of inspections by the Federal Ministry.

DANAS FINED 340,000 DINARS UNDER PUBLIC INFORMATION ACT

BELGRADE, August 10, 2000 - Belgrade daily Danas was fined a total of 340,000 dinars under the Public Information Act in a Belgrade Court today. The newspaper's parent company, Dan Graf, was fined 200,000 and the publisher and editor-in-chief 70,000 dinars each. The convictions and sentences were imposed by Judge Zlatko Jovanovic on charges laid by Deputy Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Seselj. They related to the publication of an allegation by the Democratic Alternative that the Radical Party leader had paid two million dollars for the printing of eight million posters.

Danas Editor-in-Chief Grujica Spasojevic told Radio B2-92 that the conviction was proof that Serbia was a country of wonders, because one person could be freed and another punished under the same law. In April this year, he said, charges against Blic had been dismissed because it had been demonstrated that the paper had accurately reported an item from the Beta news agency, while Danas had now been convicted for accurately reported a news item from FoNet.

"Things are getting worse as the election date approaches and the question now is whether we will live to see the elections," said Spasojevic.

CAMPAIGN AGAINST FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: DIENSTBIR

BELGRADE, August 10, 2000 - The United Nation's special rapporteur for human rights, Jiri Dienstbir, said yesterday that the police campaign against the freedom of expression in Serbia was being broadened. "In addition to Danas being fined for the seventh time under the Public Information Act, the police have closed Belgrade's Centre for Cultural Decontamination," said Dienstbir in a written statement. "Serbia has also struck at art," said Dienstbir, saying that, by closing the Centre, the police had at the same time closed down an exhibition from Ukraine, confiscating works of art. "On the justification of the need for financial audit, police confiscated photographs of art works, videotapes and two computers used by artists," said Dienstbir, adding that this was only the most recent attack on artists in Yugoslavia and that satirist Boban Miletic had already been sentenced to prison over a book published in 1997. Dienstbir condemned the state interventions, adding that he !

also condemned all attacks on the freedom of expression. "What is happening is particularly regrettable because it is happening in a country which, like the capital itself, used to be known for its writers and artists, fruitful media and theatres, films and festivals," said Dienstbir.

REPORTERS SANS FRONTIERES WRITE TO MILOSEVIC

PARIS, August 10, 2000 - The international organisation for the protection of journalists, Reporters sand Frontieres, has written to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic expressing grave concern over the deterioration of the health of jailed journalist Miroslav Filipovic. "We ask you to take the necessary measures for the journalist to get all the medical attention he needs and that his stay in hospital be extended until he is fully recovered," says the letter to Milosevic, as reported by Beta. The organisation also demanded the urgent release of the journalist and the withdrawal of all charges against him.

OSCE DECISION ON MONITORS DEPENDS ON MEDIA SITUATION

VIENNA, August 10, 2000 - The media situation in Yugoslavia will be one of the factors in the OSCE decision on whether to send an election monitoring mission for the September elections. The head of the OSCE's elections division, Hrair Ballian, told Beta agency today that the organisation was examining the situation with Yugoslav authorities at the moment and that he expected Belgrade to give an accurate presentation of the state of media in the country. Ballian also emphasised the significance of the number of observers to be sent, the countries they would come from and the conditions under which they would work.

KIKINDSKE NOVINE CHIEFS IN COURT

KIKINDA, August 11, 2000 - The editor-in-chief of Kikindske novine, Zeljko Bodrozic, and the paper's editor, Jovan Gvero, during interrogation before magistrate Nada Pandurov yesterday denied police claims that they had spoken at a protest rally in Novi Sad on May 23 in the name of Otpor. Bodrozic said that he and Gvero had spoken at a protest rally against regime repression of the media and people of Serbia and fines imposed on Kikindske novine under the Public Information Act. Before the hearing, Otpor activists in Kikinda handed a letter to the magistrate asking her to convict them at the same time as she convicted Bodrozic and Gvero.

HUNGARIAN REBROADCASTING OF RADIO B2-92 "POLITICAL"

BUDAPEST, BELGRADE, August 11, 2000 - The rebroadcasting of Radio B2-92 by Radio Tilos in Hungary had begun without consultation with the Serbian community in Hungary, the president of the Organisation for Serbian Autonomy in Hungary, Pera Lastic, said today. Lastic, speaking to Beta, said that he had described the daily news program on Tilos as a token, adding that after the current contract expired on August 31, Hungarian state radio would take over the Radio B2-92 program.

Lastic described the broadcasting of an independent radio program from Yugoslavia in Hungary as a political matter, saying that his organisation had expected at least to have been consulted over the issue.

Under the Hungarian Minorities Act, said Lastic, the country is officially involved in providing broadcasts from the mother countries of ethnic minorities, adding that the primary goal was the two countries should have positive relations.

In its response to this information, ANEM and Radio B2-92 said that they had had no negotiations for the rebroadcast of B2-92 by Hungarian state media and that ANEM and Radio B2-92 would do nothing to damage the good relations between the Serb community and the Hungarian authorities.

INTIMIDATION CAMPAIGN CONTINUES: JOURNALISTS' ASSOCIATION

BELGRADE, August 11, 2000 - The Independent Association of Serbian Journalist said yesterday that the campaign of intimidation and financial ruin of non-regime media was continuing with no let-up. "If magistrate Zlatko Jovanovic had been passing sentences in accordance with the rules of his profession and not political orders, he would not have convicted media which correctly reported a statement by an opposition politician," said the association in a statement. "If there were equal justice for everyone, a deputy prime minister who was pressing charges for damage to his reputation would not be able to describe the defendant as a liar and a criminal, now would TV Palma be given exclusive rights to cover the trial," the statement continued. The association added that "the black statistics of reprisals record that daily Danas has been fined seven times, which proves that the regime sees independent journalists as open enemies to be mercilessly persecuted".

CENTRE FOR CULTURAL DECONTAMINATION UNSEALED

BELGRADE, August 11, 2000 - The premises of Belgrade's Centre for Cultural Decontamination, sealed by financial inspectors on Wednesday afternoon were released on Thursday afternoon. The premises had been sealed by financial inspector Slavica Tomic, despite the fact that the centre was showing an exhibition of Ukrainian artists, Partial Eclipse, at the time. Staff at the centre told Beta that Tomic did not explain either the closing or the opening of the centre. Director Borka Pavicevic and other members of the centre's management were not present because they were on holiday. Over the past few months, financial inspectors have audited the work of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, the Humanitarian Law Centre and the Forum for Ethnic Relations, but this was the first occasion on which the offices of an NGO were sealed.

VLASTIMIR VELICKOVIC ACQUITTED

KRUSEVAC, August 11, 2000 - Krusevac Municipal Court investigating judge Ljubodrag Vukovic yesterday handed down a ruling terminating the investigation and remand in custody of Vlastimir Velickovic. Velickovic had been in custody since August 4, accused of having publicly ridiculed the Yugoslav president on the night of July 26. The District Prosecutor's office informed the court that it would not pursue the criminal prosecution.

MEDIA BLACKOUT IN SOUTHERN SERBIA

NIS, August 11, 2000 - The vice-president of the Democratic Party in Nis, Bosko Ristic, told a press conference yesterday that the oppression of independent media by the regime and pro-regime media was continuing. He gave as an example the turning of the signal amplifier of Nis Television Belami. This meant that the signal of the broadcaster in Pirot, Lebane and Bela Palanka, was completely drowned by the signal of TV Kosava, the private television station owned by Marija Milosevic, the daughter of the Yugoslav president. Ristic added that Bela Palanka, which had until recently had received only five copies a day of independent daily Glas javnosti, was now not receiving the paper at all.