ANEM WEEKLY REPORT ON MEDIA REPRESSION IN SERBIA

DECEMBER 23 - DECEMBER 29, 2000

MEDIA SHOWS BAD FAITH, SAYS COMMITTEE

BELGRADE, December 23, 2000 - The media keeps "breaking the election blackout unscrupulously" and none of the media has accepted its suggestions, the Supervisory Committee for Elections declared today.

The Committee announced it would bring legal charges against weeklies Vreme and NIN and daily Glas Javnosti for publishing election result estimates during the media blackout.

The Committee chastised daily Danas for publishing an advertisement on the last page urging voters to "kill the pests on Saturday".

Television stations Studio B and state-run Radio Television Serbia were criticised for broadcasting footage of a recently opened Paris exhibition whose works display a negative attitude towards the Socialist Party of Serbia election candidates.  

Studio B was further admonished for broadcasting a DOS MP speaking and a politically biased image consisting of a torn photo of the Socialist Party of Serbia candidate and a Yugoslav Left leader.

Television station Pink was criticised for broadcasting an interview with Yugoslav Interior Minister's advisor.

YU Info television was castigated for not broadcasting the Committee statement in full. (Beta)

POLITIKA BOSS HAS NOT FLED, SAYS LAWYER

BELGRADE, December 23, 2000 - The former director of the Politika media corporation, Hadzi Dragan Antic had not fled the country and had no reason to do so, his lawyer, Dragoljub Todorovic, said this morning. Todorovic denied reports that Antic had left Yugoslavia on a one-way ticket to Havana.

"Antic is abroad for convalescence and will return in three weeks," said the lawyer.

Belgrade daily Vecernje novosti yesterday claimed that the former director of the Milosevic-friendly Politika had fled Yugoslavia on December 15 on an Aeroflot flight to Cuba via Moscow and did not hold a return ticket.

MEDIA BLACKOUT BREACH "LED TO UNFAIR ELECTIONS"

BELGRADE, December 25, 2000 - The Republican Election Commission will be asked to declare the results of yesterday's poll null and void on the grounds that violations of the media blackout gave the victors an unfair advantage.  

The move has been made by the Elections Surveillance Board, which represents the respective interests of the political parties. Its head Elena Bozic Talijan, who represents the Serbian Radical Party, said today: "The media competed to see who could violate the blackout the most. This means that the election procedure was highly irregular and the board will be applying to the commission to get the results annulled."   

She added that all the media "work for the Democratic Opposition of Serbia".

However, DOS representative Sasa Vukadinovic refused to back his colleagues' initiative - prompting Bozic Talijan to walk wordlessly out of the press conference.

He agreed that some media had broken the blackout, but through ignorance of the rules rather than bias towards any political party.

MEDIA LYCNH CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE YUGOSLAV LEFT: MATIC

BELGRADE, December 25, 2000 - Yugoslav Left high official Goran Matic said the results of the elections reflected the irregularity of the pre-election period. "An unscrupulous media lynch campaign has been conducted against the Yugoslav Left for the past two months," Matic told Radio B92. He added that the media had created a "police force" just before the elections, in order to create the impression that the Yugoslav Left was a criminal party.   

NEW OWNERS FOR TV KOSAVA

BELGRADE, December 26, 2000 - A private television station founded by Marija Milosevic, the daughter of the former Yugoslav president, has changed hands.

The new proprietors are Belgrade lawyer Borivoj Pajovic and Stjepan Egzet, Federal Telecommunications Minister Boris Tadic said today.

Kosava resumed broadcasting recently after vanishing from the air during the October 5 revolution.

Ministry inspectors have determined that the station is operating legally.

Pajovic is the chairman of the board of Blic Press which publishes Belgrade daily Blic.

ISAKAOV TO ABOLISH TAXES FOR STATE TV

BELGRADE, December 26, 2000 - Taxes connected with state television are set to be abolished, the future director general of Radio Television Serbia said today.

In an interview with Politika express, Mile Isakov said the tax that every household pays on electric meters for watching RTS plus every other kind of state tv taxes would be lifted. He also announced a massive shake-up of the company.  

"We shall have to find alternative financial sources, and what they will be depends on the state budget assets earmarked for television," said Isakov.

He added that he would propose not to privatise any of the three state-owned channels, but to change the system. He envisaged changing the First channel into the news channel, with the news every hour, the Second into a cultural and educational channel , and the Third into a commercial channel with entertainment and sport shows. This last would finance the entire company.   

Isakov said that once he becomes the director he would not be "loyal and obedient to the authorities". He said that "mechanisms for protecting all media, even the state-owned, from the authorities should be introduced." He added that according to current regulations, the state media were greatly dependent on the authrorities and would therefore need a lot of time to adapt. "Journalists too will need to abandon the habit of dependence they have acquired over the last decade or more," he said.    

Regarding the broadcasting of independently produced news on RTS, he said the Association of Independent Electronic Media and the production group "Mreza" were lending a helping hand.

SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE: MEDIA BLACKOUT BREACHES MADE ELECTIONS IRREGULAR  BELGRADE, December 27, 2000 - The supervisory committee for election monitoring agreed by a majority yesterday that it was not authorised to take the initiative to repeal the Serbian parliamentary elections.

A statement signed by the committee president and Serbian Radical Party representative Elena Bozic Talijan declared that the media had violated the law during the pre-electoral campaign, especially during the media blackout. The Committee remarked that "numerous and severe violations of the law made these elections irregular with respect to the media."   

It continued: "The Committee has been issuing statements continually, but the media either refused to publish them or shortened them, misinterpretated them or commented on them".

IMPOVERISHED POPULATION "FUND LUXURY STAY"

BELGRADE, December 28, 2000 - The Yugoslav tax-payer picked up a Montenegrin MP's hotel bill that was equal to ten times the average monthly salary, a Belgrade daily reports today.

Federal MP Predrag Bulatovic's 880 DM bill for his four-day stay in Belgrade's Hotel Intercontinental was published by Glas Javnosti today.

Asked to explain, the Socialist Party vice-president replied: "What do I know how much it costs!" He said that as an MP he was entitled to hotel accommodation, adding that he had paid for all the drinks out of his own pocket.  

"If you publish this I will pack immediately and leave for Podgorica, and never return to Belgrade," he declared.

Glas Javnosti pondered the question of whether it was really necessary in times of economic crisis for Yugoslavia's MPs to stay in the most expensive hotels.

MATIC ACCUSES CEKIC OF ANTI-DOS SMEAR CAMPAIGN

BELGRADE, December 28, 2000 - Radio Index's broadcasting of a supposed Democratic Opposition of Serbia financial report is an attempt by its director to smear the coalition's name, the chairman of the Association of Independent Electronic Media said today.  

Veran Matic said that the report was obviously forged. He accused Radio Index's director of following a dubious tradition by using information from sources such as head of the Belgrade Socialists Ivica Dacic, who in turn was quoting from the Serbian Renewal Movement's party newspaper Srpska rec.  

Stressing that Nenad Cekic's intention had been to discredit DOS and, in particular, its campaign manager Zoran Djindjic, Matic said that suspicions should have been aroused right from the start.

"Cekic also quoted Ivica Dacic quoting Srpska rec that ANEM got $11.2 million from the State Department," said Matic. He added that it was well known that the State Department does not give donations, leaving other organisations to deal with them.  

TV KOSAVA TO GET REVAMP

BELGRADE, December 28, 2000 - TV Kosava is to be relaunched under a new name with a varied programme, its new co-owner said today.

He declined to comment on whether the owner of Austrian company Mitsui - also the co-owner of Blic press and a minority shareholder of TV Pink - was behind the change. TV Kosava went off the air after the October 5 revolution, when a number of companies withdrew from the station, leaving former president's daughter Marija Milosevic as the sole owner.   

BELGRADE YOUTH COUNCIL RETURNS B92 EQUIPMENT.

BELGRADE, December 28, 2000 - The Belgrade Youth Council's new management has returned the Radio B92 equipment which the former Council president, Vladan Zagradjanin, took from the radio's offices to his study.  

Belgrade Youth Council is the organisation which took over Radio B92 during the NATO campaign in April 1999. It presented itself as the owner of the Public Broadcasting Company Radio B92 until 15 days after the revolution of October 5 when the Commercial Court Judge Milena Arezina's illegal decisions were overturned.  

Radio B92 welcomed the decision of the Council's new management.

VIPER PROBES INTO BK AND PINK

BEOGRAD, 29.12.2000. - A special organised crime-fighting unit code-named Viper is currently investigating the business dealings of the Karic Brothers and Radio Television Pink, B92 learnt today.

SERBIAN JOURNALISTS ASSOCIATION DEFIES COURT ORDER

BELGRADE, December 29, 2000 - Independent Journalists Association representatives accompanied by a bailiff failed to enter their offices in the Journalists' Centre in Belgrade today.

Although they now have permission to enter the offices, the locksmith could not break through the lock that the Serbian Journalists Association had put on the door.

The Independent Journalists Association contends that the Centre was built in part using funds levied from their members, yet the Serbian Journalists Association has unfairly denied them the right to enter their offices in the Centre and make use of the space since 1976.  

On December 21, the Fourth Belgrade Municipal Court ruled that the Independent Journalists Association had the right to enter the offices.

JOURNALISTS ASSOCIATION TERMINATES RADICALS BOYCOTT

BELGRADE, December 29, 2000 - The Independent Association of Serbian Journalists has decided to terminate the boycott of the Serbian Radical Party in the interests of their profession and respect of democracy, secretary Dragutin Rokvic explained in a statement to B92 today.  

Since the boycott came about in response to threats from the Radical leaders to independent media journalists, B92 asked Rokvic what has changed in the meantime.

"That was an agreement of the editors way before the election campaign. The basic motive was to prevent discrimination against the profession and threats to journalists. The editors, media representatives, and directors decided then to respect democracy and allow representatives of this party to be heard, despite their not having behaved like decent politicians," Rokvic said.   

The Association of Independent Electronic Media and B92 will resume the boycott.  

B92 WINS RATINGS BATTLE  BELGRADE, December 29, 2000 - Radio B92 has outstripped its rivals by a comfortable margin to become Belgrade's most listened-to station.

More than 430,000 people tune in regularly for an average of an hour-and-a-half a day, the Strategic Marketing Agency said today. This is despite the fact that the station was off the air between May and October.  

In second and third place are Radio Index and Radio Belgrade, with 346,000 and 232,000 listeners respectively.  

MIODRAG VUJOVIC - ANEM IS ALL TALK AND NO ACTION

NOVI SAD, December 29, 2000 - The owner of tv station Palma accused ANEM of "yelling and roaring" but failing to take decisive action in a magazine interview today.

Responding to the question, "And if there were no ANEM, a wealthy man from Texas could throw lots of dollars your way and become a part-owner, a sponsor…", Miodrag Vujovic replied that the initiative was stupid. "Who are they to make such orders?" he said. "If we were to go back 50 years, to the strict communist rules, then that's the end of us. ANEM can only yell and roar. All their supposed journalists complained about the distribution of frequencies by the Yugoslav Government but did not do anything concrete until I submitted an initiative with the Supreme Constitutional Court which was, miraculously, accepted. We shared the same aims but the difference is that they made a political hullabaloo while I went into action."     

Vujovic, who is also the leader of the Serbian Progress Party, made the comments in an interview entitled "Porn at Two: Serving Serbia and the Orthodoxy" in the January 1 2001 issue of Novi Sad magazine Svet.    

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