Serbia’s political scene, ever replete with twists and turns, was enlivened at the end of this monitoring period with a spectacularly mischevous antic. At a Belgrade news conference on January 12, three Serbian deputy prime ministers from all three members of the governing coalition Ratko Markovic of the Socialist Party of Serbia, Vojislav Seselj of the Serbian Radical Party, and Milovan Bojic of the Yugoslav Left unveiled an alleged CIA document which reported the "bribing of political leaders, media organisations, judges, and even members of electoral commissions" (Politika), as well as the "bribing of our citizens to work against their country" (RTS Dnevnik 2).

The publication of the paper which displayed the words "Central Intelligence Agency" and "top secret" in the letterhead, was accompanied by an official media hullabaloo directed against all who have supposedly received or are receiving foreign money to work against their country. RTS Dnevnik 2 devoted nine minutes to the news conference and the deputy prime ministers' "dramatic" discovery and charges. It was followed immediately by Aktuelnosti programme, which accorded the event no less than 31 minutes. The document was submitted as evidence that all who do not support the official line are "traitors", "foreign hirelings" and "immoral monsters", etc. BK Telecom departed from its usual concise news presentation practice, to give the event wide coverage. Politika reserved parts of its pp. 1 and 13 as well as the whole of p. 14 to a report from the news conference. It cited the fact that student leaders who have travelled abroad, independent economists, and "one Constitutional Court and one Supreme Court judge", who have allegedly received foreign aid for subversive purposes.

Other pro-government media, notably Radio Beograd in its Argument vise programme, followed up the "discovery" of the "secret" or "top secret" document with unprecedented fury. Their aggressive coverage of the news conference was accompanied by reactions which echoed the accusations levelled by the deputy prime ministers. In the same issue in which it published a report on the news conference, Politika (Jan. 13, p. 2) had ready to hand a commentary by Radivoje Cuk entitled "Our citizens bribed to work against their state". Cuk led off by alleging the CIA had presented Congress with the report "Basic Elements for Financial the Promotion of Democracy in Yugoslavia" which proposed that funding for nefarious activities in the country should be raised from $15 million to $35 million. Headlines such as "Leaders [oppositional] available for a handful of dollars", "Our people don’t put up with treason" and "Judges bribed" (Politika), and "A scandalous scale of charges for betraying Serbia and the FRY" (Politika ekspres) were representative of pro-government media coverage of the event during the first two days.

From the non-governmental side, media outlets (B92, Studio B, Danas, Blic and Glas javnosti) laid the plot bare that same evening and the following day, by tracing the paper, presented as a CIA document, to its author Daniel Server of the Washington based US Institute for Peace. They also pointed out that the document was actually his academic paper accessible on the institute's Internet home page for a month (www.usip.org). The mentioned media and some others also carried the CIA's denial that it had ever prepared such a document or that it had a "Balkan Institute" as the letterhead suggested.

B92 carried a statement from the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) condemning the witch-hunt against the independent media and expressing concern that the whole affair is "merely a media prelude to the regime’s impending and open showdown with all dissenters throughout the country."

The pro-government media simply ignored the fact that the document had been identified internationally as a crude forgery and continued their vilification campaign by naming, accusing, defaming and slandering the alleged beneficiaries as though the foregoing clarifications and denials did not exist. In large headlines and without using quotation marks, they continued to champion the document's legitimacy and promote its discovery as a scoop. Such headlines included: "Supporters of US pressure on our country named", "Traitors can always be bought, but Serbia is not for sale" and "A demand to publish a list of all on CIA’s payroll" (Politika, Jan. 14) and "..secret plans to overthrow FRY government" (Politika ekspres, Jan 14).

The commentary written by the director and editor-in-chief of Borba, Zivorad Djordjevic, (Jan 14) which was subsequently carried by Radio Belgrade, typified the pro-government's media reaction to the "story". A section reads: "The CIA, upset by the inefficiency of traitors and dishonorable people, has doubled their fees. This is the same CIA which brings ill fortune on citizens and entire nations all over the world, and also cripples its own black and white population, the ones of the yellow race, the short and the tall. This CIA favors using local minions, media mercenaries, media prostitutes and all other forms of moral freaks, who consider the CIA to be the symbol of freedom, democracy and independence. Those who bring misfortune to people wherever they appear, and those who scorch the territories, as well as the bodies and souls of the people are becoming the idols of our so-called independent media, our eternal students, our marginal submissive parties and mobsters in political power. The CIA finds it easier and cheaper to approach this group of sorry subjects than prostitutes standing on street corners, because these people know no pride or dignity, joy or hope. They have done away with their conscience, selling their souls to the devil and thus relieved of everything human, become immune to anything invoking moral, patriotism, honesty, happiness and future of this nation. They seek to make themselves happy because they do not know for shame or guilt. They love the CIA, [EU commissioner, Hans] Van Den Broek, Albright and especially, their dollars?"

Vecernje novosti, in a commentary by A.R. Popovic headlined "Many questions raised over a handful of dollars" (Jan. 14), hinted that the witch-hunt may not have been triggered by the discovery of the "CIA secret document" after all. Nevertheless, the commentary went on to point out that "Although many of those "named" have vigorously denied that the paper in question deals with raising US government funds to overthrow the regime in Serbia and the FRY, it is clear that there cannot be smoke without fire."

Possibly the least reliable news item of the monitoring period was front-paged by Politika (Jan. 14) under the headline "State Department representative substantiates CIA document". The item was actually a Tanjug dispatch from Moscow. It quoted the Russian news agency Itar-Tass as reporting that the day before it had received confirmation from a State Department official that the United States had spent over $15 million to support democratic institutions in the FRY last year. After this lead, which tells us what is going on in Washington through Tanjug’s correspondent in Moscow, the item continued:

"The US diplomat, who asked that we should not name him [one wonders whom he asked, Tanjug or the Russian news agency?], stressed in his statement to the Russian agency that 'other members of the international community are actively participating' in this. No states were named, nor amounts of money invested mentioned. The State Department representative also declined to forecast how much the Americans will set out this year for their programme of funding the so-called independent media, political parties, non-governmental organisations, trade unions, judges, professors and students in Yugoslavia. According to a secret document of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), whose contents were made public in Belgrade, the US government intends to earmark much more money for them in 1999..."

The last monitoring period was full of armed incidents in Kosovo. The most most dramatic, since it could have provoked an unpredictable military response, involved the capture of eight Yugoslav Army soldiers by the KLA at a roadblock between Kosovska Mitrovica and Stari Trg on January 8.

Unlike those state media outlets in Belgrade, which at first played down the incident and relegated it to its inside pages, the Pristina Serb-language daily Jedinstvo frontpaged the story (Jan. 11), giving the names of the soldiers and announcing that they were alive and well. Page 2 carried an article by Lj. Jaksic, who wrote without using any quotes: "The German Ministry of Foreign Affairs has expressed sharp condemnation of the terrorist actions committed by Shiptar terrorists timed to coincide with the (Orthodox) Christian holidays." The daily’s negative attitude towards the Kosovo Verification Mission (KVM) calculated at inciting local Serb resentment, culminated in a commentary by Sinisa Kostic, who wrote: "...authors of biology textbooks will no doubt have to rewrite certain chapters, for the elephant is no longer the thickest-skinned creature on earth who never blushes? it’s the verifier." (Jan. 12, p. 5).

On January 9 to 13, the Pristina-based Albanian-language papers Koha ditore, Informatori and Kosova sot gave the capture, the verifiers' mediation efforts and related KLA statements all front-page coverage. Interestingly, whenever their editors appeared indecisive for a lack of a clear political stance, they resorted to unimaginative transmission of Reuters copy. This tendency was in evidence especially during the initial stage of the "hostage crisis".

RTS Dnevnik 2 on Jan. 8 broke the news of the soldiers' capture in a manner that was fully in line with its policy of playing down unsavoury developments in Kosovo. As the news summary made no reference to the kidnapping and to another incident which left three policemen dead and four colleagues and two civilians wounded, one had to first sit through official statements about cooperation between the army and the police, extracts from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's report to the Security Council, and a report that the German paper Jungewelt had published parts of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's interview with The Washington Post (see Media Focus 5). Only then was news of the soldiers seizure given, and even then it was only alloted two short sentences without any accompanying footage, or attempt to explain the background to the incident.

It was not until the following day, Jan. 9, that the audience was told the names of the soldiers. The incident continued to receive low-key treatment throughout. On Jan. 11 there were only another two sentences from a Tanjug dispatch; on Jan. 12, Dnevnik 2 carried a report that Knut Vollebaek, OSCE chairman-in-office, had visited Pristina in order to broker the soldiers' release, but not the fact that he also met Ibrahim Rugova; and on Jan. 13, when the soldiers were finally released, there was no relevant footage or report from the ground. Radio Beograd covered the incident in an almost identical way. The regime's main newspaper, Politika, on Jan. 9 reported the kidnapping on p. 16 in the form of a brief Tanjug dispatch. That very day, its front page was reserved for cigarette smuggling in Montenegro, the modernisation of the Chinese army, and a prison riot in Azerbaijan.

The same low-key approach was used to report that armed Kosovo Serbs, protesting against the killing of their countryman, Nebojsa Denic, had blocked the approach roads to Pristina and demanded to see both FRY President Slobodan Milosevic and Serbian President Milan Milutinovic. Radio Belgrade passed over the event in silence on the day it happened (Jan. 7) and made its first reference to it the following day, after the removal of the barricades had begun. The author of the commentary in Argument vise, Miroslav Markovic, said that "American strategists provoked this revolt of the Serb population" to show that the Serbian state is unable to ensure safety in Kosovo and Metohija. The Serb Resistance Movement of Kosovo and Metohija, which is currently not very popular in official Belgrade, on Jan. 11 announced that Serbs would stage a protest walk in Pristina to vent their dissatisfaction with the way the state was looking after their interests. Radio Beograd did not report the news itself but carried a statement by the Executive Board of the SPS Pristina Municipal Board that the walk had been "commissioned in Washington".

Politika’s readers were kept in ignorance of the Pristina blockade for two days. They first learned of it on Jan. 9 (p. 15) from two roundabout Tanjug dispatches. The first quoted Pristina mayor Dusan Simic as saying that although "gatherings are an expression of revolt, they nevertheless carry danger"; the second quoted the SPS Pristina Municipal Board as cautioning that while the "revolt was justified, the barricades were no response to the terrorists".

On the other hand, the assassination of Enver Maloku, editor-in-chief of the Kosovo Information Centre (QIK) and of its publication Informatori, and close associate of Ibrahim Rugova, was covered by the Albanian-language media with great caution. The day after the killing, Jan. 12, they reported the incident without comment. The funeral was reported on Jan. 13 in much the same way and without any attempt to analyse what the killing might mean. Koha ditore devoted the whole of p. 5 to statements of international officials and positions of media organisations. After that, there was no attempt in the Albanian-language press to exploit the killing for propaganda purposes.

On the other hand, Politika announced the killing on Jan. 12 (p. 15) in an article signed D.L. The author concluded that "There are grounds to believe that the attack was carried out by members of the militant wing of the separatist movement headed by the political representative of the KLA terrorist organisation, Adem Demaqi. This was later confirmed by the terrorists themselves in a statement." As this claim was not substantiated by any other media outlet or agency report, there are grounds to believe that the author could only have come to this conclusion on the basis of reading his own article.

The Belgrade daily Blic, which occasionally resorts to runing unverifiable "deep background" stories introduced by the phrase "Blic learns", also speculated about Demaqi’s possible involvement in Maloku?s killing. In the lead of its article headlined "KLA catches up with Maloku" (Jan. 13, p. 9), it quoted unnamed Albanian sources as linking the killing with "...the plans of the KLA political representative, Adem Demaqi, to eliminate Rugova’s influential supporters..."

As we have seen repeatedly in previous issues of Media Focus, most if not all organisations in Kosovo adjust their news coverage strictly according to ethnicity. The Albanian-language newspapers a priori exonerate the KLA from any part in the dirty side of the war in the province, while their state-controlled Serb-language counterparts blame every incident on "Shiptar terrorists and separatists". Thus Jedinstvo, the only Serb-language daily in Pristina, began its report on the killing of a local security man in the Pristina cafe "Melisa" (Dec. 24, front page) by alleging that "...a so-far unidentified Albanian has carried out a terrorist attack..." One feels that it would be useless to point out that in Kosovo, as elsewhere in the world, unidentified persons in civilian clothes do not have their nationality stamped on their foreheads.

On January 6, an explosion in another Pristina cafe, a haunt of Serbs, brought the town to the brink of open conflict. Koha ditore reported the incident on its front page under the headline "Attacks triggered by explosive planted by Serb adolescent" (Jan. 7), though it proceeded with a more cautious headline on p. 2, i.e. "Planting of explosives (Serb adolescent suspected) motivates clashes". Only on reading the article does the reader realise that the front-page headline was based solely on vague statements provided by anonymous citizens.

What with newspapers themselves often contributing to the general atmosphere of insecurity, the other side's casualties are generally nameless and depersonalised as human beings. On December 25, a six-year-old Albanian girl, Albana Safethajdari, was killed in her own yard in Podujevo following a "clash between Serb policemen and Albanian snipers", as formulated by the OSCE Kosovo Verification Mission (KVM). To the state news agency Tanjug, whose dispatch was carried by Radio Beograd, she was "a child" without a name.

The Albanian-language media do give victims' names, but conclude immediately that they were "murdered by Serb snipers" (Koha ditore, Dec. 26, p. 2). That very day, the last remaining Serb in the village of Obrandza, old Milovan Radojevic, was shot dead in front of his house. His death put an end to yet another ethnically-mixed settlement in Kosovo. Koha ditore journalist’s question to a local KLA leader in this connection was as good as a commentary, i.e.: "So this Serb peasant actually provoked the KLA members?" (Dec. 27).

Reports on clashes between the police and army on the one side, and the KLA on the other abound with incorrect, unverified, vague and incomplete information obtained from anonymous sources. Such reports are also often unsigned and never denied if incorrect. Koha ditore?s headline (Dec. 28) "Walker: Kosovo Serbs make provocations" was infact only a partial statement of Walker's accusation that both sides were responsible for escalation. Kosova sot reported on Dec. 28 (p. 2) that "Serb policemen opened fire on a bus carrying women and children." The boxed article headlined "Albanian children used as human shield" alleges: "We learned from the villagers who escaped yesterday's attack by the Serb forces, that the Serb policemen captured Albanian pupils from the school in Luzani and used them as a human shield against a KLA response." Koha ditore’s headline on Dec. 28 ran "Two blasts in Podujevo, Serbs leave town en masse". There was no subsequent confirmation of these claims from any other source.

Although hardly a day passed without someone being killed throughout the monitoring period, Politika strove to paint an atmosphere of normalcy. On the other hand, it went out of its way to show that every move by the authorities enjoyed undivided domestic as well as international support. Kosovo was only given front page treatment in Politika, as on Jan. 10, when there was something favourable to report, such as, "Germany strongly condemns the so-called KLA" (Tanjug), "China denounces the actions of Kosovo terrorists" (also Tanjug), and "The verification mission: KLA actions irresponsible" (Tanjug again).

At the same time, the daily ignored the same sources' warnings about the escalation of the Kosovo conflict and their criticism of the authorities. The rather long list of international community reaction to the recent escalation which was passed over in silence, includes the NATO's accusation that Belgrade was chiefly to blame (Jan. 6), French Defence Minister Alain Richard’s warning that Belgrade faced renewed NATO military pressure if the situation in Kosovo deteriorated (Jan. 1), and NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana?s statement that the organisation was carefully watching the developments and remained ready to act (Dec. 23).

Despite the December 26 threat by Serbian Minister of Information Aleksandar Vucic, to discipline the Albanian-language media, the authorities have so far been reluctant to put these outlets through the same grinder as their independent counterparts in Belgrade, probably in order not to further damage its image abroad. Significantly, the only Pristina newspaper that has stopped coming out, for as yet insufficiently clear reasons, is Bujku. The daily was closest to Ibrahim Rugova and his LDK and therefore reserved towards the KLA. The other papers continue to be published despite the fact that in their pages, the KLA is treated as the armed force of the Kosovo Albanians and an unavoidable political factor.

There has meanwhile, been a marked increase in the number of Albanian-language media outlets covering Kosovo. News broadcasts edited by journalists from Kosovo based in Tirana are once again reaching the province via the state-owned Albanian Radio and Television (RTSH) satellite transmissions. The KLA has launched the news agency Kosova press and the radio station Kosova liri (Free Kosovo), which is alleged to have tested its signal on Jan. 4 by announcing "This is Free Kosovo". So far, no one has directly claimed to have heard the signal. The daily Koha ditore is expected to launch its own Radio-Koha soon. These new developments were announced by Koha ditore on Jan. 5 and by Informatori the following day. Both reports were based on a Kosova press story and differed only in their headlines and presentation. Informatori published the story under the headline "Kosova press and radio station Free Kosovo in operation", and Koha ditore under the headline "KLA’s news agency and radio station in operation" accompanied with a large KLA emblem.

The pro-government media in Belgrade did not make much fuss about the launching of these media outlets except by carrying some statements by Serbian Minister of Information Aleksandar Vucic challenging the new organisations' legal rights to operate and by playing down their technical possibilities. Politika on Jan. 3 failed to report the KLA's launching announcement, but did so indirectly two days later (Jan. 5), by carrying a Tanjug commentary headlined "State television in Tirana - official media outlet of terrorists" (p. 2).). The fact was also mentioned by Vesna Jelacic: "Headquarters of the so-called KLA establish their news agency and radio station" (p. 15) and in the statement by Zivorad Igic, SPS board member from Kosovo, under the headline "Launching of new 'KLA' media outlets creates additional tension" (p. 16, Politika).

The last monitoring period coincided with the review and publication of balance sheets for 1998. and the adoption of economic policy for 1999. Despite the ever deepening economic crisis in Yugoslavia , the media as a whole treated the matter perfunctorily. The media's division into pro and anti-government camps is apparent too here. his field. In particular, the pro-government media have sought to project this time of general economic crisis as a period of normal business activity and even of prosperity time of vigorous investment and rising living standards. The fact that some of the figures published by the government have been challenged by independent economic experts, goes unreported. Most surprisingly, Politika has lately proved an exception to this and its coverage is briefly analysed below. In keeping with their long-held view that Yugoslav events outside of Kosovo are of no interest or concern to a Kosovar audience, the Albanian-language media in Pristina pays no attention to economic reports published in Belgrade.

The Yugoslav economic picture presented by the authorities was reflected in statement released at a federal government session and carried by Politika on December 25. In it, it was claimed that the annual inflation growth rate of 43.8 per cent was "lower than expected" and that "following the recent speculative plunge on the parallel [black] market, the dinar’s position against the deutshmark has been restored thanks to the measures undertaken."

Both these claims are untrue. Even if the inflation rate is truly 43.8 per cent, this is almost double the 25 per cent figure projected by the authorities this time last year. The dinar has only just stopped slipping on the black-market and its value has not recovered from its plunge in value. What is more, many independent economists believe that the dinar's drop on the black market was engineered by the authorities as a way of controlling the money supply.

The government's economic statement and projections went unchallanged by nearly all the pro-regime media. For instance, BK Telefakt (the prime-time news broadcast of the private TV channel of Bogoljub Karic, who recently became a Serbian government minister) did not report the dinar’s plight at all although it pays considerable attention to economic topics on a daily basis. It appears to have copied the recipe of Radio Televizija Srbije, which had room only for optimistic official statements, announcements of colossal undertakings, and examples of successful companies.

RTS Dnevnik 2 on Jan. 2 gave wide publicity to Dragan Tomic, a Serbian deputy prime minister, who spoke about a multitude of government plans to revive the economy this year. In this context, he cited the Zastava car plant and its 1999 target of 25,000 passenger vehicles. There was not a word recalling that the factory had turned out ten times as many cars each year a decade ago

On Dec. 30, Studio B Vesti u 7 carried the New Year?s statement by Mihajlo Milojevic, president of the Yugoslav Chamber of Commerce, who declared: "We have things to offer the world, so there is no room for hesitation, disbelief and doubt in this regard" He also said: "The year 1999 will not be plain sailing for us, but I hope that those carpet-bagging foreign chiefs will accord Yugoslavia and south-eastern Europe a different treatment." In common with others, this TV channel failed to mention that while the European Union recently banned new foreign investment in the country, Yugoslav foreign trade itself is not under any embargo.

The non-governmental media and those not courting officialdom meanwhile, featured a series of interviews with prominent economists which sought to draw attention to perceived economic mistakes of 1998 and the seemingly unrealistic targets set for 1999. In their over-zealousness, Blic and Danas committed the mistake of publishing critical interviews without carrying the Federal Government’s own statement outlining this year's economic targets.

Similar professional omissions were also detected in the editorial policy of the pro-government media in Montenegro. Thus Pobjeda on Dec. 26 quoted Vojin Djukanovic, Montenegrin Economic Minister, as saying that the "economic policy of the so-called Federal Government is a caricature divorced from reality", a view supported by many independent Serbian economic experts. It remains unclear, however, on what grounds the Montenegrin trade unions based their own claim (Pobjeda, Dec. 26) that although the Montenegrin Government’s economic policy programme is "sound", its implementation "will be hampered by the incomprehensibly wrong policy at the federal level". The rest of the monitored Montenegrin media were equally critical the Federal authorities, notably Vijesti, which launched the catchword "at home to lose weight" (Jan. 9).

Not infrequently, journalists with the regime media are sometimes more regal than the king himself. The following two examples from Radio Beograd's Argument vise illustrate two such examples. An item introduced as "major and encouraging news from the labour exchange" (Dec. 23) was followed by the announcement that "according to the statistics of the exchange, there has been a 34 per cent increase in the number of jobs for registered unemployed persons this year compared with last year." However, during the interview, Jugoslav Mijatovic, the exchange's assistant director, disclosed that three-quarters of these jobs were only temporary, and that the number of jobless had risen by 87 per cent compared with the year before.

In the second case (Jan. 7), the guest in Argument vise was Tomislav Milenkovic, the Serbian Minister of Labour, Social and Veteran Affairs. He spoilt the host's introductory comments about a "year of reforms", a "successful year" and "regular payment of pensions" by promising that the government would first strive to keep up these payments and then try to repay those pensions that were overdue. Milenkovic also admitted that he himself did not know how this could be done other than that the arrears could not be paid in cash. The host intervened by observing that "these matters have now been solved in a systematic manner", only to be again refuted by his guest, who pointed out that this "systematic solution" boiled down to companies having to pay the prescribed taxes and contributions on wages even if they had no money for the wages themselves.

This deeply unwelcome news for many pensioners went unreported in the non-governmental media possibly because it coincided with the cancellation of a new and enormously unpopular law which promised substantial and lifelong privileges for public officials (see Media Focus 4). Nevertheless, their failure to report such a far-reaching decision should not be attributed to patriotism but to inattention on their part.

For his part, Ivan Markovic, spokesman for the Yugoslav Left (JUL), displayed a high degree of patriotic journalism when, in his capacity as editor-in-chief of Radio Jugoslavija, he figuratively asked Federal Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic: "The condition of economic development is political stability, national unity on a patriotic course, above all to preserve Yugoslavia. However, separatists are bent on destabilising our country. Would you please sum up the policy of the Federal Government on Kosovo and Metohija and, in this connection, assess the policy of the present Montenegrin authorities?" (Radio Beograd Dnevnik, Jan. 5, excerpts from Bulatovic’s interview with Radio Jugoslavija).

While the examples that follow may not be sufficient to draw any definite conclusions, they nevertheless indicate that, in its coverage of economic affairs, Politika currently goes its own way

Until recently, it was unthinkable for the daily to publish the opinions and forecasts of economists coalesced in the alternative, critically-minded G-17 group of Belgrade economists, especially not in the straightforward manner it did on Dec. 24. The same day on the following page it carried the critical observations of experts from the Belgrade Economics Institute. Whether by accident or design, the text was accompanied by a lengthy, highly optimistic report from the Serbian authorities.

Moreover, Politika on Jan. 8, published a summary of the views of various economic institutes including those of the Institute of Economic Sciences, which has regularly been dismissed by the authorities as "fault-finding" and "pseudo-scientific". However, to counterbalance the institutes' scathing criticism of the government’s performance in 1998 and its plans for 1999, the daily ended the article by observing: "Given that the year has only just began, economic trends in 1999 are yet to show to the reliability of these forecasts."

A report from a meeting of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce (Dec. 23) included a statement given to Tanjug by Vlajko Stojiljkovic, Serbian Minister of Internal Affairs, and recipient of the chamber's special award. Stojiljkovic was quoted as promising a successful economic year including an increase in exports. A day later, but on pages reserved for international economic affairs, Politika published a long interview with Borisav Milosevic, Yugoslav ambassador in Moscow and brother of the Yugoslav president, who complained that the high prices of domestic goods and services were the main and biggest obstacle to an increase in exports to Russia.

On Jan. 13, Politika quoted Tanjug?s correspondent in the US as reporting a daily weakening of the dollar although an opposite trend was apparent internationally in the week January 6 to January 13, the dollar actually gained 3.12 cents against sterling. The correspondent’s "discovery" coincided with the "unveiling" by the Serbian authorities of the alleged CIA plot to overthrowing the government. As a rule, the most flagrant disinformation published in Politika of late has been the work of Tanjug, not the daily.

- The newspaper publishing company "Panorama" of Pristina announces that the local Albanian-language daily Bujku was denied further electricity supply and printing services on December 17 because its respective debts had accumulated to 372, 743 dinars (approximately $37,000) and 305,549 dinars (approximately $30,000). "Panorama" also rejects the allegation of Binak Kelmendi, Bujku's editor-in-chief, that the move is part of an effort to apply economic pressure on the daily.

- The newly-established pro-government Community of Radio Stations of Serbia, which has 72 members throughout the republic, elects Ivan Markovic as ist acting director. Markovic is the editor-in-chief of Radio Jugoslavija and the secretary of information of the Yugoslav Left (JUL).

- Serbian Minister of Information Aleksandar Vucic says that, under the Serbian Law on Public Information, state authorities will soon put an end to the "Albanian press's open calls for separatism and terrorism.?

- Minister Vucic says that the Serbian Law on Public Information is good and non-oppressive and that he sees no reason to change it. He adds that he has not considering resigning.

- The Montenegrin Secretariat of Information describes the announcement by Goran Matic, Federal Secretary of Information, that Radio-televizija Jugoslavije (RTJ) will cover the whole of the country as an attempt to "do information violence to Montenegro."

- The Alliance for Changes, the Serbian opposition coalition, launches a media group under coordinator Maja Tasic. She says that the group will start a special public campaign to promote the alliance because "one can hardly rely on the media in the present media situation."

- BK Telecom, TV Ekran of Novi Pazar, Radio Ivanjica and Radio Centar of Valjevo sign contracts with Dojcilo Maslovaric, Federal Minister of Telecommunications, on the temporary use of frequencies.

- General Dragoljub Ojdanic, Yugoslav Army chief-of-staff, meets Yugoslav media editors-in-chief and journalists specialising in army affairs. He asks them to do their job in a "professional, correct and objective manner in order to contribute to your people's and your country’s victory in the media war."

- Bujku comes out after an interval of 12 days. Its editor-in-chief Kelmendi says however there will be no copies next day because the Gracanica printing-office, which printed that day?s circulation, has been threatened with court action unless it stops printing the daily.

- Slavko Curuvija, owner of the Podgorica-registered daily Dnevni telegraf and magazine Evropljanin, brings a court action in Belgrade against Serbian Minister of Internal Affairs and Information Vlajko Stojiljkovic and Aleksandar Vucic. He charged them with violating the citizens' right to free information by preventing the sale of Evropljanin in Serbia.

- The first issue of the Montenegrin daily Dan, founded by senior officials of the Socialist People’s Party (SNP) led by Federal Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic, appeared on sale. The daily's editor-in-chief is Vladislav Asanin, a top SNP official and former editor-in-chief of TV Crne Gore.

- Federal Secretary of Information Goran Matic tells the Belgrade fortnightly Duga that his secretariat is preparing a "media offensive" in 1999. He alleges that some Belgrade and Pristina (Albanian-language) media organisations are financially supported from abroad, adding that "we know well who got electoral support, and all those millions of dollars cannot change this fact."

- The Managing Board of the newspaper publishing company "Glas" dismissed Manojlo Vukotic, director and editor-in-chief of Glas javnosti, over "omissions which damaged the staff and the founder." The daily’s new director is Slavoljub Kacarevic, a long-time editor with Politika, and ist editor-in-chief Milan Becejic, hitherto deputy editor-in-chief of Blic.

- Vukotic says that he was dismissed on "somebody's political orders" and that the decision is null and void because he is one of the daily's co-owners. He denies any omissions on his part and points out that the daily has built up a high circulation. Radisav Rodic, owner of the Glas printing-office and chairman of the Managing Board of the newspaper publishing company, replies that the reasons for Vukotic's dismissal were purely financial, not political, because the daily has been making big losses. In a new statement, Vukotic denies this allegation too.

- TV Crne Gore begins test broadcasts on the Eutelsat satellite channel. Its editor-in-chief, Velibor Covic, says that the project was helped by the international community, above all the European Union.

- Albanian television in Tirana quotes the headquarters of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) as announcing that it has founded a news agency, Kosova press, and a radio station, Kosova liri (Free Kosovo). the Albanian TV channel reports that these media outlets will operate on "free territory and spread the truth about the struggle for freedom and independence of the Albanian people."

- Radio Kosova liri tests its signal by announcing "This is Radio Free Kosovo", the Tirana state TV channel reports. It does not say where the signal was broadcast from or at what time.

- About 60 members of the Glas javnosti editorial staff write to Rodic and Becejic to reinstall Vukotic as director and editor-in-chief. Rodic and Becejic say they have not received the letter.

- The editorial staff of the Novi Sad fortnightly Svet say they have been fined 100,000 dinars (approx. $10,000) and editor-in-chief Robert Corban 50,000 dinars (approx. $5,000) under the Serbian Law on Public Information. The defamation suit was brought by a citizen of Bosnia-Herzegovina Petar Golijaan over an article published in Svet’s supplement. The editorial staff say they will request "official opinion" on whether Yugoslav media can be subject to lawsuits brought by citizens of countries with whom the FRY has no diplomatic relations.

- Federal Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic announces that his government will submit to the Federal Assembly a "project" to regulate information activities in the country in a uniform manner. He also says that his government is determined to promote federal media organisations.

- Serbian Minister of Information, Vucic, dismisses reports that the KLA has set up its own radio station and news agency as a "publicity stunt."

- The OSCE Kosovo Verification Mission (KVM) expresses its concern about the stoppage of the publication of Bujku.

- Robert Nemecek, an editor with TV Pink, says that the channel has brought a court action against BK TV for broadcasting a full-length cartoon to which TV Pink has exclusive rights. (TV Pink is owned by Zeljko Mitrovic, a senior JUL official, and BK TV by Bogoljub Karic, magnate and Serbian Minister without Portfolio)

- The Serbian Ministry of Information protests against a statement by KVM head William Walker in connection with the establishment by the KLA of a radio station and a news agency. It says Walker justified the move by citing "alleged threats and attacks of Serbian authorities against what he termed independent media in Serbia, in Kosovo and Metohija in particular." The ministry accuses Walker of openly supporting "Albanian terrorists."

- Knut Vollebaek, new OSCE chairman-in-office and Norwegian minister of foreign affairs, discusses the media situation with independent media representatives in Belgrade.

- Enver Maloku, head of the Kosovo Information Centre (QIK), is shot dead by two unidentified persons outside his home in Pristina. Maloku, a close associate of Ibrahim Rugova, leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), was a member of the LDK presidency and editor-in-chief of the LDK evening newspaper Informatori. Last year, he escaped unhurt from a similar attempt on his life by unidentified gunmen.

- Zoran Djordjevic, investigative judge with the Belgrade first municipal court, sets down for January 20 a new trial of Slavko Curuvija, owner of Dnevni telegraf, and the daily’s journalists Zoran Lukovic and Srdjan Jankovic on charges made by Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Milovan Bojic at the end of 1998. The first hearing was put off because the defence counsel objected to the judges assigned to the case on the grounds that they are connected with JUL of which Bojic is a senior official.

- Serbian deputy prime ministers Ratko Markovic, Milovan Bojic and Vojislav Seselj show a news conference what they described as a top-secret document of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) which is aimed at overthrowing the government in Belgrade. They say that the document proposes increasing US government aid for democracy development in the FRY, i.e. financial support to "political leaders, media organisations, judges, electoral commission members, trade unions, and non-governmental and student organisations", from $15 million to $35 million. The three then attacked the alleged recipients, calling them "toadies" and "grabbers".

- Hadzi Dragan Antic, general director of the company Politika, Zivorad Djordjevic, director of the public company Borba, and Pero Simic, acting director of the company Novosti, agree to "resume the commercial cooperation of the three companies after a lapse of several years" with the object of achieving "rational business activity based on market principles." Under the agreement, the companies will sell each other’s products through their distribution networks.

- Marjan Arambasin, director of the Radin printing-office of Zagreb, says that the December issue of Evropljanin was printed by Radin and transported by lorry to Montenegro where the magazine is registered.

- Daniel Server of the US Institute for Peace tells radio B92 that the document presented by the Serbian deputy prime ministers on Tuesday was no CIA document but an academic paper he wrote and publicly released at a Congressional hearing. He says that the paper has been on his institute’s Internet home page for a month. CIA disowns the document and denies having any "Balkan Institute" which is supposed to have prepared it.

- The US embassy in Belgrade announces that US efforts to support independent media and democratic institutions in the FRY are neither hidden nor secret. It says the document presented by the Serbian deputy prime ministers was a crude forgery.

- The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) objects to the charges made against independent media organisations by the Serbian deputy prime ministers and describes the document they presented as a forgery. It also says its fears that the deputy prime ministers' gesture was "merely a media prelude to the regime's impending showdown with dissenters throughout the country."

- Federal Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic appoints Goran Matic, Federal Minister Without Portfolio. Matic will remain Federal Secretary of Information until his successor is named. Belgrade papers are mentioning Dragan Kojadinovic, director and editor-in-chief of TV Studio B, as the most likely choice.