RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC

RFE/RL (Un)Civil Societies

Vol. 1, No. 9, 13 July 2000

"Freedom of information is ... the touchstone of all the freedoms." (UN Freedom of Information Conference, 1948)

BOSNIA

CONFERENCE ON FREE MEDIA SUPPORT IN SOUTHEAST EUROPE.

A conference on media issues in Southeast Europe, scheduled for October 10 to 12 in Sarajevo, will propose an action plan for development of regional strategies to promote free media. Entitled "Free Media in Southeast Europe: Protection of Journalists, Prevention of Conflict and Reconciliation," the meeting is being organized by the Representative on Freedom of the Media of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the OSCE Mission in Bosnia and the Council of Europe. Contact (OSCE BiH) in Sarajevo at e-mail: reganm@oscebih.org. or OSCE Vienna at E-mail: aivanko@osce.org. or Council of Europe at E-mail: Mario.Oetheimer@coe.int. (International Journalists Network, 3-7 July)

SERBIA

KOUCHNER NAMES RIGHTS OMBUDSMAN...

Bernard Kouchner, who heads the UN's civilian administration in Kosova, said in Prishtina on 12 July that he has appointed Polish lawyer Marek Antoni Nowicki as human rights ombudsman for the province, dpa reported. The previous day, Kouchner appointed British journalist Richard Lucas to head Radio-Television Kosova. (RFE/RL Newsline, 12 July)

SERBIAN MINISTER WARNS CROATIA ON FOREIGN MEDIA.

Serbian Information Minister Vucic warned the Croatian authorities not to assist Western efforts to broadcast to Serbia. He told a Belgrade press conference on 8 July that "the Western forces headed by the United States are preparing new media offensives on Serbia. They are using neighboring banana- republics, especially Croatia, as the most prominent exponent of their policies. The Serbian government is warning Croatia not to play with these things.... Our response will be adequate if they dare to violate international regulations," Reuters reported. He added that "if it becomes necessary, we will be ready to [use] ultimate [unspecified] financial resources for defending our country from the media aggression that Americans are intending to carry out from Montenegro and other neighboring countries." He did not elaborate. Vucic, who belongs to Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Vojislav Seselj's Radical Party, is known for his outspoken criticism of the opposition and of the private media. (RFE/RL Newsline, 10 July)

NON-REGIME DAILIES FACE LOSS OF PAPER.

A state-run paper company has cut supplies to the private dailies "Blic," "Danas," amnd "Glas javnost," AP reported on 10 June. The editors of the three dailies said in a letter to the Serbian government that the basic rights of the newspapers' "numerous readers...will be violated" if the dailies have to stop publishing. Pro-Milosovic newspapers continue to recieve their full supplies. (RFE/RL Newsline, 11 July)

FREQUENCY LICENCE APPLICATIONS RESUBMITTED.

Most members of the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) 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 on 4 July. 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, 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. (ANEM Weekly Report, 1-7 July)

DEMAND FOR RETURN OF STUDIO B.

The board of management of Studio B demanded on 4 July that the Serbian courts rule as soon as possible on charges brought 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." The management board 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".(ANEM Weekly Report, 1-7 July)

JOURNALIST BARRED FROM LESKOVAC MUNICIPAL ASSEMBLY.

The Leskovac correspondent for the Belgrade daily "Blic" and the Beta news agency, Milica Ivanovic was barred on 3 July 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. (ANEM Weekly Report, 1-7 July)

ALBANIAN-LANGUAGE DAILY DEFIES KOUCHNER MEDIA ORDER.

Pristina daily "Dita" on 30 June 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. (ANEM Weekly Report, 1-7 July)

TWO JOURNALISTS INVESTIGATED FOR SETTING FIRE AT NOVI SAD OPEN UNIVERSITY.

At the demand of the Municipal Prosecution Office in Novi Sad, investigating judge Jadranka Buljevic launched an investigation on 5 July of TV Duga Director Dusan Moraca, and cameraman Ivica Kljucar and Novi Sad Open University night watchman Andras Fajin, on suspicion of committing the criminal act of causing general danger. Charges against the three resulted 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 offices of TV Montenegro, TV Melos, Radio Signal and the premises of several private companies. (ANEM Weekly Report, 1-7 July)

APPEAL AGAINST PANCEVO TRANSMITTER RULING.

Radio Television Pancevo lodged an appeal on 5 July 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.(ANEM Weekly Report, 1-7 July)

ABC PRODUKT THREATENED WITH BANKRPUTCY.

ABC Produkt alleged on 5 July 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 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. (ANEM Weekly Report, 1-7 July)

JOURNALISTS PROTEST NEWSPAPER FINE.

The Independent Association of Serbian journalists reported on 6 July 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 statistic 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. (ANEM Weekly Report, 1-7 July)

(Compiled by Catherine Cosman) (Editorial Assistant: Yulia Aleksandrovskaya)