RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC

RFE/RL (Un)Civil Societies

Vol. 1, No. 6, 22 June 2000

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

B2-92 FOUNDER APPEALS FOR SERBIAN MEDIA ASSISTANCE...

At the Pact for Stability conference in Thessaloniki on 10 June, Veran Matic, founder of Radio B2-92, appealed on behalf of the Association of Independent Electronic Media for more international assistance for media in Serbia. Despite media repression, according to Matic, there are still 50 independent media outlets in Serbia but no independent broadcast media in Belgrade. Matic believed the solution lay in resumption of the Szegedin Process, a cooperation between cities and civilian societies, including assistance for media, as well as in the Pact for Stability. (ANEM Weekly Report, 10-16 June)

WORLD PUBLISHERS PROTEST AGAINST SERBIAN REPRESSION.

The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) has called on the Serbian government to drop repression of independent media and to allow journalists to do their job. WAN appealed to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to return seized media to their owners, to eliminate censorship and discrimination, and to bring the Public Information Act into line with international standards on freedom. (ANEM Weekly Report, 10-16 June)

OSCE BLASTS ATTACKS ON BOSNIAN MEDIA...

A spokeswoman for the OSCE said in Sarajevo on 15 June that "we are becoming increasingly concerned about the stepped-up attacks on media representatives and consider the environment to be more and more perilous for journalists in Bosnia," Reuters reported. She noted that Edin Avdic of the independent magazine "Slobodna Bosna" was recently threatened verbally by a Muslim politician and later attacked physically by two unidentified men. The tax police recently searched the offices of the daily "Avaz," which had been considered close to the governing Muslim Party of Democratic Action (SDA). The spokeswoman added that the raid on "Avaz" "had an intimidating and chilling effect on the press." Earlier, a driver for a top SDA official physically attacked a journalist working for "Avaz." SDA officials have blamed the media for the party's poor showing in the local elections in April, the news agency added. ("RFE/RL Newsline," 16 June)

...AS OSCE HEAD CALLS FOR JOURNALIST CODE IN BOSNIA...

Daan Everts, chief of the OSCE mission in Kosova, said on 13 June that representatives of local media had failed to prevent the spread of hatred and so a code of behavior for journalists could be expected soon. "We must impose correctional measures, such as the withdrawal of a front page, the calling of an editor to account and, in extreme cases, the closing down of the paper," said Everts. (ANEM Weekly Report, 10-16 June)

...WHILE IFJ URGES RESTRAINT.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) on 26 April criticized efforts by the international community to impose legal controls on the press in Kosova. It called for a "go slow" approach because, according to the leader of the IFJ, "Kosovo's journalists are already trying to put a system of self-regulation in place. This plan cuts the ground beneath their feet." Plans for an emergency press law were accelerated upon the closure of the DITA newspaper. DITA was temporarily closed on 3 June for eight days following the death of Petar Topoljski, a Serbian translator for the UN. His disappearance and subsequent death came one week after DITA published an article accusing him of paramilitary activities against Kosovar Albanians. The IFJ considers the closure to be both counterproductive and a gross abuse of the UN Mission's powers, which it said threatens the freedom of all media in Kosovo. Moreover, the IFJ argues, this move sets a precedent for any future administration in Kosovo to interfere in the media. (International Federation of Journalists Press Release, 16 June)

HAGUE TRIBUNAL DISMISSES ALLEGATIONS AGAINST NATO.

The prosecutor's office at the Hague tribunal announced on 14 June that there are no grounds for launching a formal investigation into charges that NATO forces committed war crimes in Yugoslavia. In a 44-page report, prosecutors said that the alleged infringement of human rights was not sufficiently established to demonstrate the guilt of senior NATO officials. In the section of the report dealing with the bombing of the Radio-Television Serbia headquarters in central Belgrade on 23 April 1999, the tribunal concludes that the attack was planned with the aim of disabling a military command communication network and that transmitters and power stations were bombed the same evening in a coordinated operation. The attack on Radio-Television Serbia, according to the analysis by prosecution experts in The Hague, was legally justified if it was really directed at the disruption and disabling of a communications network but not if the aim was to disable Radio-Television Serbia as a propaganda weapon. (ANEM Weekly Report, 10-16 June)

SERBIAN JOURNALIST TO STAY IN PRISON.

A military court in Nis ruled on 15 June that journalist Miroslav Filipovic must remain in prison until his trial for espionage takes place. No date has been set for that proceeding. Meanwhile in Strasbourg, the European Parliament condemned what it called the "climate of terror and systematic intimidation" against the opposition and independent media in Serbia, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported ("RFE/RL Newsline," 16 June). In other news, the Independent Association of Serbian Journalists met on 12 June in the southern Serbian city of Kraljevo to discuss the fate of the town's Agence France Press and "Danas" correspondent Filipovic, now held in the Nis Military Court on charges of espionage and disseminating false information. Participants have signed a petition calling for the release of the jailed journalist. (ANEM Weekly Report, 10-16 June)

SERBIAN REPRISALS AGAINST OTHER JOURNALISTS CONTINUE.

Knjazevac satirist Boban Miletic was sentenced in Zajecar District Court on 9 June to five months' imprisonment for ridiculing Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. Dejan Radulovic, an RFE/RL correspondent, was charged on 13 June with organizing an illegal protest rally in Majdanpek on 1 June. A second group of Majdanpek residents have been summoned for trial on 26 June to face similar charges over a 5 June rally, and Radulovic will again face the court on 26 June. That hearing will be the third in a month for the RFE correspondent, who has already been summoned to appear on 8 June in relation to a rally on 25 May. (ANEM Weekly Report, 10-16 June)

REPORTERS ASKS TO TAKE PLACE OF JAILED JOURNALIST.

Miroslav Radulovic, the editor in chief of "Borske novine," and writer Bozidar Bogdanovic, proposed on 12 June to the presidents of the Zajecar District Court and the Serbian Supreme Court that the newspaper's jailed director be freed and they be charged instead. Director Dusica Radulovic was sentenced to three months' imprisonment for libeling municipal officials in the publication. Bogdanovic and Miroslav Radulovic, who is the husband of the jailed director, say in their appeal that Dusica Radulovic, although the paper's proprietor, had no editorial function. (ANEM Weekly Report, 10-16 June)

SERBIAN PROFESSOR FIRED.

In a 16 June letter to the University of Belgrade rector Jagos Puric, Human Rights Watch expressed its grave concern over the recent dismissal of Professor Obrad Savic from the University of Belgrade. Savic, had taught at the Department of Social Sciences for 22 years before being informed on 16 May that his university employment had been terminated. At the time of his dismissal, Savic had been in the U.S. lecturing on topics of civil society and the public sphere. The decision to dismiss Savic came shortly after he had published and distributed a special edition of the Belgrade Circle Journal--of which he was one of the founders-- titled "In Defense of the University," in which he criticized the government's efforts to circumscribe free inquiry and discussion on university campuses as well as the targeting of campus-based criticism of President Milosevic and the ruling political coalition. (Human Rights Watch Press Release, 19 June)

SERBIAN INDEPENDENT MEDIA FIGHTS BACK.

The president of the Democratic Party, Zoran Djindjic, and Democratic Christian Party of Serbia leader Vladan Batic on 10 June brought charges against the state-run daily "Politika," the state news agency Tanjug, and the acting director of the daily "Vecernje Novosti," under Serbia's Public Information Act for disseminating articles that insult their dignity. Meanwhile, the former staff of Studio B will resume producing and broadcasting the station's programs by satellite and the Internet broadcast two hours a day from the Bosnian Serb republic by early July, according to a Serbian Renewal Movement representative on 12 June. And, the Association of Independent Serbian Journalists protested to the Federal Parliament on 13 June about its decision to refuse to allow journalists from the Belgrade dailies "Blic," "Danas," and "Glas javnosti" to cover a recent parliament session. (ANEM Weekly Report, 10-16 June)

MONTENEGRO RESISTS OFFICIAL SERBIAN MEDIA. P

olice and civilians in Montenegro on June 10 stopped a truck carrying copies of Belgrade's state-run daily "Politika" and confiscated several thousand of them. Montenegrin Information Minister Bozidar Jaredic told media that "Politika" and "Politika Ekspres" had violated election silence for this weekend's local government by-elections in the republic. At the same time, the Montenegrin Information Ministry has confirmed that it refused press accreditation on 11 June to journalists from TV Yugoslavia (YU Info Channel) to cover local elections in Podgorica and Herceg Novi. A decision signed by Information Minister Bozidar Jaredic gave as grounds for the refusal that TV Yugoslavia had been installed on Montenegrin territory by force and was being broadcast in contravention of the Montenegrin Constitution and laws of the republic. (ANEM Weekly Report, 10-16 June)