Post-Soviet Media Law & Policy Newsletter
Issue 27-28
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law March 31, 1996
ALBANIA
The Law on Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms provides
for freedom of speech and the press. In practice, however, the Government
sometimes restricted freedom of speech, including the freedom to criticize
the Government and its officials. Laws against slander, insult, incitement
to national hatred, and distribution of anticonstitutional literature were
used to prosecute persons, including journalists, for criticizing officials.
A 1993 press law sets out large fines for publishing
material that the Government considers secret or sensitive, permits confiscation
of printed matter or property by judicial order, and allows for criminal
punishment under certain circumstances. The media and AHC continue to denounce
the press law as being too imprecise and too harsh for a country with poorly
developed legal institutions.
In an interview, Ilir Hoxha, son of the former dictator,
referred to demonstrators who toppled his father’s statue in Tirana as
“organized bands of vandals.” He further characterized as “thieves and
cowards” those who dug up the grave of his father in the heroes’ cemetery.
He refers by name to the “blind tools” who condemned his mother, Enver
Hoxha’s wife Nexhmije, including current democratic leaders. He added that
“...the day will come when they will be asked to account for their conduct
because we demand this. . . . This is not for revenge, but to put justice
in its place.” For these statements, he was sentenced to 7 months’ imprisonment.
Opposition parties, independent trade unions, and various
societies and groups publish their own newspapers. Some 250 newspapers
and magazines appear on a regular basis. Three newspapers in the Greek
language are published in southern Albania. Taxes on publications, in addition
to increases in printing costs, make it difficult for independent media
to be economically viable without subsidies from patrons, such as political
parties, social organizations, or private businesses. Some journalists
believe that the Government is using taxes as a deliberate means to cripple
the independent and opposition press.
Government officials invoked libel laws and the Press
Law against several editors and journalists. Human Rights Watch/Helsinki
and the Committee for the Protection of Journalists protested the cases
of Blendi Fevjiu, editor of the Democratic Alliance Party’s daily “Aleanca,”
and Gjergj Zefi, a Democratic Alliance Party official and editor of “Lajmeteri,”
who were both convicted of libel for articles that they wrote about official
corruption. Zefi has been prohibited from publishing articles or holding
public office for one year. Fevziu was given a $2,000 fine, but was pardoned
December 8 by President Berisha. Two other journalists were detained by
police, questioned, and released in connection with stories they were covering.
AHC protested SHIK’s detention in June of Filip Cakuli, editor of the satirical
weekly “Hosteni,” and journalist Naim Naka, who were held for 12 hours
until they agreed to change the cover of an upcoming issue. On November
1, a bomb exploded on the doorstep of “Koha Jone” publisher Nikolle Lesi.
No one was hurt, and the perpetrators have not been found.
Only state–run radio and television provide domestic
programming, but many municipalities offer international programs received
via satellite. Home satellite dishes abound and most Albanians, even in
impoverished areas, have access to international broadcasts.
Since November 1991, Parliament has exercised direct
control over television, delegating some oversight duties to an Executive
Committee of Radio and Television, which it appoints. The Executive Committee,
comprised of 11 members from outside Parliament, meets occasionally to
review programming and the content of news broadcasts. Opposition critics
of the Government alleged that television serves the interest of the ruling
Democratic Party. Television’s progovernment bias, particularly acute during
the November 1994 constitutional referendum campaign, eased somewhat in
1995 with the inclusion of more coverage of opposition activities and views.
Debates between government and opposition figures were more frequently
aired. The director of state radio and television was replaced by an individual
considered by many observers to be more impartial than his predecessor.
Local radio in southern Albania broadcasts some Greek-language programming,
with its content translated directly from Albanian-language reporting.
The AHC continued to express concern over the lack of legislation covering
electronic media ownership and broadcasting.
AHC protested government infringement of academic freedom
in the case of eight educators fired from the economics faculty of the
state-controlled University of Tirana. The educators were fired under an
amendment to the Labor Code which permits the release of employees accused
of obstructing democratic and economic reforms. AHC argued that all of
the educators were professionally capable and had received training abroad
in Western institutions. AHC characterized their collective firing as colored
by political, not professional, motivations.
BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
The Constitution provides for freedom of speech and
the press. The Government partially respects this right in the majority
of Federation territory; authorities in HDZ-controlled Herceg-Bosna do
not respect it at all.
Continued wartime conditions have limited the development
of truly independent media in Federation territory. Although there are
some, in general the ruling SDA and HDZ political parties exert considerable
influence over the media. Many private radio stations broadcast locally
in Federation territory; a smaller number of private television stations
serve local markets in Sarajevo, Zenica and Tuzla. Only state television,
which is controlled by the ruling SDA party, is broadcast throughout Bosniak
territory as well as parts of Croat territory and the Republika Srpska.
The development of independent media also was constrained
by the wartime lack of start-up capital, paper, and supplies and the rising
world price of newsprint. Few of the media are commercially viable; some
survive through the sponsorship of private organizations, cultural societies,
and political parties, others with help from Western aid organizations.
Western television broadcasts such as Cable News Network and Sky News are
available to those with satellite receivers. In HDZ-controlled Herceg-Bosna,
the media are part of the HDZ structure but not as strictly censored as
in the Serbian Republic. Croatia supplies transmissions of Radio Split
to the inhabitants of Herceg-Bosna.
Some independent media have complained about government
intimidation. Studio 99’s radio and television transmitter mysteriously
caught fire and burned down following the station’s show of support for
an SDA rival of President Izetbegovic. The station was off the air for
7 days. An independent magazine complained that it and its sponsors were
harassed by government financial police. In Tuzla the editorial staff of
the radio station Chameleon was drafted for military duty following broadcasts
critical of the Government.
Foreign journalists in Sarajevo and elsewhere on Federation
territory generally were able to operate without problems. However, some
said that it was difficult to gain access to territory recently taken from
the Serbs, especially in Croat-controlled areas where the HVO tried to
maintain tighter control over press activities.
In the Republika Srpska the media are a propaganda tool
of the ruling SDS party. The party’s media voice, the Serbian Republic
News Agency, Tanjug (the news agency of the Milosevic regime in Serbia),
and other Serbian sources formed the basis for near total domination of
both print and electronic information media. All foreign media are banned
in the Republika Srpska. The public in Serb territory only has access to
two choices: Bosnian Serb media from Pale or Serbian media from Belgrade.
The SDS strictly censors the media in the Serb area.
Sonja Karadzic, the “President’s” daughter, is in charge of issuing safe-conduct
passes for foreign journalists. Foreign journalists must work under significant
restrictions, and face the possibility of being banned or arrested for
researching stories that might be unfavorable to the Karadzic regime. Christian
Science Monitor reporter David Rohde was held for nearly 2 weeks for researching
stories of mass killing. American reporters Tracy Wilkinson and Kit Roane,
and British reporter Emma Daily were detained without charges and held
incommunicado overnight. Two Turkish journalists, Munira Acim and Alija
Kocak, were seized on October 7 and 2 weeks later were traded to the ABiH
for Serb POW’s. In March two journalists, a Bosnian Muslim and a Jordanian-Bosnian
dual national, were arrested and later exchanged for Serb POW’s.
Wartime conditions, lack of resources, and difficulty
in maintaining contact with other academic communities constrained academic
freedom. Serbs and Croats complained that SDA party favorites were more
likely to get promoted or obtain senior managerial positions.
In Serb-controlled areas, the authorities general lack
of tolerance for dissent led to total control of the educational media.
The curriculum in Serb-controlled areas has been revamped to teach solely
Serb history, art, literature, etc. There has been no evidence of an intellectual
exchange of ideas in the media or other academic forums in Serb-held territory
since the 1992 invasion.
BULGARIA
The Constitution provides for freedom of speech and
the press, and the Government generally respects this right in practice,
although there were signs that it was seeking to increase editorial control
over government-owned electronic media. The variety of newspapers published
by political parties and other organizations represents the full spectrum
of political opinion, but a notable degree of self-censorship exists in
the press among journalists who must conform to what are often heavily
politicized editorial views of their respective newspapers.
National television and radio broadcasting both remain
under parliamentary supervision. A September Constitutional Court ruling
declared unconstitutional some portions of a “provisional” statute that
had placed the electronic media under parliamentary supervision since 1990.
In October Parliament passed legislation restoring its right to exercise
control over the national electronic media; in December the Constitutional
Court again struck down this provision. In November 34 journalists from
a national radio station issued a declaration accusing radio management
of censoring their work and threatening uncooperative journalists with
dismissal. A month later, seven of the journalists were fired, provoking
widespread public concern about freedom of speech and the establishment
of at least two NGO’s to monitor the issue. This ongoing dispute illustrates
a growing concern about the lack of balance in the state-controlled news
media.
Some observers criticized changes in the senior leadership
of the national electronic media and editorial control by a newly established
board of directors of Bulgarian national radio, charging they were politically
motivated. In September the Constitutional Court overturned a provision
of the July Local Elections Act which prohibited journalists working for
state-owned media and local electronic media from expressing opinions on
parties, coalitions, and candidates in the October 29 local elections.
There are two state-owned national television channels
and a growing number of privately owned regional stations. Two channels
broadcast in Bulgarian, while a third broadcasts Russian programming, and
a fourth carries a mixture of Cable News Network International and French
language programming. Bulgarian national television has been planning Turkish-language
programming for at least 2 years, but broadcasts have not yet begun. Foreign
government radio programs such as the British Broadcasting Corporation
and the Voice of America (VOA) had good access to commercial Bulgarian
radio frequencies, although in April the interim council for radio frequencies
and television channels turned down a request by Radio Free Europe to add
VOA programming on its frequency. After initial government approval in
the fall of 1994 of an application to create a privately owned national
broadcast television station, further progress has floundered, with no
action being taken by the current Government. Television and radio news
programs on the state-owned media present opposition views but are generally
seen as being biased in favor of the Government. There are no formal restrictions
on programming. Some political groups complained that coverage was one-sided,
although they acknowledged that their representatives were interviewed
regularly. Both television and radio provide a variety of news and public
interest programming, including talk and public opinion shows.
More than 30 independent radio stations are licensed.
Some private stations complained that their licenses unduly restricted
the strength of their transmissions in comparison to state-owned stations.
Radio transmitter facilities are owned by the Government.
Private book publishing remained lively, with hundreds
of publishers in business. Respect for academic freedom continued.
CROATIA
The Constitution provides for freedom of thought and
expression, specifically including freedom of the press and other media
of communication, speech, and public expression, and free establishment
of institutions of public communication. In practice, government influence
on the media through state ownership of most print and broadcast outlets
limits these freedoms. In addition, government intimidation induces self-censorship.
Journalists are sometimes reluctant to criticize the Government in public
forums for fear of harassment, job loss, intimidation, or being labeled
as disloyal to Croatia.
The national television broadcasting and radio broadcasting
system (HRT) is government controlled. The Government also retains a controlling
interest in two of four news dailies and some weekly newspapers. Although
these state-controlled or heavily state-influenced media frequently carry
reportage critical of the Government, they maintain an overall editorial
slant favorable to the Government and the governing party, the HDZ. Both
the broadcast and print media also often exclude news reports that put
Croatia or its government in an unfavorable light. HRT has several times
not broadcast statements by foreign diplomats made in highly public forums
on the need to observe human and minority rights. Each of the opposition
parties is allocated 4 minutes of television time per week. Access by the
parties to the print media is minimal, with occasional coverage of press
conferences and interviews.
During October’s parliamentary elections, 1 hour of
free broadcast time on national television was made available to each of
the registered political parties for the pre-election campaign. Time slots
were drawn by lot. Paid advertising on national television was, in theory,
available, but HRT refused to run advertising spots from one of the major
opposition parties on the grounds that some (unspecified) information in
the ad was inaccurate and that the ad did not make clear which party was
placing it. The HDZ advertising budget dwarfed that of its rivals, and
it made heavy use of this budget to buy broadcast time on the national,
state-controlled television network during the election campaign.
A few newspapers continue to guard their independence,
including the daily Novi List in Rijeka, the weekly Globus, the intellectual
bimonthly journal Erasmus, and the weekly Arkzin, published by the Antiwar
Campaign.
Some extremist publications, with a virulently antigovernment
slant, can be purchased at newsstands, although they have a very small
circulation. The highly popular and often critical weekly Feral Tribune
was subjected to a 50 percent turnover tax in 1994, though in March, under
pressure from the European Union, the tax was lifted by the Constitutional
Court.
Government influence over the recently privatized distribution
network, coupled with stiff value added taxes levied at several points
during the production process, also has an impact on press freedom. It
is claimed, though difficult to prove, that the few companies able to print
newspapers do not charge the pro-government media for their services; it
is also widely believed that Tisak, the national distributor for all newspapers
and magazines, removes independent journals very quickly from its newsstands
while at the same time charging them a high percentage of the cover price
for its services. Certain independent newspapers and magazines claim that
they must pay out more than 50 percent of their gross revenues for taxes
and distribution costs alone. On the other hand, the high circulation of
some popular independent periodicals, Globus being the most visible example,
has given them enough financial independence to thrive despite these high
taxes and high costs.
International papers and journals remained available
throughout government-controlled areas, including Serbian periodicals which
subscribers continued to receive by mail.
Croatia has three national television channels and a
local television station in Zagreb which reaches a quarter of the population.
Zagreb-based Channels One, Two, and Three are part of HRT, the official
Croatian Radio and Television Enterprise, headed by a well-known HDZ member.
Regional stations operate in Zadar, Split, Vinkovci, and Osijek.
In August Parliament announced the first allocations
of frequencies for regional private radio and television stations under
the July 1994 Broadcast Law. (No frequencies for nationwide private broadcasters
have been assigned for either radio or television.) Two of 4 planned frequencies
for television and 4 of 20 planned frequencies for radio at the county
(zupanija) level were assigned. Nine of 15 planned frequencies for municipal-level
private television were assigned and 88 of 111 planned frequencies for
municipal radio broadcasters were assigned.
The Broadcast Law mandates that one parliamentary member
of the Council for Croatian Television be an ethnic minority representative,
but this person has not yet been appointed. Among the first acts the Government
undertook after its forces retook the Krajina was to begin broadcasting
programming from the HRT regional station in Knin.
In Serb-controlled regions, freedom of speech and the
press virtually did not exist. With martial law still in effect, there
were no guarantees of a free press and other freedoms, and the authorities
controlled the tone and content of the media. One television station broadcasts
from studios in Beli Manastir and Vukovar in the one remaining Serb-occupied
area at year’s end. A few low-powered local radio stations broadcast from
Baranja and Eastern Slavonia. Government radio and television broadcasts
are received in these areas as well.
Academic freedom is generally respected.
CZECH REPUBLIC
The law provides for freedom of speech and the press,
and the Government respects this right in practice. Individuals can and
do speak out on political issues and freely criticize the Government and
public figures. However, “defamation” of the state and presidency are forbidden
under provisions of the Criminal Code upheld by the Constitutional Court
in 1993. In 1995 Pavel Karhanek was given a 9-month suspended sentence
under the law on defamation of the state for displaying posters in a local
government office calling the President a former alcoholic, a swindler,
and a Communist collaborator. After he pulled down pictures of the President
from the walls of the same office, he was again charged and may face a
prison sentence of up to 2 years. Also in 1995, two persons were charged
under a separate law on the defamation of the President. One was given
a suspended sentence of 18 months, and the other a suspended sentence of
4 months.
A wide variety of newspapers, magazines, and journals
publish without government interference. The capital, Prague, is home to
at least a dozen daily newspapers with national distribution, as well as
a variety of entertainment and special interest newspapers and magazines.
These publications are owned by a variety of Czech and foreign investors.
Some newspapers are still associated with the interests of a political
party; others are independent.
The electronic media are independent. There are 4 television
stations, 2 public and 2 private, and more than 60 private radio stations
in addition to Czech Public Radio. The leading television channel, Nova,
is privately owned, partially by foreign investors.
A parliamentary commission has broad oversight and power
to approve or reject candidates for the Television and Radio Council. The
Council has limited regulatory responsibility for policymaking and answers
to the parliamentary media committee. The Council can issue and revoke
radio and television licenses, and monitors programming.
At year’s end, Parliament was wrestling with two proposed
media laws: one for print and one for broadcast media. New laws are needed
because the print law on the books dates from 1966 and the current broadcast
law, dating from 1991, did not envision private media. The print media
law has gone through several drafts in the process of working its way through
various parliamentary committees. Czech journalists criticize the draft
law for not affirming the right of a journalist not to reveal sources and
for not requiring government officials to supply information to the media.
The law provides for academic freedom but also forbids
activities by established political parties at universities.
HUNGARY
The Constitution provides for freedom of speech and
the press, and the Government generally respects this right in practice.
One Budapest daily is still partially state owned (the Government is trying
to sell it and is not thought to interfere in its editorial content). The
print media enjoy considerable freedom.
Parliament passed a media law in December creating institutions
to foster a free and independent electronic media. The law provides for
privatization of major television and radio stations and removal of remaining
public televison and radio from the direct control of the government. At
present, there is one private national radio station and one national radio
station in which the Government maintains a minority share. There are no
private national television stations. In 1995 state-owned Hungarian Radio
and Hungarian Television continued to enjoy a near monopoly of nationwide
broadcasting, and the Prime Minister controlled their budgets.
While some limited-range local television licenses were
issued, partisan political wrangling and, less importantly, pressures from
television and radio unions and employee associations continued to block
the availability of national broadcast frequencies and the privatization
of existing state channels. (However, over half of the country’s households
have access to satellite television, cable, or both.)
THE FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC
OF MACEDONIA
The Constitution forbids censorship and provides for
freedom of speech, public access, public information, and freedom to establish
private media outlets. However, a number of private broadcast stations
were shut down by the authorities, including local affiliates of the Voice
of America and the British Broadcasting Corporation. The Government maintains
that it is merely closing unlicensed stations to bring order to a chaotic
broadcasting scene. However, it has not set up a proper regulatory mechanism
for the broadcast media. Members of the media, and the political opposition
believe that the Government is shutting private outlets to restrict the
flow of information and opinion. Members of national minorities charge
that minority-language stations are targeted disproportionately. While
there is no clear pattern of government suppression of the private media,
it is difficult for the Government to refute such charges in the absence
of a transparent regulatory regime.
In July the Government said that it would not renew
the accreditation of the local correspondent for the VOA’s Albanian service,
alleging that she had engaged in political and even criminal activities
incompatible with her status as a journalist. The Government did not detail
its charges beyond stating that the journalist was involved in promoting
the Albanian-language university in Tetovo, which the Government considers
illegal. There were other cases in which journalists working for Albanian-language
media were taken into custody by police, harassed, and in one case deported.
A correspondent for an opposition weekly and a correspondent for an independent
Turkish-language paper also had their credentials rescinded.
There are several daily newspapers in Skopje, and numerous
weekly political and other publications, including weeklies published by
opposition groups. An Albanian and a Turkish newspaper are distributed
nationally and subsidized by the Government. The bulk of newspapers and
magazines published in the country are government owned and government
oriented. Opposition parties have made alleged government control and manipulation
of the media a major theme of their complaints about the present Government.
The state-owned media report such charges, and in general do give some
coverage to the statements and press conferences of opposition parties.
The overall balance of coverage, however, is in favor of the Government.
The leading newspaper publisher is a government company
that owns the only modern, high-speed printing plant in the country, as
well as most newspaper kiosks. Opposition groups complain that they are
charged high prices for the services of the printing plant. Newspapers
can be imported from Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania, and Greece only with the
permission of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The former Ministry of Information has been downgraded
from a ministry to a secretariat, but it continues to decide on accreditation
of journalists and to be involved in closing independent media outlets.
Academic freedom is respected in theory and practice.
However, an attempt by the ethnic Albanian community to open an Albanian-language
university was declared illegal by the Government (see Sections 1.a., 1.e.,
and 2.b.).
POLAND
Although these freedoms are generally guaranteed in
the Constitution, they are subject to some restrictions in law and practice.
Citizens may generally express their opinions publicly
and privately. The Penal Code, however, states that anyone who “publicly
insults, ridicules, and derides the Polish nation, Polish People’s Republic,
its political system, or its principal organs is punishable by between
6 months and 8 years of imprisonment.” The Code imposes a prison term of
up to 10 years for a person who commits any of the prohibited acts in print
or through the mass media. In October Presidential candidate Leszek Bubel
was charged with violating this law. Bubel claimed on a radio program that,
when he served as deputy prosecutor general, a former head of the Presidential
chancellery protected a group of criminals.
The Penal Code also stipulates that offending religious
sentiment through public speech is punishable by a fine or a 2-year prison
term. Father Stanislaw Jankowski is currently being investigated for violation
of this law for an allegedly anti-Semitic sermon he gave in Gdansk in June.
Catholic organizations have challenged the legality of certain films and
images published in the press on the basis of this provision. In October
a provincial court charged presidential candidate Leszek Bubel with violating
this article by publishing a pamphlet containing anti-Semitic humor. An
investigation continues into the August 1994 case involving the weekly
magazine Wprost which printed an image of the Black Madonna and Child in
gas masks as a means of dramatizing the seriousness of environmental pollution.
The print media in Poland are uncensored and independent, although they
may be subject to prosecution under the Penal Code provisions described
above.
In January, in a review of a 1994 case against newspaper
editor Waclaw Bialy, the Supreme Court ruled that a prosecutor or a judge,
in the context of a criminal trial, may request that a journalist divulge
the name of a source. The penalty for noncompliance is a fine of approximately
$2,000 (5,000 new zloty) and 1 month in jail.
In July the Government sold 2 percent of its shares
in the only remaining government controlled company publishing a major
newspaper, thereby ceasing to have a controlling interest. However, the
national wire service, PAP, is still government-owned. There is no restriction
on the establishment of private newspapers or distribution of journals.
Books expressing a wide range of political and social viewpoints are widely
available, as are foreign periodicals. Foreign publications and foreign
radio broadcasts are also widely available.
The National Broadcasting Council (NBC) has broad interpretive
powers in supervising programming on public television, allocating broadcasting
frequencies and licenses and apportioning subscription revenues. In order
to encourage the NBC’s apolitical character, the nine NBC members are obliged
under the law to suspend any membership in political parties or public
associations. They were, however, chosen for their political allegiances
and nominated by the Sejm, the Senate, and the President following political
bargaining, raising serious questions about the independence of broadcasting
from political influence. Polsat Corporation continues to hold an exclusive
nationwide concession for private television. The broadcasting law stipulates
that programs should not promote activities that are illegal or against
Polish state policy, morality, or the common good. The law also requires
that all broadcasts “respect the religious feelings of the audiences and
in particular respect the Christian system of values.” The law does not
fully define the term “Christian values.” The Constitutional Tribunal has
confirmed the constitutionality of this provision. Since the NBC has the
ultimate responsibility for supervising the content of programs, these
restrictions could be used as a means of censorship. The penalty for violating
this provision of the law is up to 50 percent of a broadcaster’s annual
fee for the transmission frequency, plus the prospect of having the license
withdrawn or experiencing difficulty in renewal when it expires.
Academic freedom is generally respected.
ROMANIA
Although the Constitution provides for freedom of expression
and prohibits censorship, it limits the bounds of free expression by prohibiting
“defamation of the country.” Amendments to the Penal Code contemplating
even tougher penalties for press and media violations were rejected by
the Parliament.
The case against journalist Nicolae Andrei, charged
in 1994 with slander, was inactive at year’s end. The trial of two journalists
from the proopposition daily Ziua began in the fall and continued at year’s
end, as both sides delayed the process with procedural objections and rulings.
At the defendants’ request, the court appointed a new judge in December,
and the next court session was scheduled for January. The two are charged,
under the existing Penal Code, with defaming the Presidency by alleging
that President Iliescu was a Soviet spy. The trial’s outcome will set a
precedent, as the Ziua journalists are the first well-known journalists
to be prosecuted under the Penal Code restrictions against defaming a state
institution. While no charges were brought against journalists during the
year, in smaller towns local administrators still occasionally try to exercise
control over the press by bringing charges of calumny against local reporters.
Chronic shortages of newsprint continued, although they
caused no cessation of publication. The Government began a major effort
to modernize the country’s single newsprint plant. As a result, the plant
was closed for several days in December, when it was announced that it
will be closed for further modernization and repairs from January to March
1996. During the interregnum, newspapers will be forced to rely on imported
newsprint supplies which are more expensive. The state newspaper distributor
Rodipet remains the only large organization capable of delivering newspapers
and magazines to smaller cities and towns nationwide. A few publications,
however, undertake their own distribution outside Bucharest, using alternative,
private means. Foreign news publications may be imported and distributed,
but high costs limit their circulation.
The independent electronic media continued to grow,
although the frequencies under which they operate limit their audience.
During most of the year, Romanian State Television (RTV) and Radio Romania
were the only national broadcasters. However, new regulations passed in
December provide for private television broadcasting, and by year’s end
one private channel had begun national broadcasting. It claims coverage
of some 35 percent of the country and expects to reach 55 percent by the
end of 1996.
The 1994 administrative law that established boards
of directors, appointed by Parliament, for both state television (RTV)
and state radio remained unimplemented until December when Parliament finally
nominated four candidates to fill the long-vacant positions. The delay
allowed Parliament somewhat greater control over state television than
it would have had if the board had been operational.
Private broadcasting expanded rapidly. As of December,
34 independent television stations and 103 radio stations were operating.
Citizens throughout the country have growing access to domestic and foreign
broadcasts through the expansion of cable television throughout the country.
In June the parliamentary commission responsible for
overseeing the Romainian Intelligence Service (SRI) decided to investigate
a June 21 incident in which SRI agents were accused of filming two journalists
in Bucharest. One of the journalists earlier wrote several articles accusing
President Iliescu of having been a Soviet agent in his youth. In a June
27 appearance before the oversight commission, the SRI director claimed
that the SRI agents had been on a counterespionage mission, had only accidentally
filmed the journalists, and had been suspended from duty for lack of professionalism.
The case remained in the courts at year’s end.
Academic freedom is respected both inside and outside
the classroom.
SERBIA-MONTENEGRO
Federal law provides for freedom of speech and the press,
but in practice most of the media were controlled by the Government. Serbian
state-run radio and television (RTS), the prime source of news for the
populace, especially outside of Belgrade, has long been under the direct
control of President Milosevic’s regime and was his most powerful tool
for the manipulation of public opinion. The main emphasis of the prime
time news program was on the activities of the President, the ruling SPS,
and JUL (Yugoslav Leftist League), whose leader is President Milosevic’s
wife, Mirjana Markovic.
Economic pressure was the usual weapon of the regime
against the free press. For example, state-owned enterprises were not allowed
to advertise in independent media. A shortage of newsprint continued to
be a problem for the press. The main newsprint producer in Serbia, Matroz,
supplied newsprint to the state-controlled press at subsidized prices and
made independent publications pay the much higher market price; the independent
press claimed that newspapers approved by the Government received priority
shipments. Matroz cut production from time to time, reportedly due to unpaid
electric bills, tax problems, or a shortage of fuel. When the independent
publications established their own sources of newsprint, helped by donations
from NGO’s, customs sometimes delayed or halted border entry. In Pristina,
the newsprint donated by the international community to the Albanian-language
daily Bujku was appropriated by the Serbian-language daily, leaving Bujku
chronically short of paper.
The state agency for property transition was used on
several occasions to limit the free media. On December 23, 1994, it cancelled
the registration of the Borba stock company and, in a hostile takeover,
took control of the outspoken daily, appointing the Federal Minister for
Information as its new editor-in-chief. The Borba journalists in protest
founded a new daily called Nasa Borba using their own financial resources.
Subsequently the Government initiated a criminal investigation against
the managers of Nasa Borba in a transparent attempt at intimidation.
In August President Milosevic abruptly dismissed the
head of the state-run radio and television for apparent pro-Serb nationalist
bias. Also in August, the Kragujevac weekly Svetlost, one of the few independent
publications outside Belgrade, became the target of the Government. The
local city assembly, allegedly on orders from the ruling Socialist Party,
nationalized the paper and sent dismissal notices to the staff. Members
of the editorial board refused to leave their offices and continued to
publish under the name Nezavisnost Svetlost (Independent Light) with material
assistance from the independent weekly Vreme.
The electronic media also experienced varying forms
of harassment from the Government. Radio and television not under state
control were able to broadcast only within a limited range in the Belgrade
area. Obtaining a frequency allocation was a complicated procedure for
Serbia’s 40 private radio stations. Independent radio B-92, greater Belgrade’s
main source of information not subject to government control, was never
officially allocated a frequency from the Government, thereby making its
operations “illegal” and vulnerable to a shutdown. The Belgrade independent
television station Studio B endured similar legal pressures and continuing
problems with its property status. It cancelled a program about refugees
in August, apparently under pressure from the Government. Late in the year,
Studio B broadcast the BBC five-part documentary “The Death of Yugoslavia”
which was critical of the Serbian regime and Serbian political leaders
such as President Milosevic for causing the outbreak of violence in Yugoslavia
in 1991-92.
In Montenegro, journalist Seki Radoncic was convicted
in May for defamation of a high ranking army official after he criticized
the Yugoslav army for war and human rights abuses in the independent magazine
Monitor. He received a 1-year suspended sentence and a 2-month prison term.
On July 25, a member of Montenegro’s state security service bought and
burned all the copies of the Belgrade magazine Interview because it reprinted
information from Interpol’s most wanted list regarding the notorious Serb
criminal and paramilitary leader Arkan.
In the Sandzak region in March, Muslim town officials
in Tutin accused the Government of imposing an embargo on information concerning
infectious hepatitis in the region and appealed to the independent press
to investigate the extent of the epidemic. Also in March, a correspondent
for the Albanian-language newspaper, Bujku, was told by police that he
would be killed if he reported about Serbian police repression in the town
of Mitrovica.
While the ruling SPS exercises control over university
and student organizations, instructors are generally free to teach their
subjects, and some of them are active in opposition party politics outside
the classroom. In Kosovo ethnic Albanians have rejected the Serbian education
system and established their own parallel system of schools and administration.
This educational structure is not recognized by the Serbian Government
and is subject to harassment.
Police raided the home used for a teachers’ training
college in Prizren on May 31 and seized administrative materials. On June
19, Haz Rexha was arrested by police and charged with holding lectures
in the Albanian language. In September police ordered 13 teachers and the
principal of a primary school in Tankosiq village to report to the police
station. The teachers were soon released, but the principal and the owner
of the home where classes are conducted were held for 4 hours and mistreated.
SLOVAK REPUBLIC
The Constitution provides for freedom of speech and
the press, and the Government generally respects this right in practice.
Though mostly dependent on state-owned printing and distribution companies,
the print media are free and uncensored, and newspapers and magazines regularly
publish a wide range of opinions and news articles. However, the politicization
of state-owned broadcast media remains a significant problem.
A number of individuals reported that they no longer
felt free to criticize the Government openly without fear of some form
of reprisal. The use of police to investigate signatories of Democratic
Union (DU) electoral petitions (see Section 3), the abduction of the President’s
son (see Section 1.c.), the beating of an opposition politician and journalist
(see Section 1.c.), and widespread dismissals of public officials for political
reasons contributed to an atmosphere of intimidation, as did public questioning
of the patriotism of citizens and journalists who spoke critically of developments
in Slovakia. An April proposal to amend the Criminal Code, which would
make it a punishable offense to facilitate the spread of false information
damaging to the interests of the Slovak Republic, added further to citizens’
fear of speaking out freely. In September a prominent writer sued the Slovak
Republic at the European Court of Human Rights, arguing that the Supreme
Court had admitted that his charges against a prominent politician (in
1993) were true but had still found him guilty of defamation. In another
case, human rights monitors noted continued police interrogation and investigation,
based on a Criminal Code provision prohibiting defamation of the President,
of a newspaper editor who published a letter of a reader (in 1994) which
was indirectly critical of the President.
In October Peter Toth, a journalist investigating the
abduction of President Kovac’s son, was physically attacked outside his
apartment.
Slovak radio and television are supervised by three
boards appointed by Parliament. The Slovak Television and Radio Councils
establish broadcasting policy. The Slovak Radio and Television Council
is responsible for issuing radio and television broadcast licenses. The
Radio and Television Council has made significant progress in fostering
the spread of privately owned broadcast media. Twenty-seven private radio
stations have been issued licenses. Of these, only five are not yet on
the air. State-owned Slovak television broadcasts on two channels. A private
company has been granted a license to broadcast nationwide on a third channel.
Four private companies and one local government have been granted licenses
to broadcast regionally. One company broadcasts nationally via satellite.
There are 73 cable television license holders, including private companies
and municipalities.
The state-owned electronic media have become increasingly
politicized since the new Parliament named new Television and Radio Councils,
which hired new directors in November 1994. The diversity of views, political
coverage, and objectivity of news and documentary programming on Slovak
television have dropped sharply, which is a disturbing trend since an estimated
84 percent of the population watches television. Slovak radio’s coverage
of internal political developments, although severely cut back, remains
more objective. Opposition views are given scant coverage in news programs.
Slovak television also carries relatively little coverage of the activities
of the President, who has been the target of repeated attacks by members
of the governing coalition. In April it refused to broadcast a speech by
the President, although it has carried others. In December an employee
of Kosice television was forced to resign after protesting editorial refusal
to cover President Kovac’s trip to the region.
In January the new director of Slovak television refused
to continue broadcasting three highly popular satirical programs which
had as their main targets members of the new Government. Opposition leaders
and the producers of the programs organized a petition campaign and mass
public demonstrations in March, calling for the programs’ restoration and
charging that the cancellation violated freedom of speech. Although the
Government did not interfere in the demonstrations, television coverage
omitted a report of their content; it did broadcast a critical commentary
by the Chairman of the Supreme Court. Several of the canceled programs
are now being broadcast by private satellite television companies.
In August the Board for Radio and Television Broadcasting
granted Radio Free Europe a 1 year license extension, rather than the requested
3 year extension. The license was conditioned on the “improvement” of the
“anti-Slovak” editorial bias.
The law provides for academic freedom, which is generally
respected.
SLOVENIA
The Constitution provides for freedom of thought, speech,
public association, the press, and other forms of public communication
and expression. Lingering self-censorship and some indirect political pressures
continue to influence the media.
The press is now a vigorous institution growing out
of its more restricted past. The media span the political spectrum from
left to right. Because Slovenia is ethnically homogeneous, the major media
do not represent a broad range of ethnic interests, although there is an
Italian-language television channel as well as a newspaper available to
the ethnic Italian minority who live on the Adriatic Coast. Hungarian radio
programming is common in the northeast where there are about 10,000 ethnic
Hungarians. Bosnian refugees and the Albanian community have newsletters
in their own languages.
Slovenia has five major daily and several weekly newspapers.
The major print media are supported through private investment and advertising,
although the national broadcaster, RTV Slovenia, enjoys government subsidies,
as do cultural publications and book publishing. There are five television
channels, two of them independent private stations. Numerous foreign broadcasts
are available via satellite and cable. All the major towns have radio stations
and cable television. Numerous business and academic journals and publications
are available. Foreign newspapers, magazines, and journals are available
in the larger towns.
For over 40 years Slovenia was ruled by an authoritarian
Communist political system. In theory and practice, the media enjoy full
freedom in their journalistic pursuits. However, reporting about domestic
politics may be influenced to some degree by self-censorship and indirect
political pressures.
The election law requires the media to offer free space
and time to political parties at election time.
The Constitution provides for autonomy and freedom for
universities and other institutions of higher education. Slovenia has two
universities, each with numerous affiliated research and study institutions.
Academic freedom is respected, and centers of higher education are lively
and intellectually stimulating.