BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
A new Bosnian Serb ultra-nationalist television channel
began transmitting [on 14th January] from Pale, the hardliners’ stronghold
near Sarajevo.
The channel—S-Kanal—broadcast music and news reports
from the Bosnian Serb [news] agency SRNA, but could only be picked up in
a small radius around Sarajevo due to a weak signal.
The hardline information minister of the Serb-run
half of Bosnia or Republika Srpska, Svetlana Siljegovic, has been appointed
director of the station, while Marica Lalovic is editor in chief, S-Kanal
officials said.
Most of the staff in S-Kanal’s small buildings in
Pale are former employees of the ultra-nationalists’ official television
station SRT [Serb Radio-Television]-Pale.
In October, SRT was banned from transmitting from
Pale by Carlos Westendorp, the top civilian international official in Bosnia,
who objected to broadcasts of propaganda hostile to the international community.
Four SRT transmitters were then seized by the NATO-led
Stabilization Force in Bosnia (Sfor) and placed under the control of Bosnian
Serb President Biljana Plavsic, who enjoys the backing of the international
community due to her support for the Dayton peace agreement.
Since then, the only programmes received in the
east of the Serb entity are those transmitted from SRT studios in Banja
Luka, in the north-west, and which are under Plavsic’s control.
Plavsic has been locked in a conflict with hardliners
in Pale since last June over power sharing and cooperation with the international
community in Bosnia.
[S-Kanal television, the “private and independent
television station” launched by the Bosnian Serbs on 13th January and of
which Radovan Karadzic’s daughter, Sonja, is said to be a co-founder, was
monitored in Sarajevo with poor video reception and good audio reception
at around 1430 gmt on 14th January.
The station was broadcasting a film, with the logo
of the Belgrade-based BK Television station shown. The film ended
at 1610 gmt. An on-screen message was then shown which read: “Eksperimentalni
programme Studio S” (“Test Programme Studio S”). This was followed
by another film, showing the logo of the Belgrade-based Radio-Television
Serbia (RTS) Channel 2. At 1640 gmt, the film ended abruptly and
a programme about Serbian Orthodox New Year celebrations on Mount Jahorina
began.]
BBC Monitoring Research, January 14, 1998
II. New Serb TV’s alleged link to Karadzic.
While the international community is spending hundreds
of thousands of dollars for a satellite uplink to facilitate broadcasting
of the programmes prepared by the Banja Luka studio of SRT [Serb Radio
and Television], in the eastern part of the RS [Serb Republic], the hardliners
from Pale, probably using equipment stolen from the Veliki Zep transmitter
and the disabled SRT studio in Pale, are launching a so-called private
and independent television station, S-Kanal [due to begin broadcasting
on 13th January].
The representatives of the international community
are not prepared to comment on what is happening with regard to the launch
of S-Kanal, except that it boils down to the link-up of several local television
stations into some kind of television network. Of course, when it
starts broadcasting, S-Kanal’s programmes and editorial policy will be
the subject of close scrutiny by the international organization’s representatives
in Bosnia-Hercegovina so that the inaccurate and inflammatory reports about
the international community and what its representatives are doing in Bosnia-Hercegovina
are not repeated.
Although no one is prepared to say what they know
about S-Kanal, we have nevertheless managed to obtain information from
sources close to the OHR [Office of High Representative] that this is a
private television station founded by three persons. One of them
is Sonja Karadzic, daughter of the war criminal [former Bosnian Serb President]
Radovan Karadzic and owner of the St John radio station. Although
the other owners are not known, it is assumed that they are officials of
the SDS [Serb Democratic Party].
The OHR is concerned about this development.
Help from Sfor [NATO-led Stabilization Force] to close it down will be
requested in the following cases: first, if the former workers and journalists
of SRT Pale studio, now employed in S-Kanal, return to their old way of
reporting, and second, if it is established that the equipment of the allegedly
private station is in fact the equipment of SRT, that is, if it is established
that the equipment of the Veliki Zep transmitter is used to link up local
television stations.
What is also worth mentioning is the fact that the
three-month agreement to carry programmes of SRT Banja Luka studio via
satellite expires on 31st January. This agreement has cost the international
community half a million dollars exactly. Of course, if it is established
that S-Kanal is using equipment stolen from the Veliki Zep transmitter,
it would be very embarrassing for the international community to continue
paying for the satellite uplink while at the same the SDS hardliners are
launching a new television station with equipment that the international
community is persistently searching for, demanding it be returned.
“S-Kanal under magnifying glass,” ‘Vecernje Novine,’ Sarajevo, January 13, 1998
III. New Serb TV told to avoid “incendiary reporting.”
Simon Haselock, spokesman of the Office of the High
Representative [OHR], said in Sarajevo on [8th January] that the employees
of the former Pale SRT [Serb Radio and Television] had the right to form
a private television network.
He recalled that they could do this if they had
the technical capability. Haselock added that the information ministries
of the entities are the ones who issue broadcasting licences to private
stations.
However, this private station, if it is formed,
will have to adhere to the rules of professional reporting and, as Haselock
warned, it will have to avoid propagandistic and incendiary reporting in
the earlier style of the SRT Pale studio. This station, too, will
fall under the scrutiny of and be monitored by the international community
representative.
Haselock added that there was a plan to organize
a private independent media commission, which would be authorized to issue
broadcasting licences to the stations in Bosnia-Hercegovina. The
main goal of this commission, the spokesman added, would be to safeguard
correct reporting in accordance with international standards of professional
journalism.
‘Slobodna Bosna’in its last issue of 1997 published
the political directives that the most wanted war criminal Radovan Karadzic
had issued to the Serb Democratic Party [SDS] members only a few days previously.
Among other things, the instructions say that “we must immediately start
developing ‘independent private media’ which are less vulnerable than the
state media. . . . [ellipsis as published] Pursuant to the
international conventions, we will soon have to allow the existence of
private networks and it would be better if these were taken over by people
who will always be close to the SDS rather than having them fall into the
uncertain hands of the adversaries who already have plenty of lethal media
at their disposal. . . . [ellipsis as published] The
state media must return under the authority of the government and this
should be accomplished by all means available. SRT is a company,
it is being run according to the law and the foreigners are obstructing
these assets and their lawful management.”
“Pale can start private TV,” ‘Oslobodjenje,’ Sarajevo, January 9, 1998
IV. NATO denies blocking access to SRT transmitters.
[The] news conference by international organizations
based in Sarajevo [on 6th January] focused on the return of refugees to
Brcko, farewell visits by UN envoy Kai Eide and other current issues. .
. .
[Reporter] Sfor [NATO-led Stabilization Force] spokesman, Louis Arnold
[phonetic], commented on yesterday’s [5th] statement by the deputy prime
minister of the [Bosnian] Serb Republic, Velibor Ostojic. The statement
said that the presence of Sfor troops around Serb Radio-TV transmitters
prevented regular maintenance work on the transmitters, and therefore prevented
a live relay of the first constituent session [of the Bosnian Serb assembly]
on 27th December.
The Sfor spokesman said that the statement was completely
untrue. Sfor is not preventing the maintenance staff from accessing
Serb Radio-TV transmitters, he said. On 27th December, Sfor even
transported Serb Radio-TV technicians to the Udrigovo transmitter because
of bad road conditions, which was not part of our usual duties. This
made it possible for Serb Radio-TV to do some work on the transmitter,
the spokesman said.
Radio Bosnia-Hercegovina, Sarajevo, January 6, 1998
V. OHR rejects Pale’s request for return of transmitters.
The Office of the High Representative [OHR] in Bosnia-Hercegovina
has rejected a request by the Bosnian Serb leadership in Pale to be given
back control of radio and television transmitters, which are currently
under NATO control.
The Office of the High Representative also dismissed
Serb accusations that transmitters had been damaged owing to poor maintenance.
Technicians of Serb Radio and Television have been
granted regular access to the transmitters so that they can take care of
their maintenance, said Rida Attanashari, spokesman for the Office of the
High Representative, in Sarajevo [on 6th January].
Radio and television transmitters in eastern Bosnia-Hercegovina
were put under control of the Stabilization Force (Sfor) after the studio
in Pale had ignored requests of the international community to change its
editing policy and ban party influence from the state media.
The Bosnian Serb television and radio programme
is being broadcast exclusively from a studio in Banja Luka.
However, Attanashari announced that an international
supervisor would be sent to Banja Luka as well, to monitor whether professional
media standards are being observed.
At a session held [on 5th] in Bijeljina, northern
Bosnia, the incumbent government of Republika Srpska, which is made up
exclusively of members of the Serb Democratic Party (SDS), asked Sfor to
give Pale studio control over the communication system.
They further said that the next session of the Bosnian
Serb assembly, to be held on 12th January, would be broadcast if their
request was met.
Westendorp’s spokesman said that the session of
the Bosnian Serb parliament would be held within the planned deadline.
Should it fail to take place as planned, the international
community would consider measures to be taken, Attanashari said.
UN spokesman Alexander Ivanko said that the outgoing
head of the UN mission in Bosnia-Hercegovina, Kai Eide, [on 5th] met with
the Serb member of the Bosnian presidency, Momcilo Krajisnik.
Eide demanded that the establishment of the new
Bosnian Serb government be accelerated.
HINA news agency, Zagreb, January 6, 1998
VI. Bosnian Serbs demand access to transmitters.
Velibor Ostojic, deputy prime minister in the
Bosnian Serb government, has demanded that the state broadcasting company
should be in charge of relays of future republican assembly sessions.
Speaking at a session of the government in Pale, during which refugee accommodation
and the functioning of the authority in Brcko were also discussed, Ostojic
said that the transmitters were in poor shape after the NATO-led Stabilization
Force had taken them over. The following are excerpts from a report
by the Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA:
The government of the [Bosnian] Serb Republic met
in Pale [on 5th January] and approved a project aimed at providing accommodation
for refugees currently living in collective accommodation centres throughout
the Serb Republic. . . .
In the part of the session at which the continuation
of the constituent session of the RS People’s Assembly was discussed, the
position was taken that the media must relay live all future republican
assembly sessions.
“The state broadcasting company must be in charge
of the relay. It is the broadcasting company owned by the RS [Bosnian
Serb Republic] government and managed by it,” Ostojic said. He questioned
claims made by international representatives and some others that the live
relay of the first part of the constituent session could have been secured
in two and a half hours.
“Since the Sfor [NATO-led Stabilization Force] troops
took over the transmitters of the Serb Radio-Television (SRT), closed the
Serb Sarajevo studio and prevented the government and SRT management from
managing the television, the transmitter system of this broadcasting company
has not been maintained,” Ostojic said.
According to him, the SRT transmitters are in a
very poor state. In order to secure territorial transmission it is
necessary to carry out general maintenance work on the Kozara, Duge Njive,
Udrigovo, Zep and Trebevic transmitters. In order to carry out necessary
maintenance, expert teams have to spend two days, not two and a half hours.
That is why the government will get in touch with
the Office of the High Representative and Sfor, in order to enable SRT
to take over transmitters, carry out maintenance work and set up the system
for live relay of the assembly session, but also for the main celebrations
of the RS patron’s day which will be held in Brcko on 9th January.
“The Ministry of Information, the government and
the ruling party aim to carry out their work under full public scrutiny,
but it can be secured only when the transmitters are returned,” Ostojic
said. . . .
Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA, Pale, January 5, 1998
VII. New media commission to start work.
According to Simon Haselock, chief of the public
liaison office of the Office of the High Representative [OHR], a new commission
that will concern itself with the media will start work at the beginning
of the new year.
It will be called the Interim Media Standards and
Licences Commission (IMSLC) and will consist of three subcommissions: the
appeals subcommission, the licences and standards subcommission and the
intervention tribunal.
The OSCE Media Experts Commission will also become
a part of the IMSLC.
The appeals subcommission will resemble the existing
Media Experts Commission. It will study complaints against the media
and issue recommendations for further action. The licences and standards
subcommission will keep a vigil on the observation of the media standards
laid out by the International Organization of Journalists. This commission
will also be in charge of the distribution of frequencies, Haselock says.
The intervention tribunal will be the judicial body
that will study the evidence against the media and make decisions.
The tribunal will have a series of measures at its disposal that it will
be able to take against media. In cases where the tribunal will not
have the option of imposing a penalty, the case will be forwarded to the
OHR’s Media Support and Advice Group (MSAG). . . .
The media will have a three-month grace period to
register with the IMSLC.
The condition for obtaining a working licence is
observation of the standards of the International Organization of Journalists.
‘Dnevni Avaz,’ Sarajevo, December 22, 1997
VIII. Serb St George Radio reportedly resumes broadcasts.
[On 8th December, t]he Banja Luka St George [Sveti
Georgije] Radio resumed broadcasting this morning.
After a brief outage and the temporary seizure of
equipment by the Banja Luka police, the radio resumed broadcasting at 0900
[0800 gmt] this morning on the frequency of 101.7 Mhz [FM], Boris Martinovic,
acting editor in chief of the radio, said [on 8th December].
Speaking at a news conference, Martinovic pointed
out that the workers of the radio “put together some older equipment, improvised
with it and connected it into a system, so that the radio station is working
again.”
He also said that he had requested the intervention
of the international community, so that the seized equipment would be returned,
and that a lawsuit had been filed against the members of the State Security
Centre and the Banja Luka Public Security Centre.
Beta news agency, Belgrade, December 8, 1997
IX. St George Radio protests seizure of equipment.
[On 1st December,] Boris Martinovic, acting editor
in chief of St George Radio in Banja Luka, said that the seizure of the
station’s equipment and the interruption of its programme “served neither
democracy nor the freedom of the media.”
The Serb Republic [RS] Ministry of Internal Affairs
announced [on 1st December] that, on 29th November, its members seized
all the equipment that was used to broadcast St George Radio’s test programme.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs says that Radio
Petrova Gora staff are the legal owners of the equipment used by St George
Radio.
At a news conference in Banja Luka, Martinovic said
that “this action by members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs serves
neither democracy nor the freedom of the media.”
“We will pursue this case until the end out of principle
and so that we will see how it is possible that the police can turn up
at the office of a radio station without a warrant,” Martinovic said, adding
that the radio station had received no official explanation as to why its
programmes had been interrupted and its equipment seized.
Martinovic said that Sfor [NATO-led Stabilization
Force] had shown interest in this case yesterday and that the International
Police Task Force, according to him, “has taken the matter into its hands.”
According to Martinovic, the programmes of St George
Radio are of a “tripartite” nature—the morning portion of the programmes,
the cultural element and “the element with a national, but not nationalist,
aspect.”
He added that it was also planned that the radio
station would devote a portion of its programmes to the refugees and displaced
persons.
Asked whether it was true that the equipment was
seized because it had been owned by the former Radio Petrova Gora from
the territory of the former Republic of Serb Krajina and that the Pink
Koridor private enterprise had appropriated the equipment, Martinovic replied
that Pink Koridor had not appropriated the equipment, but had received
it from the Serb Republic’s Ministry of Information.
The owner and founder of St George Radio is Miro
Mladjenovic, director of the Pink Koridor private company from Banja Luka
and an official of the Serb Democratic Party.
This radio station started broadcasting on 24th
November. St George Radio has broadcast experimental musical programmes.
Beta news agency, Belgrade, December 1, 1997
X. Serb St George Radio broadcasts “forcibly suspended.”
[On 29th November,] Members of the public security
centre in Banja Luka forcibly suspended broadcasts by St George Radio.
The station began to broadcast on 24th November on the 101.7 MHz [FM] frequency,
having previously obtained the appropriate licence.
St George Radio editor in chief Boro Martinovic
has confirmed in a statement to SRNA that six armed policemen forced their
entry into the station’s premises at 1105 [1005 gmt]. They did not
have a search warrant and entered under the pretext that there were hidden
weapons and explosive devices at the premises.
“The policeman in charge did not want to tell us
his name. He only showed us his police badge and said that the action
was being carried out on orders of the deputy chief of the public security
centre in Banja Luka, Radovan Grajic. He added that the police were
not obliged to show us the search warrant,” Martinovic said.
The search lasted two hours and the police temporarily
confiscated radio equipment and tools.
“The operation was carried out in a very embarrassing
atmosphere, particularly in view of the fact that mostly young people work
for this station and that there was no legal basis for the operation,”
Martinovic says.
He pointed out that the station had obtained a licence
and a frequency from the Information Ministry of the [Bosnian] Serb Republic,
and added that such “a democratic forced suspension of our work” [as received]
was worrying.
Martinovic said that the police saw all the documents
obtained by the radio in a legal and legitimate manner. He pointed
out that St George Radio belonged to the Pink Koridor private company from
Banja Luka and was one of many radio stations which had started broadcasting
recently.
[According to information received by BBC Monitoring
on 24th November from a PTT official in Banja Luka, St George Radio, which
had been due to start broadcasting on that date, did not actually do so,
but was expected to begin broadcasts “within the next few days.”]
Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA, Pale, November 29, 1997
XI. Sarajevo TV editor rejects criticism by High Representative.
Regarding a statement made at [the] news conference
[on 27th November] by a spokesman of the High Representative Office, Duncan
Bullivant, the editor in chief of the news and current affairs programme
of Bosnia-Hercegovina [Sarajevo] TV has issued a statement for the public,
which says the following:
Dear Mr Bullivant,
We agree with you that there is one interpretation
of the Dayton Agreement: the High Representative’s interpretation.
The report broadcast in the second news bulletin of Bosnian TV last night
was not aimed at interpreting the Dayton Agreement. Contrary to your
claim, our aim was to draw attention of the institutions of power in Bosnia-Hercegovina
to the urgency of resolving the problem of individuals with temporary right
to use flats. We regret that you interpreted the report in question
the way you did.
At the same time, we are informing you that this
is just one of the reports on the subject which we plan to do.
We also wish to ask you to finally stop making unfounded
grave criticism of the editorial policy of Bosnia-Hercegovina TV and to
bear in mind constantly:
1. That no-one is manipulating us;
2. That we are not misinforming the people of this
country;
3. That we are not striking fear into anyone nor
will we ever do that ;
4. That we present facts and the viewers only draw
their own conclusions, the same way you did, the statement issued by the
editor in chief of the news and current affairs programme of Bosnia-Hercegovina
TV says.
TV Bosnia-Hercegovina via satellite, Sarajevo, November 27, 1997
XII. St John Radio head says Sfor blocking transmitter access.
Dragan Stajcic, editor in chief of the [Pale-based]
St John Orthodox radio, has told the [Bosnian] Serb news agency [SRNA]
that Sfor [NATO-led Stabilization Force] troops were still barring access
by the radio’s technical team to the transmitters on Trebevic, Kmur, Lebrsnik
and Leotar.
Stajcic said that the reason for the transmitters
being out of order since 15th November has not been established.
Since that day St John radio broadcasts have not been heard in the eastern
part of the Serb Republic.
There have been no official statements from the
Office of the High Representative for civilian affairs in Bosnia-Hercegovina
or Sfor.
[The SRNA news agency reported on 17th November
that St John Radio “came back on the air this evening and its programmes
can be heard throughout the [Bosnian] Serb Republic and parts of the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia.”]
Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA, Pale, November 17, 1997
XIII. NATO-led troops close Serb St John radio temporarily.
Troops of the NATO-led Stabilization Force (Sfor)
in Bosnia have prevented a hardline Bosnian Serb radio station from broadcasting
its programmes, the Belgrade-based independent news agency Beta reported
on 16th November.
It said the station, St John Radio Pale, was run
by Sonja Karadzic, the daughter of the indicted war crimes suspect, Radovan
Karadzic.
The radio chief editor Dragan Stajic informed Beta
that Sfor troops intervened to switch off the radio’s transmitters station
on 15th November. He told the agency that the radio station has not
been heard in the eastern parts of the Serb Republic since the 15th.
Beta reported Stajic as saying that Sfor was denying
radio technicians access to the transmitters. “There has still not
been any official explanation for switching off this radio signal from
the Office of the High Representative for Bosnia-Hercegovina or the Sfor
office in Pale,” he was quoted as saying.
St John broadcasts mostly music programmes with
hourly news bulletins, the agency said.
Beta news agency, Belgrade, November 16, 1997
Ten days before the end of the UNTAES [UN Transitional
Administration for Eastern Slavonia] mandate in Croatia’s Danube valley,
another very important stage of the reintegration process has been completed.
In the final talks with Ivica Mudrinic, managing director of the HRT [Croatian
Radio-Television], the Danube valley Serbs have been reintegrated into
the Croatian information system with Televizija Dunav.
What is this station? The current TV Beli
Manastir and TV Vukovar are to merge into Televizija Dunav and the new
company will employ all 39 of their present employees. They will
not be on the HRT payroll, as their representative Milan Trbojevic said;
being registered as a joint stock company, they will take care of funding
themselves, including employees’ salaries.
Those whose intentions are not good will probably
say that existence of a Serb television station in Croatia is another concession
on the part of the Croatians to the Serbs. However, TV Dunav is not
a concession to the Serbs, but just further proof of the tolerance and
democracy in the Croatian state, which has again proven that it observes
and protects the rights of national minorities in practice. It has
also been agreed that the Serbs will have the right to autonomy in language
in their broadcasts, which means that they will speak and write the Serbian
language, and this state will not impose any limitations on that.
However, regardless of how the existence of Serb
television and the alleged concessions of Croatia to this may be interpreted,
it is more important to understand the goals and the reasons for the work
of TV Dunav, which is timely information for all the inhabitants of Croatia’
s Danube valley, regardless of their nationality. We must admit that
both Croatian and Serb representatives have a point when they say that
unbiased information will contribute to calming down the national passions
and establishing mutual trust. Serb television, it has been agreed and
promised, will broadcast in the spirit of reconciliation.
Is TV Dunav a question of Croatia giving in to the
Serbs? Although some will use its existence to support their notions
about mistakes in the peaceful reintegration process, which will soon officially
end, it seems after all that we are actually witnessing the Serb side giving
in. Is not the fact that the name of this Serb television station
does not contain the adjective Serb proof of this?
“A concession to tolerance and trust,” ‘Vjesnik,’ Zagreb, January 7, 1998
II. Slavonian Serb TV studio to broadcast on Croatian TV.
Croatian Radio-Television (HRT) general director
Ivica Mudrinic met for talks with local Serb representatives in Vukovar
on [5th January]. The talks focused on the reintegration of electronic
media from the Croatian Danube river region into Croatia’s media sector.
The two sides agreed that Croatian Television’s
(HTV) second channel would broadcast a half-hour programme from the television
station TV Dunav every working day at 6 p.m. [1700 gmt], as of 9th January.
It was also agreed that TV Dunav would broadcast
an hour-long programme on the second HTV channel on weekends, at the beginning
of broadcasting, Mudrinic said after the talks, which were held behind
closed doors.
All employees in local television stations in Beli
Manastir and Vukovar would continue to work, but in an integral and independent
company which would be called Televizija Dunav, the HRT general director
said.
Vojislav Stanimirovic, a local Serb representative,
said that the local population had no reason to be dissatisfied with the
agreement since HRT’s general director and his associates were willing
to offer help.
“We have been given the opportunity to create a
television programme from this area in a TV studio which will be called
Televizija Dunav, and which will consist of Vukovar and Beli Manastir studios,”
said Stanimirovic.
Commenting on the omission of the adjective “Serb”
from the name “television,” Stanimirovic said that as a member of the National
Trust Establishment Committee he would continue to contribute to the disappearance
of national rhetoric from TV studios. He added he hoped that other
TV studios in Croatia would follow the same practice.
The programme of Televizija Dunav will be oriented
towards establishing trust in the interest of all people who live in the
Danube river region, said Milan Trbojevic, president of the Information
Committee of the Joint Council of (Serb-dominated) Municipalities.
Today’s [5th] agreement would be confirmed with
a special contract and TV Dunav would be registered as a self-financed
company.
Apart from high HRT representatives, today’s [5th]
talks in Vukovar were also attended by the Vukovar and Osijek county prefects
and a representative of the UN Transitional Administration in Eastern Slavonia
(UNTAES).
HINA news agency, Zagreb, January 5, 1998
III. Croats angry at Muslim treatment of Croat media.
The Croat member of the Bosnian Presidency Kresimir
Zubak on [21st November] asked the High Representative for the implementation
of the Dayton agreement, Carlos Westendorp, and his deputies, Jacques Klein
and Hans Schumacher, for their comment on the situation in electronic media
in Bosnia-Hercegovina, in particular on the right of the Croat people to
information in their mother tongue. In a letter sent to the highest
representatives of the international community in Bosnia-Hercegovina, Zubak
recalled that the intolerable situation in the electronic media had been
already brought to the attention of the international community several
times.
Although Bosnia-Hercegovina had adopted the European
Charter on Regional and Minority Languages, which guaranteed the right
to information in their mother tongue to all citizens of every state signatory
to the Charter, the Muslim-Bosniak authorities were doing everything to
prevent, hamper and prohibit the broadcasting of the small number of local
Croat TV stations, as well as of Croatian Television [HTV] programmes,
the letter said. The aim is clear, specifically, to prevent Croats
from receiving information in their mother tongue as well as to prevent
non-Croat viewers of HTV programmes from receiving highly compromising
information about the Muslim-Bosniak authorities, Zubak said. Zubak
also stressed the recent forcible prevention of broadcasting of HTV programmes
in the areas of Tuzla and Zenica. He requested the Office of the
High Representative to finally take a stand on this problem, asking whether
the Office was able to secure the implementation of the European Charter
on Regional and Minority Languages.
HINA news agency, Zagreb, November 21, 1997
IV. Authorities order dismantling of Zenica transmitter.
The Communications Ministry of Zenica-Doboj county
has invoked the local law on communications and ordered the Croatian Democratic
Union [HDZ-ruling Bosnian Croat party] of Zenica to dismantle the transmitter
in Zenica within 24 hours. Croats and Bosniaks-Muslims are thus being
unlawfully prevented from watching three TV programmes of the Ortel broadcasting
company in Mostar, a statement by Ortel says. The official decision,
signed by Rasim Kovac, notes incorrectly that the Croat TV programme is
broadcast without a licence.
After a number of attacks on Croats in central Bosnia,
the latest attempt by Bosniaks-Muslims to ignore the radio and TV licence
obtained in 1996 aims to discriminate against the Croat people and their
media, and ban the only programme in Croatian.
The Bosniak police have recently dismantled and
confiscated a similar transmitter which enabled viewers in part of Sarajevo
to watch Croat TV programme. Bosniak newspapers then said that other
transmitters would soon follow, preventing Croats in Bosnia-Hercegovina
from watching programme in Croatian. The Bosniak police have thus
entirely unlawfully annulled licences issued by the Communications and
Foreign Trade Ministry of Bosnia-Hercegovina in 1996.
The latest action in Zenica is in direct violation
of the media system defined by the Dayton Agreement. The attempt
to isolate Croats in Sarajevo and Zenica as far as their media are concerned
should help create an ethnically pure media system in Bosnian and stamp
out Croatian in central Bosnia, says the statement which Ortel has sent
to international organizations and media in Bosnia-Hercegovina.
Croat Radio Herceg-Bosna, Mostar, November 19, 1997
Zoran Jocovic, the director-general of Radio-Television
[RTV] Montenegro, has tendered his resignation, Beta has learned.
In a letter he sent to Predrag Bulatovic, chairman of the RTV administrative
board, Jocovic said that the decision to resign was his own and was irreversible.
However, as Bulatovic himself resigned yesterday as chairman of RTV Montenegro’s
administrative board, he advised Jocovic to forward his resignation to
the new chairman of RTV Montenegro’s administrative board, who will be
elected by the Assembly, or to the Montenegrin Assembly Speaker Svetozar
Marovic.
By resigning as chairman of the administrative board,
I am breaking off all further official contacts with it and with the other
responsible people at RTV Montenegro, reads Bulatovic’s response to Jocovic.
Bulatovic also sent a letter to the Assembly Speaker
Svetozar Marovic in which he notified him of his resignation as chairman
of RTV Montenegro’s administrative board. According to what Beta
has learned, Bulatovic states in his letter that there are several reasons
for his resignation, but that the main one is that “the political interests
of a number of members have blocked the work of the administrative board,
thus preventing it from working in line with RTV Montenegro’s law and acts.
This made possible a drastic deviation from the radio and television’s
programme orientation and the Law on Public Information,” reads Bulatovic’s
letter to Assembly Speaker Svetozar Marovic. . . .
According to unofficial, but reliable information,
Srdja Bozovic, chairman of the Pobjeda publishing company’s administrative
board, will also resign from his post. It is, moreover, expected
that Dragisa Pesic and Milutin Ojdanic will follow suit. They are
all members or high-ranking officials of Momir Bulatovic’s branch of the
Democratic Party of Socialists [DPS]. Zoran Jocovic, until now the
director of RTV Montenegro, has not appeared in public since the beginning
of the crisis in the DPS, but it is a fact that he is close to Momir Bulatovic.
The Montenegrin public has still not been informed of Jocovic and Bulatovic’s
resignations.
Beta news agency, Belgrade, December 4, 1997
Federal Information Minister Goran Matic dismissed
[on 29th December] as “tendentious” all assessments about the closed nature
and blockade of the FRY [Federal Republic of Yugoslavia] media.
In talks with journalists in the Federal Assembly,
Matic added that the government has not given up on Yugoslav radio and
television and announced that the federal public media will undergo scrutiny
in the coming year in order to strengthen their position and link them
closer to the interests and views of the federal state.
Matic pointed out that the people may not like a
particular station or a programme, but “the conditions for free expression
of opinion do exist in our information system.”
Matic compares Croat and Serbian media
As proof of this, Matic cited the number of newspapers,
agencies, and radio and television stations that exist on the Yugoslav
information scene. “We have six news agencies, only one of which
is state-owned,” the federal information minister said.
“At the same time, the Croats have practically the
same media that they had prior to their secession, they have Hina and no
other agency but the state-run one. The same applies to all other
former Yugoslav republics,” Matic said.
According to Matic, many guests “who came from the
EU, from other countries and from UNESCO were amazed at the situation in
this department, and that is why we are surprised by the frequent citing
of the Gonzalez letter,” Matic said.
His assessment is that numerous processes that have
taken place this year show “that we have abandoned this vicious cycle,
and, from now on, we must make the transition into the cycle of talks about
responsibility, professional journalism, objectivity and other standards.”
“The story about somebody strangling the Serbian
media is a story that definitively belongs to the past and the realm of
tendentious allegations,” Matic said.
Denying journalists’ claims that the federal budget
did not envisage a single dinar for Yugoslav Radio and Television, Matic
said that this station “will not be the place where the money of this country’s
citizens would vanish because we believe that the station can function
on the basis of the market principles.”
Asked whether the federal government enjoys Montenegro’s
support for this project, Matic said: “Why not? The interest of all
citizens and political structures is pluralization, so if the Montenegrin
government truly favours reforms, then I do not see why there would be
any problem about it.” . . .
Frequency allocation
As for the allocation of frequencies, Matic said
that the Federal Ministry of Telecommunications “has started working on
the Law on Telecommunications” and that broadcasting licences will not
be withheld from anyone for political reasons; however, he added, “the
laws must be observed.”
“We hope that the regulation in this realm will
be carried out legally and regularly to the satisfaction of those who would
like to engage in this profession and of the future, and to the detriment
of those who perceive this as a grey-economy area where one can simply
start a radio station and go around the neighbourhood collecting money
for broadcasting radio requests without paying anything to anyone for this,”
Matic said.
He added that 700 media are operating without licences
in Yugoslavia.
Beta news agency, Belgrade, December 29, 1997
II. Radio Indeks interference linked to Kosovo reports.
[On 21st December] between 1030 and 1630, Radio Indeks
suffered serious transmission interference, probably owing to the sensitive
reports the Radio Indeks reporter was filing from Pec and Decani in Kosovo,
‘Nasa Borba’ has been told by Aleksandar Vasic, the station’s news editor.
“The reports on the voting in Kosovo contained information
about the arrest of election controllers. We were the first electronic
medium to report the arrest of the eight deputies of the Serbian Radical
Party [SRS]. Since the reporting on the election incidents in Kosovo
coincided with the transmission problems, I assume that the reports were
the main reason for the sudden interference,” Vasic says.
According to him, Radio Indeks technical teams tried
on several occasions [on 21st] to get to the transmitters and investigate
the causes of the interference, but Radio-Television of Serbia [RTS] employees
denied them access.
‘Nasa Borba,’ Belgrade, December 22, 1997
III. Serb local TV stations link up.
[Bosnian] Serb Television [STV—Srpska Televizija]
is not in fact a real television network in the proper sense. It
came into existence through the linking up of three local television stations
(Bijeljina, Doboj and Foca). By using the standard logo SRT [Serb
Radio-Television], the SDS [Serb Democratic Party] has successfully mitigated
and atoned for the loss of its eternally loyal SRT studio in Pale.
Deceived viewers
Considering the statements by people who have been
able to watch STV’ s broadcasts, some not so well informed viewers could
get the impression that it is a real television network! As for the
programme concept, the above television stations have taken on the “holy
duty” of defending Serbhood, which, in practice, means glorification of
the SDS and slinging mud at [Bosnian Serb President] Biljana Plavsic.
This resulted in the hard-liners’ good rating in regions that receive the
signal of the nonexistent STV. Such a development amidst the Serb
Republic’s media chaos was certainly not advantageous for the international
community, particularly if we consider the report, albeit unconfirmed,
that STV became operational only one month before the parliamentary elections
in the Serb Republic. However, there has been no concrete action
to crush this “sabotage” by the SDS. Why?
“We are familiar with the case of STV, but there
is nothing we can do about it. It seems that people do not quite
understand the position of the OHR [Office of the High Representative].
We took action against SRT in Pale, and not against the SDS. What
we can do in this particular case is to monitor their programmes in order
to establish whether they have been violating the rules and regulations
of the Media Expert Commission. We cannot simply go and say ‘we shall
close you down’ if you say something against Biljana Plavsic,” says Simon
Haselock [OHR spokesman], explaining why the international community has
not taken any action.
According to him, in order for the OHR to be respected
and recognized as a democratic institution whose work is legitimate, from
the time of a particular violation to the final decision on possible closure
one must observe the proper course of legal actions and procedures.
The role of the licence
“For the SRT in Pale we have a long list of registered
violations of the rules and regulations of the Media Expert Commission.
There was also a decision issued by the Commission that SRT in Pale did
not observe. They also did not observe the so-called Udrigovo agreement,
nor did they pay any regard to our warnings, and only then did we take
action,” Haselock says, adding that certain stations within the STV, too,
have broadcast unacceptable reports and commentaries.
“We cannot halt the development of new services,
and the problem does not lie in the question of who sets them up, but rather
in the way things are done, that is, in what and how the public are informed.
That is important. We are not here to close down the media because
we disagree with what they say or write,” Haselock explains.
However, Haselock announces, everything will be
different from the New Year onwards, when a new media commission starts
operating within the OHR (the Commission for Media Regulation and Licensing).
“All the media will have to possess an operating
licence, which they will obtain on the basis of their compliance with worldwide
recognized media standards. A medium that fails to comply with those
standards will lose its licence, and consequently its right to operate.
However, if they continue to operate, sanctions of a different kind will
follow,” Haselock says.
‘Vecernje Novine,’ Sarajevo, November 28, 1997
IV. UK promises more aid to Yugoslav independent media.
[On November 25th t]he chief editor of Radio B92,
Veran Matic, had talks in London with the UK foreign secretary, Robin Cook.
Here is what Veran Matic said about their talks:
[Matic] UK Foreign Secretary Robin Cook is one of the few European
politicians who is completely devoted to the ideas of individual human
rights. Therefore, his attention is focused on the position and development
of free and professional media. The new British government has demonstrated
this in practice by lending firm support to the development of independent
media in former Yugoslavia, particularly to the development of an association
and network of independent electronic media in Serbia and Montenegro.
The 28-station strong network in Serbia and Montenegro, which has been
initiated by B92, is being developed with the BBC’s technical support.
Yesterday and today I had talks on the continued development of that project.
Mr Robin Cook congratulated us on our successful
and professional work and lent clear political support to our efforts to
improve and widen the network. Educational expert help will be improved.
We are hoping to get more satellite broadcast time so that members of the
network should be able to exchange reports and programmes more extensively.
I reminded Mr Cook of a speech he gave in June 1997
in which he promised to redirect some military training funds to the funds
for professional journalism and the building of civic society. I
consider this a very important aspect of our cooperation. Their political
support is very important, particularly when we are exposed to the permanent
threat of having the work of our entire network banned.
After this meeting, and judging from our experience
so far, I am convinced that the British government—which in January is
taking over the EU presidency—will strongly oppose the denial of the elementary
human right to the freedom of information. Mr Cook also supported
the attempts of the independent media association to create a link between
independent TV stations. Initially, he promised that he would get
personally involved in ensuring that quality British-made programmes were
given to Serbian and Montenegrin stations.
Radio B92, Belgrade, November 25, 1997
Slovenes still pay much attention to the traditional
press, even though after 1990 and the liberalization of how frequencies
are distributed, the number of electronic media has trebled.
Printed media
With something over one million potential readers,
Slovenia has five dailies: Ljubljana ‘Delo’ (the average print run is 93,000);
Ljubljana ‘Dnevnik’ (65,000); Ljubljana ‘Slovenske Novice’ (a tabloid with
82,000 copies printed); the Ljubljana sports newspaper ‘Ekipa’ (30,000);
and Maribor ‘Vecer’ (67,000).
Two newspapers have ceased publication since 1992,
owing to lack of money, ‘Slovenec’ of the Christian Democrats and the left-orientated
‘Republika.’ In addition to the five dailies (with a total print
run of 337,000 copies per day), there are 46 regional papers and a large
number of magazines, news sheets, tabloids and so forth, a total of 656
various publications with a print run of about five million, which is a
fairly large number of copies for a country with two million people.
Among the weeklies, ‘Nedeljski Dnevnik’ with an
average print run of 181,000 is a real phenomenon. Also popular are
‘7D,’ ‘Kmecki Glas,’ ‘ Jansa’s Mag,’ ‘Mladina’ and ‘Nedelo,’ each printing
some 20,000 copies. A Catholic paper ‘Druzina’ and a children’s magazine
‘Ciciban’ have a print run of 75,000 copies.
Television and radio
Slovenia has three state television channels (the
first and second channel of RTV Slovenia and RTV Koper-Capodistria channel
for members of the Italian minority). There are eight state radio
stations (three RTV Slovenia stations and five regional stations).
There are also 36 other television channels.
Of these, three are national commercial TV stations (Catholic TV3, which
is barely surviving, Pop TV, with a third of its capital owned by Americans,
A Channel, with about the same proportion of Scandinavian capital, and
the experimental 3 TV), while other channels are all local.
Fifty-one radio stations broadcast continuously.
Of these, 21 are non-commercial. Radio Slovenia (1st and 2nd programmes)
is regularly listened to by more than 60 per cent of all listeners.
Among the television stations, Pop TV is the one with the fastest growing
popularity (it runs US serials and films). In 1996, it became almost
as popular as national television.
Slovenia is among the most developed European countries
in terms of how many people cable television reaches. About 60 per
cent of Slovene households have it (everyone also has the satellite programme
of RTV Serbia).
It is interesting that the state television is fairly
inclined towards the opposition. During the election campaign period,
it demonstrated extreme inclination towards the opposition. This
can be explained by the fact that the current director, Janez Cadez, and
his predecessor Zarko Petan, belong to the so-called spring or right-wing
Slovene parties.
With the departure of the leading journalists close
to Jansa, the most influential daily ‘Delo’ has in the past few years clearly
distanced itself from both the authorities and the opposition, but has
become slightly more inclined towards Kucan’s views. ‘Dnevnik’ and
‘ Vecer’ are also objective dailies.
Formally independent but de facto party papers,
such as Jansa’s ‘Demokracija,’ Podobnik’s ‘Slovenske Brazde’ and Peterle’s
failed ‘Slovenec,’ have had no or very limited influence on public opinion.
Generally speaking, the Slovene media are to a large
extent objective and ideologically and materially independent. Considering
the extent to which they are watched or their relatively large print runs,
their influence on Slovene society and the shaping of the public opinion
is indisputable.
Beta news agency, Belgrade, December 22, 1997