ALBANIA
I. Intelligence service allegedly jamming VOA broadcasts.CZECH REPUBLIC
II. CNN said involved in Kosovo Albanians’ “media strategy.”
I. New Czech TV head says no radical changes planned.HUNGARY
I. Antenna Hungaria, Eutelsat launch digital platform.POLAND
I. TVP management allegedly “meddling in programmes.”SLOVAKIA
II. KRRiTV enforces European TV quota, upsets USA.
III. KRRiTV chairman criticizes public TV board changes.
I. Council upholds Radio Twist licence.
II. Parliament body questions cost of planned satellite TV.
The new censorship department
of the National Intelligence Service of [Prime Minister] Fatos Nano and
[National Intelligence Service Chairman] Fatos Klosi again jammed yesterday’s
final Voice of America broadcast, while the news conference of Democratic
Party [PD] leader Sali Berisha was being carried. The interruption
came at the moment when the radio was broadcasting the position taken by
the PD on the visit of the European troika to Albania and the delegation’s
recommendations for the entire Albanian political spectrum.
This censorship of Voice
of America continued for some minutes and extended into the declaration
by the US State Department emphasizing that Albania had still not emerged
from the crisis of 1997. The declaration stated that a climate of
political tension prevailed in Albania and asked the governing coalition
to respect the rights of the opposition, the independence of the judiciary
and so on.
This is the second time
within a few days that the censors, who have returned to their posts with
staff from the former State Security Service, have gagged Voice of America
to prevent Albanians from hearing the voice of the opposition. Yesterday
evening’s case is another example of the blindness of today’s Albanian
government, which is vainly trying to cover up the country’s serious crisis
using an abortive information blackout.
[On 22nd January, ‘Rilindja
Demokratike’ reported: “The Albanian-language broadcasts of Voice of America
were also interrupted yesterday evening by order from above. Listeners
were unable to hear the 2030 [1930 gmt] news broadcast. The broadcast
was interrupted, not to be resumed, as soon as a report on the situation
in Shkoder began. This did not happen to the BBC, which was able
to broadcast freely its own version of the situation in Shkoder and the
political reaction in Tirana.”]
“Voice of America jammed—Berisha’s speech and the State Department’s declaration censored,” ‘Rilindja Demokratike,’ Tirana, January 22, 1998
II. CNN said involved in Kosovo Albanians’ “media strategy.”
The media strategy of the
separatist movement in Kosovo-Metohija has its internal and external dimensions.
The internal system of disseminating information relies on newspapers with
a strong separatist element, such as ‘Koha Ditore,’ ‘Bujku’ and ‘Koha’
(in English). The separatists are publishing more than 10 daily and
weekly papers and other periodicals with a relative large print run compared
with the press that is published in Serbian in Kosovo-Metohija.
The main media centre is
the Kosovo Information Centre [KIC], which is attached to the Democratic
League of Kosovo. It has a wide network of correspondents in Kosmet
[Kosovo-Metohija] itself, as well as in the more important parts of the
FRY [Federal Republic of Yugoslavia], Slovenia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Macedonia
and Croatia. Information is sent to, or received from, the Kosovo
cultural and information centres in western Europe and the United States
via KIC. The whole system operates via the Internet. The external
system of disseminating information is connected to the media centres in
the West. The political stands of the separatists’ organizations
are articulated through a Washington-based public relations firm, “Ruder
Fin,” which received more than 2m dollars from the separatists for its
“good services” between the middle of 1992 and October 1996.
“Ruder Fin” turns LDK and
KIC information into political appeals and statements and then, in a perfidious
way, distributes it among US senators and congressmen and sends it to the
UN diplomatic missions, EU and the media agencies of significant influence.
The information used by “Ruder Fin,” which is headed by James Harph, is
horrifying, especially the information on the state of human rights and
attitudes towards students, intellectuals and independent trade unions.
Exaggerated information is first received from the KIC and the Helsinki
Committee, which is headed by Gazmend Pulja. The already edited information
is additionally “polished” in “Ruder Fin” and then sent to the selected
addresses.
KIC enjoys great support from the US Information Centre in Pristina,
which actively supports the separatists’ nomenclature with a good deal
of partiality. The Kosovo Soros Foundation, headed by Skeljzen Malici,
has provided substantial funds for the affirmation of the separatist press
and journalists. In the US diplomatic strategy in the Balkans, the
State Department directs the core of its policies and actions via CNN.
Kosovo-Metohija as a potential
hotbed of crisis is already being worked on in this TV company, as was
the case with the civil wars in Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina. “Ruder
Fin’s” task is to influence world’s political centres, while that of CNN
is to present the situation in Kosovo-Metohija in the most dramatic way
with regard to organized political and trade union protests, actions by
the police in Kosovo-Metohija, including the separatists’ major actions
or massacres based on the Markale model [massacre in Sarajevo caused by
Bosnian Serb artillery, ascribed by certain Serbian commentators to the
Bosnia-Hercegovina government in order to elicit world sympathy].
Regarding the actions by
the Liberation Army of Kosovo and the spread of terrorism, the media in
the United States have been selective, as it is difficult to swallow the
fact that the separatist parties in Kosovo-Metohija are not only fighting
for democratic rights, but also for secession and for spreading terrorism.
The powerful and well organized Albanian Radio-Television continues to
give media support to the separatists’ goals. During Sali Berisha’s
rule, it called on its compatriots in Kosovo-Metohija to stage armed resistance.
All Albanian governments, including that of Fatos Nano, are striving for
the independence of Kosovo-Metohija, in stages.
‘Politika Ekspres,’ Belgrade, January 14, 1998
The 28-year-old new head
of Czech Television, Jakub Puchalsky, said [on 5th February] that he was
not planning any radical changes when he arrives at CT’s Kavci Hory headquarters
on 1st April, but wants to become acquainted with the internal workings
of the organization as quickly as possible.
“My mission at Kavci Hory
won’t be to bring about any radical changes,” Puchalsky told CTK [on 5th
February], adding that he would of course be arriving with some concrete
ideas about what public television should be about and what programmes
it should offer its viewers. Only when these ideas met reality would
he be able to speak about any significant changes, he said.
Puchalsky did say however
that Czech Television’s news reporting, which was of “a very high standard,”
ought to be more analytical in future.
“In some cases it will maybe
feature less stories but deeper analysis and more discussion than before,”
said Puchalsky, adding that there had been cases where reports could have
been scheduled better. He said he would never give a car crash priority
over an important international summit, for example. Puchalsky ruled
out news programmes receiving more airtime, however.
He said he wanted to see
more age differentiation in programmes for children and young people.
Such programmes should be more educational and “more in step with current
social and cultural trends.”
Puchalsky added that he
would like to see more educational aspects to other programmes as well,
to contribute to improving the overall culture-consciousness, education
and tolerance of Czech Television’s viewing public at large.
“Czech Television should aid public and political debate, reflecting
and analysing, so contributing to the culture of this society,” he said.
Puchalsky stressed immediately
after his appointment on [4th February] that his mission was not to embark
on a ratings war with the country’s two commercial stations, TV Nova and
TV Prima, but rather to devote more attention to “minority viewers” and
concentrate on news reporting.
“Most of all I want to work
100 per cent with CT employees, who I consider professionals, people who
are producing excellent public television, and who I consider to be my
main allies and partners at the moment,” he said.
Puchalsky also praised outgoing director-general Ivo Mathe, whose
efforts had ensured that the Czech Republic had “very good public television
which has in fact helped democracy itself.”
CTK news agency, Prague, February 5, 1998
Text of press release
by the European satellite organization Eutelsat:
Eutelsat, Europe’s largest
satellite operator and Antenna Hungaria, Hungary’s national broadcasting
company, today announced in Budapest the launch of the first digital platform
in central Europe for television and multimedia services.
The new digital platform,
based in Budapest, will enable Hungary to move quickly into the multimedia
era and will use the strengths of the Eutelsat satellites which provide
instant local and international network infrastructure and offer among
the fastest broadband delivery systems in the world.
The platform can be used
to deliver digital television channels to direct-to-home, cable or community
antennas, to distribute digital radio and multimedia content, for corporate
data broadcasting, business television and, of course, for Internet access.
It will operate using the DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) standard which
was pioneered in Europe with the active participation of Eutelsat.
DVB allows multimedia content
(E-mail, web pages, etc.) and other data traffic to be received by the
same antenna as for digital satellite TV. Once received, the de-multiplexed
information is sent to the relevant module: the video decoder for television
and/or the PC for multimedia content.
Hungary is one of the first
countries in Europe, and the first in central Europe, to launch a digital
platform with Eutelsat. Together with shareholders or other partners,
Eutelsat is building a network of platforms within the coverage zones of
its satellites (Europe, North Africa and the Middle East) so that service
and content providers have easy access to satellite capacity via a local
supplier.
(A digital platform is the
equipment (encoder, multiplexer, uplink antenna, etc.) to package video,
audio and data information and transmit it to a Eutelsat satellite for
reception on the ground by one or multiple receive sites).
Eutelsat, Paris, January 26, 1998
Since recently, TVP [Polish
state television] management has been increasingly interfering with reports
prepared by journalists. As a result of such interference, the “Wiadomosci”
[News] bulletin did not report the fact that the Polish president had advertised
furniture made by the private company Forte. On [6th February], the
chief of the “In the Centre of Attention” [news magazine] programme was
dismissed. We have unofficially learnt that his dismissal was connected
with the programme’s edition on the president’s advertisement.
The news that the president
advertised furniture made by Forte made front-page headlines in all the
newspapers. However, “Wiadomosci,” watched by several million viewers
every day, reported nothing on the issue. Jacek Maziarski, head of
“Wiadomosci,” and Grzegorz Kozak, his deputy, were against including this
information in the programme.
“We believed viewers would
not be interested in this issue. It seemed stale to us,” says Jacek
Maziarski. In his opinion, “In the Centre of Attention” gave enough
attention to the matter.
As we have unofficially
learnt, Karol Sawicki, deputy director of the Television News Agency [TAI],
attempted to bar the programme devoted to the advertising of Forte furniture
by President Kwasniewski. Andrzej Kwiatkowski, TVP programming manager
connected with the Democratic Left Alliance [SLD], was also reportedly
unhappy about the programme. Several days later, Barbara Rogalska,
chief editor of the “In the Centre of Attention,” was dismissed.
“Ms Rogalska was not dismissed;
it is just that the position of the programme’s chief was eliminated.
It was done in compliance with the new TAI statute which does not envision
a separate editorial team for that programme,” says Maziarski. According
to the TAI statute, “In the Centre of Attention” will be a continuation
of the “Wiadomosci” news bulletin.
According to our information,
[TVP chief] Ryszard Miazek was reportedly persuaded to sack Rogalska by
Andrzej Kwiatkowski.
“He convinced Miazek by
saying that in its edition devoted to the decentralization reform, the
programme featured only the SLD as the opposition, while the Polish Peasant
Party [Miazek’s party] was ignored,” a television employee said.
In his opinion, television management interferes increasingly frequently
in the work of journalists—especially if it can prove inconvenient for
the SLD.
‘Zycie,’ Warsaw, February 9, 1998
II. KRRiTV enforces European TV quota, upsets USA.
From the beginning of this
year, all Polish television networks have to fill at least half of their
airtime with programmes produced in Europe. Members of the National
Radio and Television Council [KRRiTV] who introduced this restriction in
a regulation shook not only domestic broadcasters. The US government,
too, is not hiding its dissatisfaction. “The ambassador is astonished
and surprised by the KRRiTV’s decision,” says Thomas Delaney, press attache
of the US embassy in Poland.
“The decision of the KRRiTV
is a consequence of the activities of certain European lobbies. They
probably failed to negotiate the most advantageous of conditions with the
EU,” says Ryszard Czarnecki, head of the European Integration Committee.
“The passing of that resolution was primarily an element of adapting Polish
law to an EU directive,” says KRRiTV Chairman Boleslaw Sulik.
The EU directive adopted
in 1989 obligates the “15” to promote European production by filling half
of the airtime with programmes produced in our continent. The same
document does stress, however, that the “Europeanization” of television
is to take place gradually, and the instruction is to be implemented “if
and where possible.” Even the very Eurocentric France gave its broadcasters
five years. In Germany, where the directive is treated with huge
flexibility, eight out of 19 commercial television networks do not observe
its requirements.
The KRRiTV does not leave
such gates open for our broadcasters. “We are thus becoming the most
restrictive state in Europe. This will cause potential investors
to leave. Instead of registering and investing in Poland, they will
broadcast Polish-language programmes from more liberal European states.
The KRRiTV, instead of developing our audiovisual market, will thus kill
it,” claims Slawomir Suss, CEO at HBO [Home Box Office] Poland.
The regulation was published
in the Journal of Laws on 13th November 1997, and became effective on 1st
January 1998.
Private broadcasters do
not even negate the soundness of the new regulation, but the way it was
implemented. They are already calculating the losses they will have
to sustain. This applies particularly to films and series, which
are purchased several months—sometimes even several years—ahead.
Films further raise the problem of advertising contracts—commercials are
tied to specific titles. “We did not take anyone by surprise.
The law on radio and television passed in 1993 authorizes us to pass such
a regulation. It was no secret for anyone that it would be adopted
sooner or later,” Sulik retorts.
“Assault on Hollywood; how the National Radio and Television Council
attacked the United
States,” ‘Wprost,’ Poznan, February 1, 1998
III. KRRiTV chairman criticizes public TV board changes.
National Radio and Television
Broadcasting Council [KRRiTV] Chairman Boleslaw Sulik passed a statement
to PAP on [29th January], which was the reaction of the chairman to changes
in the management board of the Polish Television Joint Stock Company [Telewizja
Polska SA] carried out on [28th January] by the supervisory board of public
television:
“The Supervisory Board of
the Polish Television Joint Stock Company, dominated by the Democratic
Left Alliance [SLD] and the Polish Peasant Party [PSL] was to have been
directed by purely substantive criteria. That at least is what its
chairman gave assurances about, in response to accusations that it was
a body representing party interests. Contrary to these declarations,
the personnel decisions of the supervisory board can only be justified
in political terms.
The criticism of public
television is directed towards the whole of its management board, for the
work of which the chairman is responsible. The recall of one of the
members of the management board, and also shortly before the end of his
term of office, brings to mind the proverbial seeking out of a scapegoat.
The most recent decisions of the supervisory board will bring public television
only harm and will deepen its dependency on politicians. Such activities
are contrary to the spirit of the law on radio and television broadcasting,
which guarantees media freedom,” states Sulik.
On [28th January] the Supervisory
Board of the Polish Television Joint Stock Company recalled Janusz Daszczynski,
who was responsible for programming matters, from the composition of the
management board of public television. Daszczynski had sat on the
management board from the very beginning, that is since the [communist
period] Radio and Television Affairs Committee was transformed into a joint
stock company in 1994. Stanislaw Wojcik, 56, was appointed in his
place, a financier recommended by members of the [supervisory] board associated
with the SLD. At the same time, the supervisory board seconded its
deputy chairman, Marian Zalewski, who is associated with the PSL, to work
on the board of Polish Television.
Currently, the public television
management board comprises: Adam Brodziak, Ryszard Miazek (chairman), Andrzej
Kwiatkowski, Stanislaw Wojcik and Aleksander Walczak, whose membership
rights have been suspended.
PAP news agency, Warsaw, January 29, 1998
The Slovak Council for Radio
and Television Broadcasting [on 11th February] refused to comply with an
unprecedented and legally ungrounded request by Culture Minister Ivan Hudec
that it change its recent decision to grant licence to the private Radio
Twist.
“Hudec’s request is not
based on any law, and therefore the licence-granting procedure will not
be halted. The licence has been granted in accordance with the law
and the decision is definitive,” Jarmila Grujbarova, head of the council’s
office, told CTK [on 11th February].
On 27th January, the council
granted the licence to Twist to launch broadcasting in East Slovakia.
Hudec demands that the decision be revised because the station gave 81.1
mhz as its broadcasting frequency, instead of the correct 88.1 mhz.
Twist said the incorrect data was a mere technical error.
Hudec also accuses Twist
of trying to influence the council.
It is unclear how Hudec
(Movement for a Democratic Slovakia, HZDS) managed to reach the council’s
documents which are confidential, and which the council’s members are bound
not to disclose. Neither Hudec has legal access to the document.
The council’s head Peter
Juras said that the council would discuss the case’s circumstances and
it would possibly have a leak of information examined. However, Juras
avoided answering the question of whether he would lodge a complaint against
Hudec or some of the council’s members for abusing their power as state
officials.
All of the council’s nine
members have dissociated themselves from having provided the Twist documents
to Hudec, but three have officially met Hudec on the Twist affair.
CTK news agency, Prague, February 11, 1998
II. Parliament body questions cost of planned satellite TV.
The Slovak parliament committee
for finances, budget and currency did not agree with a proposal backing
the broadcasting of [state-run] Slovak Television (STV) programmes via
satellite at its session in Bratislava on [21st January]. The committee
recommended that the financial demands and responsibility for covering
expenses of the project be verified.
According to the proposed
report, TV satellite broadcast signals strengthen democracy due to the
fact that this medium offers similar receiving conditions regardless of
the viewer’s geographical situation. Despite the mountainous character
of Slovakia, it would enable the reception of TV signals for all regions.
Satellite broadcasting would
enable Slovakia to transmit a signal serving the expatriate communities
both in Europe and also in North America. An undistorted image of
Slovakia could be formed in the most modern and effective way, reads the
proposed report.
TASR news agency, Bratislava, January 21, 1998