A. BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINAREOPENING OF SRTB. CROATIAI. Bijeljina TV studio receives Banja Luka SRT programmes.OTHER MEDIA NEWS
II. Serbs to centralize radio-TV, abolish Pale studio.
III. Sfor says Pale studio cannot set programme policy.
IV. Unified Bosnian SRT network re-established.
V. OHR Mostar adviser to join SRT.
VI. Bosnian Serb TV station to reopen under free press rules.
VII. Agreement on return of SRT TV transmitters.
VIII. NATO to hand Bosnian Serb TV transmitters back to new govt.I. State TV editor resigns over ban on trade union report.
II. Main Muslim party complains of bias by Bosnian TV.
III. Serb journalists reject international TV supervisor.C. MONTENEGROI. Journalist group suggests changes to TV law.
II. Telecom council invites tenders for new TV channel.
III. Croatian Serbs to demand national radio station.
IV. Journalists protest Croatian authorities’ grip on media.
V. Forum 21 calls on four Croatian state television executives to quit.I. Montenegro to form its own news agency, slams Belgrade media.D. SERBIA
II. Montenegro to “ignore” frequency tender, start agency.
III. Minister on news agency plans, broadcast subsidy.CLOSURE OF MLADENOVAC TVI. Mladenovac residents protest closure of local TV.CLOSURE OF TV FEMAN
II. Editor on decision to end Mladenovac TV broadcasts.I. Opposition Feman TV may reopen illegally.OTHER MEDIA NEWS
II. Federal inspectors stop TV Feman broadcasts.I. Serb Republic government revokes radio, TV licences.FUTURE OF SERBIAN MEDIA
II. Milosevic defies the world, media blamed for “terrorism.”
III. Crackdown on independent media reporting of Kosovo.
IV. Hardline nationalists to set up own TV station.
V. Serb Radio-TV director-general sacked.
VI. Serb Minister calls for co-ordination of broadcasters.
VII. Yugoslav TV said to be seeking own television channel.I. Future of Bosnian Serb media assessed.
The state is winning the battle for a monopoly over
private and state radio and television. A regulatory body, under
the jurisdiction of the Prime Minister’s Office, is to rule on all sorts
of frequencies that will be coveted by all the existing and future private
radio and television stations. The Radio-Television [RTV] Ruling
Council is not going to be left outside the domain of frequencies.
It will be the first filter for all the licence applications and other
private radio-television operations. Everything was decided at a
parliamentary session [on 18th February], in a vote in favour of the new
method of controlling frequencies and other radio-TV channels.
A bill on the administration and ownership of radio
bands and frequencies in Albania gave rise to a debate among the deputies.
Deadlock was reached when Article 9 of this bill was discussed. After
a two-hour recess, the session started again with a compromise. Ylli
Bufi, minister of economy and privatization, outlined this compromise.
According to him, all operators applying for licences should file a request
with the RTV Ruling Council. The latter will then address the regulatory
body, which decides the frequencies and locations of the various radio-television
stations.
As Bufi explained, the regulatory body will administer
the various frequencies and locations of existing and future radio stations
in Albania. Nikolle Lesi, secretary of the parliamentary committee
on the media, did not agree, thinking that, for as long as this body was
under the jurisdiction of the Prime Minister’s Office, it could not be
expected to be autonomous. In the view of this independent deputy,
it is not normal for the law on public and independent media to be the
monopoly of one or other government.
Lesi also demanded legal guarantees to prevent the
regulatory body from rejecting or opposing the requests of the RTV Ruling
Council. For Minister Bufi, its sole obligation is to reply within
two weeks to the requests submitted by the RTV Ruling Council. Bufi
went on to explain that they had used the European model in drafting the
bill. Apparently, all the future frequencies to be granted to private
radio and television stations will be the property of the state and the
government. The battle for the airwaves and frequencies is probably
going to be great among existing and future radio and TV stations.
There are already dozens of private radio and TV stations across the country.
According to RTV sources, on the basis of the new
law on the public media, many of the existing radio stations, which are
using any frequency they like, will disappear in the coming months.
The yardstick that will be used to decide on their existence has not yet
been specified. It is likely that in a labyrinth of backstage deals,
those radio and TV stations that have won a name for themselves and those
with invisible connections to certain circles in Albanian politics are
more likely to survive.
“State: we decide on frequencies now,” ‘Gazeta Shqiptare,’ Tirana, February 19, 1998
II. Frequency allocation system criticized.
The broadcasting media are to be granted licences
for their operations from the national ruling council of the state radio
and television service, which has still not been elected, and radio frequencies
are to be allocated by the telecommunications regulating body, which has
also not yet been created. Parliament will elect the national council
of the radio-television service, which will probably have seven members,
with five-year office terms and the right to issue licences to the electronic
media.
After the national council issues the licences,
the telecommunications regulating body will allocate frequencies, but will
also have the right to refuse to do so.
The telecommunications regulating body will consist
of five people. The prime minister will appoint its chairman and
the president and parliament will appoint two members each. Putting
the chairmanship of this body in the hands of the prime minister means
that he will de facto lead this institution. Thus, he will be able
to decide who should receive frequencies to open private radio stations
and who should be refused.
‘Rilindja Demokratike,’ February 19, 1998
III. Council of Europe pledges to back Albanian media.
The Council of Europe will help not only complete
a legal contemporary package for media in Albania but also its implementation.
The Council of Europe delegation assured the Albanian
parliamentary Speaker Skender Gjinushi in a meeting on [17th February]
that it will back the Albanian media. “Our political will is
to have a free media, free of political influences,” Gjinushi said.
He expressed the necessity for a legal framework for media because Albania
has no traditions in free press.
“A complete legal framework of European standards
is needed and cooperation with the Council of Europe experts and those
of other countries of democratic tradition in media is important to avoid
having disputable articles,” the Albanian speaker said.
He added that there are cases of deformity of Albania’s
reality in the press, but this will be improved step by step, not by punishing
journalists. Gjinushi also asked for financial assistance for Albanian
media.
ATA news agency, Tirana, February 17, 1998
Some media, as well as political parties, have been
trying to create the impression that Markiza [private TV channel] is a
television channel experiencing serious problems in observing laws and
fulfilling licence conditions, especially in the sphere of presenting violence
and hidden advertising. According to its [Markiza] reports, the Slovak
Radio and Television Broadcasting Council [RRTV] has imposed a fine on
Markiza for these alleged sins.
It is, however, possible to appeal to the Supreme
Court against the council’s ruling, and Markiza has exercised this option.
[Reporter] On 6th May last year, the RRTV of the Slovak Republic decided
to impose a fine of 400,000 Slovak crowns on Markiza Television because
it breached the law on hidden advertising. Markiza Television appealed
against this decision. In the appeal, Markiza asked for the council’s
ruling to be re-examined and lifted.
At its meeting [on 26th February], the Slovak Supreme
Court did not recognize the reasons given by the licensing council [RRTV]
and ruled in favour of Markiza Television. As there can be no appeal
against this ruling, the RRTV’s proposal to impose the fine has turned
out to be unjustified. According to the Supreme Court ruling, Markiza
Television thus did not breach the law.
Markiza Television, Bratislava, February 26, 1998
II. Slovak TV rejects media regulator reservations.
The Slovak Television Council [STC] discussed [on
26th February] the statement of the Radio and Television Broadcasting Council
[RRTV], issued [on 25th February], concerning the licensing council’s [the
RRTV] protest against a campaign waged against it by Slovak Television
[STV].
[Presenter] The STC’s statement given [on 26th February] to TASR news
agency by its chairman Dusan Jariabek says that the council is aware of
its legal duties and it is not necessary to remind it of them by emotional
appeals in the media. It does not publicly comment on or monitor
reservations concerning the licensing council’s work. The STC asked
the central director of the STV for there to be a possibility of presenting
the opposing views within the licensing council.
Radio Twist, Bratislava, February 26, 1998
III. Media watchdog calls on Slovak TV to be objective.
The Slovak council for radio and television broadcasts
“sharply protests against the ungrounded, false and tendentious campaign
which Slovak Television (STV) has waged against it since late January,”
the council said in a statement given to CTK [on 25th February].
Signed by seven out of nine council members, the
statement takes issue with the STV claim that the council had given in
to media and lobby pressure when it granted the private Radio Twist a frequency
in east Slovakia as well.
The council warns that it would lodge a complaint
with the prosecutor’ s office if STV broadcast further commentaries which
it will consider as amounting to the offence of attacking a state body.
The council called on the STV council “to immediately
fulfil its fundamental duty set in law and ensure that Slovak Television’s
broadcasts be objective and independent.”
The council said that it had been the target of
various media attacks, but “unlike now when the public television wages
a campaign against its representatives, it was always been given scope
in the media to say their opinion.”
The council’s decision to extend Radio Twist’s operation
in east Slovakia has also been challenged by Culture Minister Ivan Hudec
from Premier Vladimir Meciar’s Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS).
The council for radio and television broadcasts
is “an independent public administration body elected by parliament.”
A crushing majority of its members were elected
by the votes of the majority government coalition.
CTK news agency, Prague, February 25, 1998
IV. Parliament rejects broadcasting law amendment.
The Slovak parliament has definitively refused to
approve an amendment concerning the radio and television broadcasting law,
the Slovak Television (STV) law and the Slovak Radio law. The amendment
was submitted by Party of the Democratic Left (SDL) MP Milan Ftacnik.
From 132 MPs present, 65 voted in favour of the
amendment, 49 voted against it, 14 deputies abstained from voting and four
did not vote.
The draft specified outside production assignments
for individual programmes as well as the purchase of programmes from companies
and individuals, legally licensed to make commercial contracts. The
share of these companies in the whole broadcasting of STV and Slovak Radio
was, according to the amendment, never to be 100 per cent. The amendment
had thus planned to prevent any broadcasting company from transmitting
on frequencies legally assigned to other companies.TASR news agency,
Bratislava, February 12, 1998
I. Bijeljina TV studio receives Banja Luka SRT programmes.
Two days ago, the SRT [Serb Radio-Television] Bijeljina
television studio began to receive signals from the Banja Luka headquarters,
which means that the request of General Manager Andjelko Kozomara for this
studio to be included in the state television system had finally been accepted.
This will finally enable television viewers in this part of the Serb Republic
to receive the SRT programme via the Bijeljina studio transmitter following
last year’s well-known incidents in this media outlet.
Local programmes
After last summer’s split in the SRT, the
employees at the Bijeljina studio remained loyal to the Pale studio, broadcasting
their programme and taking part in preparing news programmes that were
broadcast from the Pale studio. When Sfor [NATO-led Stabilization
Force] took control over the transmitter last autumn and disabled the work
of the Pale studio, after a short break, the Bijeljina studio, whose status
up to that time was equal to that of the studios in Pale and Banja Luka,
continued to broadcast the local programme, which, during the election
and afterwards, was controlled by the then ruling party [Serb Democratic
Party—SDS].
They prepared the local news and provided weekly
information programmes about the Semberija and Majevica regions, and, on
[8th March], they showed prime-time weekly wrap-ups of major events prepared
by reporters from Pale. During that entire time, until 10 or so days
ago, the state studio in Banja Luka was boycotted and TV crews would come
to Bijeljina from Banja Luka to report on the most important news events.
. . .
No one cares about the profession
The SDS delegates were the first to support
this move, the very same delegates who implemented the will of the political
bosses from Pale in the summer of 1996. And we know why. Judging
by the decision to transfer the founding rights to the Serb Republic, made
almost two years ago, the extent of this initiative is not very great,
because this act does not give the municipal assembly any possibility of
getting these media back under its control, unless the current founders
forfeit these founding rights of their own free will.
In the meantime, no one cares very much about the
profession and professionalism. No editor in chief of the studio
has been appointed yet, and the radio employees are preparing to send a
letter to the SRT general manager to demand that their status and the status
of the studio in which they work be resolved as soon as possible, because
they have not received their salaries for over three months.
“Political games around the media,” ‘Glas Srpski,’ Banja Luka, March 12, 1998
II. Serbs to centralize radio-TV, abolish Pale studio.
[Bosnian] Serb Republic Information Minister Rajko
Vasic, Serb Radio-Television (SRT) acting director Andjelko Kozomara, and
the company’s international mediator Dragan Gasic [on 10th March] met SRT
Pale studio staff, with whom they discussed the reorganization of the radio
and television and its incorporation into a single system.
“The Serb Republic government wants to form a professional,
centralized television, which would not be influenced by any political
party,” Vasic said, stressing that such an organization would have the
financial support of the state.
He informed Pale TV employees that the SRT headquarters
would be in Banja Luka, while, according to the new system, other studios
would be organized as information and technical centres.
Kozomara promised that nobody would be left out
of work, except those who were employed over the past few months in redundant
positions, and that workers from this studio [Pale] would receive minimum
wages for January and February because, he said, they were not working.
Mediator Gasic informed the studio’s employees that
a new SRT statute had been adopted and that its aim was to supervise the
reorganization process. Among other powers, Gasic said that he had
the right to suspend employees if they were found in violation of the statute.
The meeting also discussed other technical, material
and personnel questions related to the SRT.
Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA, Pale, March 10, 1998
III. Sfor says Pale studio cannot set programme policy.
From [24th February] all the television transmitters
in the [Bosnian] Serb Republic are again unified into one system and Serb
Radio-Television [SRT] is again functioning as a unified television network
with its headquarters in Banja Luka.
This announcement was made late on [24th February] by Stabilization
Force [Sfor] spokesman Major Peter Clark in a statement to ‘Oslobodjenje.’
This was also confirmed last night by Serb Republic Prime Minister Milorad
Dodik in a phone-in programme on SRT.
According to Clark, SRT has returned the equipment
stolen earlier from the Veliki Zep and Komar transmitters. “SRT can
now be seen via the terrestrial network and not only via satellite, as
has been the case so far,” Major Clark said.
Sfor still controls access to the transmitters.
“We will not hand over the transmitters to the Serb Republic government
until they can guarantee the security of the towers,” Clark said.
According to him, the Pale studio is again “on air”
but it has the same status as, for example, the studio in Bijeljina.
This in practice means that the Pale studio can file reports, but it cannot
determine programme policy, which is drawn up at the SRT’s Banja Luka headquarters.
‘Oslobodjenje,’ Sarajevo, February 25, 1998
IV. Unified Bosnian SRT network re-established.
The technical department of [Bosnian] Serb Radio-TV
(SRT) in Pale [on 24th February] re-established the SRT network.
After an interruption of several months, which began
on 1st October when members of Sfor [NATO-led Stabilization Force] blocked
SRT transmitters and redirected all broadcasting links to the Banja Luka
studio, this evening the studios in Banja Luka, Pale and Bijeljina, as
well as the information and technical centres in Trebinje and Prijedor,
are once again operating within a
single network.
Tanjug news agency, Belgrade, February 24, 1998
V. OHR Mostar adviser to join SRT.
Dragan Gasic, the spokesman and political adviser
at the Office of the High Representative [OHR] in Mostar, [on 17th February]
announced that at the beginning of March he will be taking up the post
of international administrator of [Bosnian] Serb Radio-TV [SRT] in Banja
Luka.
Gasic said that this post was part of the agreement
on the reconstruction of the Serb Republic’s SRT signed [on 13th February]
by Jacques Klein, Serb Republic President Biljana Plavsic and Prime Minister
Milorad Dodik.
Dragan Gasic is an Austrian citizen of Serb origin.
He used to work as a journalist for the German WDR before coming to Mostar
in 1994 as a spokesman for the EU administration.
Beta news agency, Belgrade, February 17, 1998
VI. Bosnian Serb TV station to reopen under free press rules.
Western peace monitors and Bosnian Serbs have agreed
to reopen a Serb television station shut down in October for its nationalistic
reports, officials said [on 14th February].
Under the agreement, Serb Radio-Television Television,
or SRT, will be reorganized under free press rules, said Simon Haselock,
a spokesman for Bosnia’s top international mediator, Carlos Westendorp.
Fed up with programs deemed inflammatory and biased
against the West, international officials charged with enforcing Bosnia’s
peace accords effectively pulled the plug on SRT in October, sending NATO-led
troops to cordon off the station’s transmitters.
In one example, international officials accused
SRT of grossly distorting a news conference with a U.N. war crimes prosecutor,
editing videotape to suggest the tribunal at The Hague is virulently anti-Serb.
[13th February] agreement was another in a series
of recent blows to Serb hard-liners loyal to Bosnia’s No. 1 war-crimes
suspect Radovan Karadzic.
Reforming SRT also is another step forward for Milorad
Dodik, newly elected Prime Minister of the Bosnian Serb substate, who has
pledged to fully support the Dayton peace agreement.
“This means that the SRT will be properly placed
in the hands of people of Republika Srpska rather than in the hands of
Serb hard-liners,” Haselock told The Associated Press.
The Associated Press, February 14, 1998
VII. Agreement on return of SRT TV transmitters.
Biljana Plavsic, president of the [Bosnian] Serb
Republic; Milorad Dodik, prime minister of the Serb Republic; Rajko Vasic,
the minister of information; Jacques Klein, Deputy High Representative
for civilian issues [in Bosnia]; and Simon Haselock, the [High Representative’s]
spokesman, signed an agreement in Banja Luka [on 13th February] on the
return of TV transmitters to [Bosnian] Serb Radio-TV within 14 days.
“Our aim is for Sfor [NATO-led Stabilization Force]
troops to withdraw from the transmitters quickly and for them to be taken
over by the legitimate authorities in the Serb Republic,” Klein said, and
he expressed the hope that “the Serb Republic will have the most open and
best TV establishment in Bosnia-Hercegovina.”
Journalists were told that the Serb Republic president,
prime minister and information minister in the government of the Serb Republic
agreed with Klein and Haselock all the details of the return of the transmitters
for use by the television network of Serb Radio-TV.
[According to reports from international news agencies,
citing Sfor spokesman Louis Garneau, an agreement on the return of the
seized transmitters is expected within two weeks from 13th February, but
Sfor does not expect to hand them back before the end of March.]
Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA, Pale, February 13, 1998
VIII. NATO to hand Bosnian Serb TV transmitters back to new govt.
Bosnia’s international officials and the new moderate
Serb leadership signed an agreement here [on 13th February] to return Serb
TV transmitters that had been under NATO control since October.
“We have signed an agreement . . .
to return the whole SRT (Serb television) complex to its owner, the Serb
government,” Jacques Klein, deputy to Bosnia’s top civilian international
official Carlos Westendorp.
Klein signed the accord with Bosnian Serb Information
minister Rajko Vasic.
Klein said that the SRT “will be the most open programme
for information and news in the region.”
Last October, the SRT was banned from transmitting
from Pale, a stronghold of hardliners, on orders from Westendorp who objected
to broadcasts of propaganda hostile to the international community.
Four SRT transmitters were then seized by the NATO-led
Stabilisation Force in Bosnia (SFOR) and the only programmes received in
the east of the Bosnian Serb republic are those transmitted from SRT studios
in Banja Luka, in the north-west.
Banja Luka is the power base of Bosnian Serb President
Biljana Plavsic and new premier Milorad Dodik, who took office last month.
Both enjoy the backing of the international community due to their support
for the Dayton peace agreement.
Vasic said the transmitters would be returned to
the Bosnian Serb authorities “within fourteen days,” from the date of the
signing of the agreement.
He added that Serbs should not be “afraid” of Westendorp’s
call for an international supervisor for the television station.
“This will not be a dictator to Serb television
. . . but a technical administrator who would help SRT
to become a professional company,” Vasic said.
Simon Haselock, Westendorp’s spokesman, also said
the Office of the High Representative “will provide technical support for
people, equipment and funds,” for Serb television.
Agence France-Presse, February 13, 1998
I. State TV editor resigns over ban on trade union report.
The Croatian Radio-TV (HRT) editor Tomislav Spoljar
resigned his post on 26th February, Sarajevo-based Bosnian TV reported.
The TV said that he tendered his resignation because
his superiors had ordered him not to broadcast an item on a trade union
protest rally that took place in Zagreb on 20th February. It said
that editor Obrad Kosovac had ordered Spoljar not to broadcast the report.
Forum 21 (a union of independent journalists) described
this as a breach of the right to freedom of information. The TV report
said Forum 21 considered that the ruling HDZ party (Croatian Democratic
Union), had thus hijacked the Croatian national TV.
TV Bosnia-Hercegovina, Sarajevo, February 26, 1998
II. Main Muslim party complains of bias by Bosnian TV.
[First announcer] The HQ of the Party of Democratic Action [SDA—ruling
Muslim party on 13th February] sent an open letter to the head of the news
and current affairs programmes of Radio-TV Bosnia-Hercegovina [RTVBiH]
and the OSCE [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe] commission
of experts.
The letter says that RTVBiH has been gradually and
openly siding with one option in Bosnia-Hercegovina, the one advocated
by the opposition.
[Second announcer] All of you have the right to believe in what you
like and to have your own political views, but RTVBiH is a public and not
a private television station. It is directly and indirectly financed
by the people, and statistics and simple calculations could prove that
it is being financed mainly by SDA members, the letter says.
The SDA HQ is not demanding that its views be promoted,
but that RTVBiH display a greater degree of objectivity, which it is gradually
losing.
We must fight for a minimum of equal media exposure
in the country in which we are the largest party, the letter says.
It adds that there are numerous examples of this, but the last night’s
news bulletin and the “Argumenti” [“Arguments”] current affairs programme
are sufficient proof of this bias.
The SDA HQ believes that while last night’s main
[TV] news bulletin reduced the SDA news conference, at which at least 10
important statements were issued, to one sentence, the same evening news
bulletin gave a similar news conference by the Social-Democratic Party
[SDP] so much coverage the night before that one was led to believe that
the SDP owned RTVBiH.
Radio Bosnia-Hercegovina, Sarajevo, February 13, 1998
III. Serb journalists reject international TV supervisor.
The [Bosnian] Serb Republic Journalists’ Association
[on 10th February] demanded the international community and High Representative
Carlos Westendorp give up the idea of appointing a supervisor for Serb
Radio-Television [SRT].
The idea of a supervisor for SRT “originated in
a different political situation,” but now the new Serb Republic government
and the Information Ministry have said that they “are serious in their
intention to form a uniform radio-television network” for the entire territory
of the Serb Republic, reads a statement by the Serb Republic Journalists’
Association.
Since the government’s intention “is in the interest
of the democratic public, as well as the economic and general recovery
of the Serb Republic, it should be given the opportunity and the time to
realize it,” the association believes.
“Serb Republic journalists wish to encourage the
government urgently to appoint editorial boards for the state media, so
that the Serb Republic’s information system can be linked together and
thus respond to the democratic changes in the republic,” the statement
reads.
Beta news agency, Belgrade, February 10, 1998
Forum 21, a group of broadcast journalists, presented
a proposal for amendments to the Law on Croatian Radio and Television (HRT)
at a press conference on [16th March].
That proposal is aimed at transforming HRT into
a public television in line with European and democratic standards and
will be forwarded to members of parliament, said Forum 21 president Damir
Matkovic.
He said that the suggested changes foresee that
the HRT management functions be separated from the programming and editing
sphere to concentrate on strategy decisions. The proposal also suggests
a reduction of the number of broadcasting channels reserved for Croatian
TV to two instead of the current three.
Forum proposes increasing the number of HRT Council
members from 19 to 25, and changing its structure to reduce the number
of members of parliament and increase the number of representatives from
research institutions, government and non-government organizations.
Forum 21 considers that the HRT Council should adopt
a new procedure for appointing editors, based on public tender and prior
consultation with journalists.
Reducing the number of channels will help streamline
HRT’s operation and provide an opportunity to privatize the third channel,
said Forum 21.
HINA news agency, Zagreb, March 16, 1998
II. Telecom council invites tenders for new TV channel.
The Telecommunications Council’s decision to launch
a nationwide invitation for tenders has put an end, admittedly only for
the time being, to year-long demands to set up proper competition for the
only national broadcaster, HTV [Croatian Television].
Frankly speaking, even though the discussion about
opening a tender bid was rather comprehensive, the statement released by
the Telecommunications Council was very short, without specific deadlines
to say when would it be possible in practice for the citizens to watch
the fourth domestic national TV channel. . . .
How to get a transmitter
By all accounts, if things move the way they
have moved so far, the first private national TV could start broadcasting,
at the earliest, six months after the tender invitation is published.
Following its publication, the first two months would be reserved for potential
bidders to ask for and get all technical details. In the following
two months, the bidders would submit their tenders and in the subsequent
two months the Telecommunications Council would make its final decision.
In all, this adds up to six months. . . .
According to law, a national TV channel must reach
at least 60 per cent of the population. In order to meet that condition,
one must have an appropriate network of transmitters. However . .
. it is extremely expensive to set up a new network, it would cost at least
DM20m to maintain it, not counting salaries.
Off the record, we discovered that there will be
three options for the bidders, instead of this most expensive option.
The first one is to use the existing HTV transmitter infrastructure—which,
admittedly, would have to be strengthened with additional equipment.
Frankly speaking, we have discovered that not much thought has been given
to a demand that has often been made, and that is to separate this company
[Transmitters and Communications] from HTV, having it remain under the
control of the HTV’s owner, the Croatian National Assembly. Apart
from that, private licensees would have to pay HTV for the use of its infrastructure,
but nobody has decided the price. As it seems at the moment, HTV
has an absolutely free hand to set up the price, which is interesting,
as in this case HTV would be in a position to decide part of the fixed
costs of its future competition.
However, there are other options. One is HPT [Croatian
Post and Telecommunications] plans to establish a national cable TV infrastructure,
for which it has recently been licensed by the Telecommunications Council.
Apart from that, there is also the option of satellite broadcasting. .
. .
OTV and TV Mreza have advantage
From unofficial sources we heard [on 10th
March] that the Telecommunications Council’s invitation for tenders was
most suitable for two Zagreb companies: OTV [Open Television] and TV Mreza
[TV Network, a production company]. Sources say that those two companies
have a significant advantage on other competitors as their signal already
“covers” more than 60 per cent of the population, that is, 2.8m Croatians.
Apart from Zagreb, TV Mreza covers Osijek, Split and Varazdin via the transmitters
operated by its local partners; it will soon cover Istria, too. Nevertheless,
our source thinks that in this case, as a bidder for the licence, OTV applied
because it has already organized itself as a proper TV channel, while TV
Mreza is only a production company.
“Fourth TV channel to be given to private entrepreneurs in six months,” ‘Vecernji List,’ Zagreb, March 12, 1998
III. Croatian Serbs to demand national radio station.
The Serbs in Croatia are asking for a radio station of their own at national level. Why? At a meeting with a delegation of European Commission electronic media specialists held in Zagreb [on 11th March], representatives of the Serb National Council in Croatia expressed dissatisfaction with the way the Croatian electronic media are treating them. They emphasized that (the media are) imposing collective responsibility for the war atrocities on them, and announced that they would therefore demand that the Croatian government set up a radio station at national level.
Croatian Serb radio, Beli Manastir, March 11, 1998
IV. Journalists protest Croatian authorities’ grip on media.
By Sonia Bakaric
Journalists wanting greater independence for
the Croatian media have urged the authorities to relax their grip on information,
saying it is holding up the country’s integration into Europe.
Forum 21, which groups a score of journalists working
in the Croatian media, are calling for an end to ruling party control over
the state radio and television network HRT—the main source of information
for 70 percent of the population.
The call came ahead of the arrival of a delegation
of media experts from the Council of Europe, which turned down Zagreb’s
application to join in 1996 because of concerns over the media.
Forum 21, which maintains that the HRT should no
longer be modelled on a “relic from another time,” namely the networks
of the communist former Yugoslavia, is seen in diplomatic circles as an
important democratic initiative.
“All our proposals are aimed at improving the media
situation to conform to Western criteria, so that as soon as possible Croatia
can become a member of the European Union,” Damir Matkovic, head of Forum
21, said last week.
“However, since we were set up a little over three
months ago, the situation has got worse and worse,” he said.
Matkovic cited the trials of journalists from the
independent press and the announcement that one of the last independent
local radio stations, Radio Koprivnica, is to be closed.
He further pointed out that four HRT executives
had been appointed to a ruling party body, and called for their resignation,
and criticised HRT officials for not transforming the network into a genuine
public one.
Another case was the resignation of Tomislav Spoljar,
head of afternoon news and current affairs programming on state television,
after his bosses forbade him to announce a big labour protest in Zagreb
last week.
Thousands of police prevented the demonstrators
from reaching the main Ban Jelacic square where they had hoped to protest
about falling living standards.
“We should be very worried by these tendencies.
The social situation is getting worse, the situation in the media is getting
worse and if this continues, Croatia will remain far from Europe,” Forum
21 member Dubravko Merlic said.
Croatia’s integration into Europe is one of the
government’s top priorities, however the authorities’ attitude towards
the media has been a frequent target of international criticism.
The US ambassador in Zagreb, William Montgomery,
said that in this area the situation in Croatia was “unique” worldwide.
“You should have a free media in this country, instead
you have about 100 suits being filed by members of the government against
them,” he told the weekly magazine Globus.
One such case is the trial of the editor and a journalist
of the independent paper Feral Tribune who are being sued by Croatian President
Franjo Tudjman.
The European Union is also concerned. At the
beginning of February, it announced that it would give 2.7 million dollars
in aid to the independent media in Croatia, mainly to encourage independent
television.
In the meantime, Forum 21 says it will continue
its public debates on the expansion of media freedom in Croatia, its call
to speed up the depoliticisation of HRT and will call on parliament to
revise laws on the broadcasting media.
Agence France-Presse, March 2, 1998
V. Forum 21 calls on four Croatian state television executives to quit.
A group campaigning for independence in the media
called [on 26th February] for the resignation of four executives of Croatian
state television (HRT) after they were appointed to a ruling party body.
“Forum 21 regards the exercise of political duties
in the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) as incompatible with journalistic
work,” Forum 21 chief Damir Matkovic told a press conference.
The four were named as head of programming Hloverka
Novak-Srzic, information director Obrad Kosovac, the head of creative programming
Marija Peakic-Mikuljan and the editor of the evening news bulletin, Liljana
Bunjevac-Filipovic.
At a weekend HDZ congress, all four were appointed
to the HDZ general committee, a body comprising 140 people from the intelligentsia,
artistic or sports worlds.
Denouncing “pressure on journalists who support
greater professionalism in their field and independent coverage of events,”
Forum 21 also called on the authorities to halt all trials against journalists.
It said that the attitude of the authorities towards
the media was holding back Croatia’s integration into Europe.
Forum 21 is a group of about 20 journalists who
have called for more independence in the media, particularly in HRT, which
is the main source of information for 70 percent of the population.
Agence France-Presse, February 26, 1998
Annoyed and disappointed by an alleged bias in the
reporting of Yugoslavia’s state agency Tanjug, Montenegro plans to form
its own news agency, a regional government official said [1st March].
The future Montenegrin agency will probably be established
together with the existing independent news agency Montena fax.
The government plans to buy 49 percent of Montena
fax shares, leaving room for journalists to control the managing affairs
of the agency, the official said.
Montenegrin Information Minister Bozidar Jaredic
criticized the federal Yugoslav media last week for “working only for the
politics” of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
Belgrade’s state-controlled media, Milosevic’s powerful
weapon in his decade-long rule first of Serbia and now rump Yugoslavia,
openly side with his ally, former Montenegrin president Momir Bulatovic,
in the conflict with his rival, new pro-western President Milo Djukanovic.
Djukanovic, 36, who opposes Serbia’s domination
over Montenegro, has come to symbolise his republic’s desire for greater
autonomy within the Yugoslav federation.
Agence France-Presse, March 1, 1998
II. Montenegro to “ignore” frequency tender, start agency.
Montenegrin Information Secretary Bozidar Jaredic
has said that Montenegro will ignore the frequency tenure by the Federal
[Yugoslav] Ministry for Telecommunications. He has also announced
that Montenegro will set up its own state news agency.
We believe that we do not need a federal [Yugoslav]
television station, because the existing Yugoslav media are already promoting
the policies of the couple from Dedinje [reference to Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic and his wife Mirjana Markovic], Jaredic has told [independent]
Niksic-based Montena radio.
Radio B92, Belgrade, February 23, 1998
III. Minister on news agency plans, broadcast subsidy.
Montenegrin Information Minister Bozidar Jaredic
said [on 25th February] that one of the main reasons why Montenegro intends
to found its state news agency is that the current Yugoslav agency, Tanjug,
“has for some time been working contrary to the interests of the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia [FRY] and Montenegro.”
“We have assessed that for some time now, Tanjug
has not been working in the interest of the FRY and Montenegro, or has
been working in the interest of one political party. Tanjug
is losing its political reputation in the world,” Jaredic told Beta.
He added that one of the reasons for the founding
of the Montenegrin state agency is that local media do not have enough
information, and a state agency would be one of their main sources of information.
Asked whether the currently private agency Montena-Faks
could be transformed into a state agency, Jaredic said that the state was
looking into the possibility of forming a special agency, or establishing
a joint stock company with the agency that already has experience.
Commenting on funds in the budget for helping broadcasting
companies (between 500,000 and 600,000 dinars), Jaredic said that they
will be distributed on the basis of a public competition after an association
of these companies is formed.
According to Jaredic, the funds have been earmarked
for some 12 to 13 public and private media. The government has decided
to help private media because it wishes to support the development of privatization
and pluralism, Jaredic said.
“We in Montenegro have opted for comprehensive privatization.
The development of private media is a contribution to privatization,” Jaredic
said, stressing that it will also help Montenegro’s general democratic
development.
Beta news agency, Belgrade, February 25, 1998
About 1,000 people took part in a rally in Mladenovac
[on March 23rd] to protest against the closure of Mladenovac Television.
On [21st March], Mladenovac TV accused Studio B
Director Dragan Kojadinovic of trying to “take over” Mladenovac TV by appointing
a new editor in chief of the station.
Kojadinovic told Beta that Mladenovac TV was a branch
of Studio Band, that he did not try to “take it over” but rescued it, as
the television station “was already working illegally.” He said that
the Studio B’s transmitter on Mt Kosmaj used for broadcasting Mladenovac
TV programmes was turned off at 1830 on [21st March].
Zoran Djindjic, leader of the Democratic Party,
said at the rally that Serbia was “threatened and under attack in both
Kosovo and Mladenovac, and in the home of every poor family that does not
have anything to eat. . . .”
Beta news agency, Belgrade, March 23, 1998
II. Editor on decision to end Mladenovac TV broadcasts.
I only wanted to legalize the work of Mladenovac
TV, [Belgrade-based Studio B TV editor] Dragan Kojadinovic has told our
radio. He added that according to the contract, Studio B had all
rights over this local TV station and that Mladenovac TV did not observe
its contractual obligations.
[Kojadinovic] I was tolerating this situation for six months.
I believe that any further procrastination could have drawn us all, and
me personally, into big problems. Furthermore, a local radio station
was launched without a licence. They are operating on their own.
They did not have the annual accounts. They did a lot of things that
cannot be done, even in this country.
My intention was not to take anything from anyone
or to threaten programmes. I wanted to preserve this TV station,
because it is important for Mladenovac. I wanted to help them to
legalize their status at least partially. They misunderstood this
and took it as usurpation of their rights and their programmes. The
only thing I could do was to order my people to switch off their transmitter.
They will have a meeting on 24th March and then
they could decide about the status of the TV station. They could
decide to end the contract with us and we are ready to return their equipment
to them and they could then exist without Studio B.
Radio B92, Belgrade, March 21, 1998
I. Opposition Feman TV may reopen illegally.
Representatives of the Jagodina-based Feman TV announced
protest meetings by Jagodina residents over the ban on the work of this
television station.
“TV Feman was shut down because it did no suit the
political interests of the ruling party,” editor in chief Zaharije Trnavcevic
said at a news conference in Belgrade [on 27th February]. He
said that there were 147 television stations in Serbia which had worked
unlicensed over a longer period of time; however, “only we were banned,
which proves that the regulations pertaining to local television stations
are being applied selectively.”
Miodrag Nikolic, owner of Feman TV and president
of the [opposition] Democratic Party Pomoravje district committee, assessed
that the reason for the ban was his membership in the Democratic Party.
“Although we are party-affiliated our television was neither left nor right-wing,
but objective,” Nikolic said.
Feman TV’s legal representative Sava Andjelkovic
announced the television would press criminal charges against the inspectors
of the Federal Ministry of Telecommunications who had interrupted the television’s
work.
“We will do everything to obtain the lifting of
the ban by legal means, however, if we do not succeed we will suggest that
the owner start broadcasting without a licence,” Andjelkovic said.
He expressed the opinion that the authorities “deliberately”
did not wish to solve the problem of frequencies so that they could shut
down “unsuitable” television and radio stations at any time.
Feman TV started broadcasting on 24th February,
and by 25th February, already, inspectors of the Federal Ministry of Telecommunications,
assisted by the members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, interrupted
the station’s work.
According to Nikolic, the inspectors only confiscated
“a handful of cables” as the transmitter “has been removed to a safer place”
on time.
Beta news agency, Belgrade, February 27, 1998
II. Federal inspectors stop TV Feman broadcasts.
Inspectors of the Federal Inspectorate for Transport
and Communications interrupted broadcasting of the Television Feman programme
from Jagodina at 1900 [on 25th February].
As Beta has learned, the federal inspectors entered
the Crni Vrh premises which house the transmitter used to broadcast TV
Feman. The inspectors were accompanied by police but did not
have a court order.
TV Feman Chief and Managing Editor Zaharije Trnavcevic
said that the interruption followed last night’s programme featuring economist
Mladjan Dinkic, who fiercely criticized the Serbian government.
Inspectors of the Federal Inspectorate for Transportation
and Communications [on 25th February] persistently tried to interrupt TV
Feman’s broadcast, but TV Director Sasa Nikolic has resisted the “onslaught”
on the premises housing the transmitter.
Beta news agency, Belgrade, February 25, 1998
I. Serb Republic government revokes radio, TV licences.
The Serb Republic government will revoke the licences
of those radio and television stations that do not, within 30 days, cover
their debts for the use of their frequencies. This was announced
by the Serb Republic Ministry of Information.
The statement says that the greatest debtors were
the Banja Luka radio stations Big and Nes; Banja Luka television stations
NTV, TV Simic, TV Bel and ATV; Gradiska Vikom-radio; Sarajevo’s OBN television;
and Dvori’s Radio Izvor and TV Pim.
It was announced that the Ministry of Information
would inform all debtors about the government’s decision and the method
of paying off their debts.
Beta news agency, Belgrade, March 16, 1998
II. Milosevic defies the world, media blamed for “terrorism.”
By Vesna Peric-Zimonjic
President Slobodan Milosevic’s continued defiance
over Kosovo in the face of international outrage has won the backing of
his political opposition and is threatening to spill over into a crackdown
on dissenting voices in the independent media.
The Serbian opposition still regard Milosevic’s
crackdown on ethnic Albanians in the southern Serbian province of Kosovo
as an internal affair, despite the stance adopted by the international
community—including further economic sanctions pushed through at an emergency
meeting [on 9th March] in London.
U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright,
Robin Cook, Britain’s foreign secretary, and Germany’s Klaus Kinkel, along
with representatives from France and Italy, persuaded Russia’s Yevgeny
Primakov—who had stayed in Moscow—to back U.N. considerations of
an arms embargo.
In a rare show of unity, most Serbian opposition
parties agree that Kosovo is Serbia’s internal problem. Slight nuances
of differences arise only when the question of human rights for the two-million
strong ethnic Albanian community arises.
Reactions to the police brutality in the southern
province have mostly been lukewarm; none of the opposition have spoken
out against the level of violence used by the police, and Vojislav Seselj,
leader of ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party, even applauded their
actions. Dozens of ethnic Albanians have been killed in 10 days of
police violence.
The official death toll from two sweeps by Serbian
police in the last ten days in the Drenica area included 46 ethnic Albanians,
described by police colonel Ljubomir Cvetic as “terrorists.”
Serbian police boasted over the weekend that “one
of the cores of terrorist organization Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK)” was
destroyed and Adem Jasari, one of its alleged leaders, was killed.
“Serbia and Milosevic will maintain a hardline position
against what they call ‘terrorism,”’ a Western diplomat in Belgrade said
after being escorted around Drenica over the weekend by the Serbian foreign
ministry.
“Mounting pressure from the world and demands that
a political solution be found for Kosovo seem to fall on deaf ears, once
again,” the diplomat added.
None of the political parties has so far mentioned
reinstating autonomy previously enjoyed by Kosovo. Ethnic Albanians
outnumber Serbs by nine to one in the province and were stripped of their
autonomy in 1989 by Milosevic, president of Serbia at the time.
Until then, the Albanian language was the medium
for education; there was an ethnic Albanian police force, and Kosovo held
an almost equal status with the other republics of Yugoslavia. The
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia now covers only Serbia and tiny Montenegro.
“Parliamentary parties have almost all rallied behind
ruling Socialists on the matter of the Kosovo intifada,” the independent
weekly Vreme commented on Mar. 8, drawing a parallel with the Palestinian
“intifada” uprising against Israeli occupation.
“Serbian political and public opinion is completely
unprepared for the next phase of development, which is certainly going
to be proposed by the international mediators, the return of broad autonomy
to the province,” the newspaper added.
Many analysts agree that Belgrade is not prepared
to negotiate over the autonomy of Kosovo.
“Before 1989, Kosovo had an almost equal say in
matters like defence, public security and even had the right of veto in
federal matters,” says Belgrade analyst Milan Milosevic.
“I’m afraid that even if the public opinion in Serbia
has reached the point when people agree that ‘something’ should be given
to ethnic Albanians, that ‘something’ is still very vague,” he adds.
“Even when Serbian politicians think that Kosovo can be ‘lost,’ they do
not think it should be given to ethnic Albanians.”
Stojan Cerovic, a columnist for the independent
weekly Vreme, believes that there are only two ways of solving the Kosovo
problem. “One would be to introduce a legal situation where all the
citizens of Serbia are equal, with the hope that Kosovo Albanians would
then accept such a country and eventually become loyal citizens,” he said.
“The other way is to give Kosovo to the people who
live there—Kosovo Albanians. There is no third way,” Cerovic added.
Fehmi Agani, one of the leading politicians among
ethnic Albanians, has said that with each passing year since 1989, Milosevic’s
regime has “pushed the Albanians away from Serbia.”
“Without tackling any of Kosovo’s problems in those
years, the regime has deliberately pushed Albanians into extremism and
radicalism. . . . It was not a show of Milosevic’s
real strength, but of his weakness,” he added.
Ivica Dacic, spokesperson for Milosevic’s Socialist
Party, said recently that the “threats of sanctions and of a military intervention
are nonsense. U.S. special envoy Robert Gelbard last week threatened
military intervention to prevent the conflict escalating into another Balkan
war.
“If states were to have sanctions imposed on them
for unsolved internal problems,” Dacic added, “most of the world would
be under sanctions because many countries have problems similar to that
in Kosovo.”
Milosevic’s regime, meanwhile, has launched another
Kosovo campaign; this time against the media which dared to report impartially
on the unfolding events in Kosovo.
In an unprecedented move, the office of District
Attorney of Belgrade issued a statement over the weekend, saying that it
has undertaken unspecified “necessary measures” against the editors of
five Belgrade dailies and several unspecified television stations.
The newspapers Nasa Borba, Blic, Demokratija, Dnevni
Telegraf and Danas are accused of “instigating terrorism.” “The dailies
and the television stations published texts, comments, headlines and aired
programs that encouraged the actions of terrorists and at the same time
falsely described the actions of Interior Ministry of Serbia,” the statement
said.
It did not, however, mention which law the editors
are supposed to have contravened, and they are still unclear of what exactly
is their “crime.”
“Hearing what both sides (in Kosovo) say certainly
does not amount to instigation of terrorism,” Ljubinka Milincic of Demokratija
said. Manojlo Vukotic of Blic newspaper has said that he is willing
to face the court or go to jail if “editorial policy of dialogue and reconciliation
in Kosovo is a matter for the court.”
Slavko Curuvija, editor-in-chief of Dnevni Telegraf,
concluded that “once again, like during the wars in Croatia and Bosnia,
the regime has found ‘real’ enemies in the independent media in Serbia.”
“That is the climax of craziness in this country
. . . that we (the independent media) are to blame for
what is happening in Kosovo,” he added.
Milos Vasic, president of the Independent Journalists’
Association of Serbia, said that this latest move by the District Attorney
office is “highly dangerous.”
“Serbian authorities and the regime-controlled media
are denying Serbian press the right of independent reporting, the right
to use and compare different sources of information and the right to question
self-contradictory, confusing and sometimes pathetically suspect official
statements of the Ministry of Interior.
“Even worse: for the first time the regime-controlled
Radio Television of Serbia openly asks that all the press in Serbia shall
use hate-speech, emotionally loaded with ethnic insults against Albanians.
“The independent press had their reporters in the
field in Kosovo; those reporters saw, heard and sometimes smelled the factual
truth and reported it as well as they could. Is that a treason, as
the regime media in Serbia are hinting? Is there any hope for justice if
the there’s no hope for truth?” concluded Vasic.
Inter Press Service, March 10, 1998
III. Crackdown on independent media reporting of Kosovo.
The authorities in Belgrade have taken action against
a number of independent newspapers and television stations after they carried
reports which allegedly encouraged terrorist actions and misrepresented
police activities in Kosovo, Tanjug news agency reported on 6th March.
“The district state prosecutor in Belgrade has taken
appropriate steps, in line with his powers stemming from the Penal Code,
against editors in chief of the dailies ‘Danas,’ ‘Nasa Borba,’ ‘Blic,’
‘Dnevni Telegraf’ and ‘Demokratija’ and certain TV stations because they
published articles, editorials and headlines and broadcast programmes which
encouraged actions of terrorist gangs in Kosovo and misrepresented measures
taken by the Serbian Interior Ministry against terrorists in Kosovo-Metohija,”
a statement by the prosecutor said. It did not specify what the “appropriate
steps” were.
The statement said police operations were directed
exclusively against “terrorist gangs which had carried out armed attacks
on representatives of the Interior Ministry and civilians,” Tanjug reported.
State-run Belgrade TV on 6th March also attacked
its independent rivals. “While most of the media have been relying
on official statements by the Serbian Interior Ministry, the so-called
independent media have been citing some sort of reliable but anonymous
sources and publishing arbitrary figures and all kinds of nonsense, which
are different even from the Albanian sources and which can only benefit
the terrorists,” it said.
“This is not the first time that some of these so-called
independent media in Belgrade, by publishing invented reports, turn out
to be the source cited by foreign agencies, which gives the inventions
some sort of respectability,” the TV went on. It said the such reporting
“at a time when Serbia is defending itself from terrorism through the legal
means that are used everywhere in the world can serve only those who want
to see Serbia in chaos and on its knees.”
RTS TV, Belgrade, March 6, 1998
IV. Hardline nationalists to set up own TV station.
The municipal authorities of the Serbian Radical
Party (SRS) are to open a television station in [the Belgrade suburb of]
Zemun soon, ‘Vecernje Novosti’ reports.
Aleksandar Vucic, SRS secretary-general and director
of the Pinki cultural, sport and business centre, told the daily that the
Zemun television would demonstrate “how the media should and have to function.”
The official name of the station is to be the Zemun
Information-Business System (ZIPS), and according to Vucic, it will be
open to all parties, “in proportion to their political power.”
“The author of the idea to found the ZIPS is Vojislav
Seselj, SPS leader and chairman of the Zemun municipal assembly,” the paper
reports.
According to Vucic, the purpose of starting the
ZIPS is “open up television screens, as well as the market, in which a
total lack of ideas and the deliberate stultification of viewers reign.”
The Zemun television would not lag behind the other
television centres in the technical and professional aspect and “will be
the most popular or at least one of the most popular television stations
in Serbia,” Vucic said.
The ZIPS programme will be broadcast from the building
of the Zemun municipal authority, and the authority will, with 1.5m dinars,
be the main investor of the project.
Beta news agency, Belgrade, March 4, 1998
V. Serb Radio-TV director-general sacked.
The government of the [Bosnian] Serb Republic [on
19th February] appointed Mladen Kalinic as acting director-general of the
publicly owned Oslobodjenje [based in Pale] news, publishing and printing
company, says a statement issued by the Serb Republic Information Ministry.
Prior to this appointment the government had dismissed
all members of the management board of the publicly owned Oslobodjenje
public news, publishing and printing company, as well as the director-general,
Predrag Nikolic.
The statement adds that all members of the management
board of Serb Radio-TV, and the previous director-general Miroslav Toholj,
have also been dismissed, and that Andjelko Kozomora, the Banja Luka-based
former correspondent of ‘Vecernje Novosti’ and ‘Ekspres Politika,’ has
been appointed as acting director-general of Serb Radio-TV.
Radio St John, Pale, February 19, 1998
VI. Serb Minister calls for co-ordination of broadcasters.
The Serbian Information Minister Radmila Milentijevic
said that republican and federal broadcasting frequency regulations should
be coordinated as soon as possible, the Tanjug news agency reported on
18th February.
Radmila Milentijevic said that “broadcasting frequencies
are a national resource and that clear criteria for their allotting should
be determined as soon as possible.” Those criteria, she said, should
include the process of legalization of frequencies and jurisdiction for
their use, with equal standards for all.
“I don’t know how much the use of frequencies will
cost, but I know that there is not a state in the world where they are
free of cost and used over an unlimited period of time.
Assessing that current federal regulations in the
field have been long outdated and that new ones should bring more order
to the “jungle we now have,” Radmila Milentijevic said the ministry was
ready to wait until the adoption of a federal regulation in the field,
the report said.
“A federal law on telecommunications and a law on
public information should be adopted as soon as possible . . . .
[agency ellipsis] It is imperative that legal regulations in the field
are coordinated at the level of the republics and the state,” she said.
Summing up the current media picture in Serbia,
Radmila Milentijevic said that since the period of the Gonzales report
till [18th February] that picture has changed significantly.
She said that the Gonzales report was no longer
valid for the Serbian media scene, where over 50 private radio stations
operate. “The opposition that is in power in 13 cities is exerting
a decisive influence there,” she said, adding that Serbian citizens can
get information from several sources.
Tanjug news agency, Belgrade, February 18, 1998
VII. Yugoslav TV said to be seeking own television channel.
The only reason the Federal Ministry of Telecommunications
published an invitation to bid for frequencies was that the federal radio
and television, that is Yugoslav Radio and Television (JRT), which aspires
to cover the entire Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as well as a part of
the Balkans, would get its own television channel, ‘Nasa Borba’ writes.
Citing reliable sources, the paper claims that the
independent electronic media should not fear a possible suspension because
they only serve as a formal pretext for calling the bid for frequencies.
“As a unique successor to Jutel, which emerged when
Jutel’s Channel B was renamed Telsat, and with the merger of Telsat and
KPGT [theatrical association] of Ljubisa Ristic into JRT, the Yugoslav
Radio and Television will also use former Jutel’s satellite channel,” ‘Nasa
Borba’ writes.
Beta news agency, Belgrade, February 18, 1998
I. Future of Bosnian Serb media assessed.
Plavsic starts her own television
The former Bosnian Serb leadership in Pale, which
at the start of the year was forced to turn opposition, has finally lost
control over the state-run media in Republika Srpska [RS—Bosnian Serb Republic].
The new authorities, embodied in RS President Biljana Plavsic and Premier
Milorad Dodik, are still consolidating power and thus have not yet managed
to take control of the Srpska Radio-Television [SRT], the most powerful
media in RS. However, such an outcome is likely to take place soon.
Once unified, the Pale-based state radio and television—SRT—following
a conflict between President Plavsic and the Pale leadership last year,
was divided to serve the two opposed sides: one advocating cooperation
with the international community, and the other entirely opposed to such
a course of action. The studio in Pale remained under the control
of the Pale faction, while the studio in Banja Luka was taken over by Plavsic
supporters.
The Pale faction is headed by the Serb member of
Bosnia’s presidency, Momcilo Krajisnik, considered close to the former
Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, who has been charged by the International
War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague with war crimes and genocide. In
the fierce struggle for domination waged between Pale and Banja Luka on
both the political and media plane for months, Pale has finally been defeated.
Pale and Banja Luka
During 1997, Pale fervently attempted to prevent
broadcasts from the Banja Luka studio from reaching eastern parts of Republika
Srpska. To this end, Pale sabotaged several television transmitters
in the eastern part of RS. Simultaneously, it continued to broadcast
programmes which international observers considered a violation of the
peace agreement, and attempts at inciting hatred and intolerance.
At the beginning of last October, immediately after SRT from Pale had broadcast
an improperly edited statement by the chief prosecutor of The Hague Tribunal,
Louise Arbour, Sfor [NATO-led Stabilization Force] members took over four
SRT transmitters and prevented the Pale broadcasts from being viewed in
most of Republika Srpska. These transmitters are still under Sfor
control.
Later on, thanks to international aid, the pro-Plavsic
broadcasts of the Banja Luka television were placed on satellite, and now
cover a large portion of Bosnia, that is, Republika Srpska.
For the time being, the only studio broadcasting
independent of Plavsic is in Bijeljina, in the very east of Republika Srpska,
close to the border with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This
studio produces and transmits over a small, local transmitter some 10 hours
of programmes daily, and can be viewed only in the city’s vicinity.
The studio staff is close to the Pale leadership.
It is certain that the Banja Luka studio, now that
President Plavsic has won the majority in the RS legislature and formed
a moderate cabinet, will gradually take control of the entire SRT.
The new authorities, according to well informed sources in Banja Luka and
Pale, will restructure the state-run television so that the central studio
will be located in Banja Luka, while the local studios (in Pale, Bijeljina,
Doboj) will operate as correspondent offices and consequently lose their
independence.
The new minister
At the end of the last and the beginning of this
week, the new RS information minister, Rajko Vasic, toured the television
studios in Bijeljina, northeastern RS, and Trebinje, eastern Hercegovina.
He reached an agreement with the Trebinje studio on rebroadcasting of broadcasts
from the Banja Luka studio. Such cooperation was rejected in Bijeljina.
Vasic has not yet started negotiations with the Pale studio.
The new RS government expects Sfor to hand over
transmitters near Sarajevo, Doboj and Bijeljina, over which the once unified
RS state television operated as a whole. However, it is still not
known through which transmitter the future link between Pale and Banja
Luka will be established. Earlier, it was done through a transmitter
near Doboj, in northern Bosnia, but it would be much simpler if the link
was created through a transmitter on Mt Vlasic, in central Bosnia.
Mt Vlasic is located in the Muslim-Croat Federation,
while the Doboj transmitter is on RS territory. If they opt for Vlasic,
the new RS authorities would probably score an additional point with the
international community.
Sources in Banja Luka say that negotiations regarding
the issue are already under way.
It is not still fully clear what kind of programme
concept and orientation the new RS state television will have. Two
concepts are being considered. One envisages the continuation of
the separate Bosnian Serb programme, while the other is closer to the idea
of establishing a unified television network for the whole of Bosnia and
Hercegovina. To Vasic, who used to work for the Jutel television
station, which covered all of former Yugoslavia at the time when Ante Markovic
was still the former federation’s prime minister, the idea of a unified
Bosnian television is much closer. The final decision on the concept,
however, will depend on political circumstances, that is, on the course
the development of relations between the two Bosnian entities will take.
The alternative
After having realized that it has lost its
most powerful propaganda tool, the Pale leadership started adjusting itself
to the new situation. In the last several months, two larger television
stations were founded in Pale, behind which stand senior members of the
Pale leadership and which mostly employ former reporters of the state television.
One of the new stations, Channel S [S-Kanal TV], is registered as a holding
company and headed by the former RS information minister, Svetlana Siljegovic.
All the employees of the Pale SRT studio were offered to become shareholders
of the newly founded station.
Channel S broadcasts 12 hours per day via a local
transmitter in Pale. The bulk of the programme consists of music,
films and news shows, taken over from the state-run SRNA news agency and
the Yugoslav state news agency, Tanjug. There are no special political
shows. The journalists and editors are still formally employed with
the SRT, that is, are state employees ultimately under the authority of
Dodik’s government. The Sarajevo office of the High Representative
to Bosnia has already requested documents pertaining to the foundation
of Channel S. The increased interest of the international community
for this station is one of the reasons why specialized political shows
are still not run by it.
Also, St John Television has been operating in Pale
for some time now. It does not produce its own programmes, but rebroadcasts
shows carried by satellite sports channels. The director of this
station is the former director of SRT, Miroslav Toholj. There is
also a St John Radio in Pale, whose director is Radovan Karadzic’s daughter,
Sonja Karadzic. Its programmes are fully in line with the policy
pursued by the Pale leadership.
It is almost certain that the Pale leadership will
put these stations to full use at the time when the next presidential and
parliamentary elections in the whole of Bosnia, next September, are scheduled
to be held. Through these media, Pale will attempt to regain political
influence. Meanwhile, the employees of the Pale studio expect the
announced arrival of the new information minister, who is to declare to
them his new concept of work. Only after that, they say, will they
decide whether to remain in the state-run television, or formally become
employees of the newly created stations.
Beta news agency, Belgrade, February 12, 1998