Post-Soviet Media Law & Policy Newsletter

Issue 47     Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law     June 15, 1998 

ALBANIA BULGARIA
I.  “Chaos” in licensing cable TV operators.
II.  Government moves bills on radio, television.
III.  Cabinet approves national media and telecoms bills.
IV.  Media group wants abolition of licence concession-granting.
POLAND SLOVAKIA YUGOSLAVIA AND FORMER YUGOSLAVIA
ALBANIA

I.  Draft law on broadcasting completed.

    The chairman of the Parliamentary Commission of Media, Musa Ulqini, reported on [8th May] in a news conference on the draft of the law on public and private electronic media, which has just been finished.
    The draft consists of 145 articles, included in 12 chapters, and is compiled with the assistance of the Council of Europe.
    “According to the draft law, the political parties and religious and state organizations are not allowed to have a private television and the sponsor of private televisions must be made public,” said Ulqini.  Ulqini said that the transition of the state television into a public one will be made possible in January 1999.
    The chairman of the Commission of Media said that impartiality of public and private electronic media will be sanctioned, while the licences for the frequencies will be a national asset.  According to the draft, the local and foreign investor will have the same rights to the establishment of a private TV station.
    Ulqini explained that after the law is passed, the private TV and radio stations already operating in Albania will continue to work until they receive a response from the National Council on public and private electronic media.
    The drafting of the law on electronic media started in February 1995, when the parliamentary commission of media of that time created a working group which drafted the first version on a public TV and radio station.  At the beginning of 1997, the present Parliamentary Commission on Media presented to the parliament a law which adjusted from the legal point of view, and for the first time in Albania, the private electronic media.
    The present draft was prepared by a group of experts, led by Musa Ulqini, in October 1997.  Ulqini said that after the approval of the law, the Commission of Media will draft a law on the written press.

ATA news agency, Tirana, May 8, 1998

BULGARIA

I.  “Chaos” in licensing cable TV operators.

    Some 400 cable operators have constructed and are using television networks on the territory of Bulgaria, show figures of the Committee on Posts and Telecommunications (CPT).
    Before the end of September a CPT controlling unit inspected 113 unlicensed operators and their networks; however, no administrative measures were taken, said Deputy Prime Minister Evgeni Bakurdzhiev, asked by Bulgarian Business Bloc leader George Ganchev about the reason for the delay in electronic media licensing.
    During the past few years quite a few of the pirate cable operators did their best to legalize their work, but this is practically impossible because of the chaos in the country’s legislative framework in this field, Evgeni Bakurdzhiev said. 
    The bills on radio and television and on telecommunications were moved to parliament on 30th April this year.
    According to Bakurdzhiev, the entry of democratic and up-to-date electronic media on the home market is purposefully impeded.  Prof Berov’s cabinet and particularly the (Socialist) cabinet of Zhan Videnov created such a legal and legislative vacuum which made impossible operation in the field of electronic media, Bakurdzhiev said.
    “When we stepped in office we found a 1975 telecommunications act and a radio and television act that violated the constitution.  We inherited a concessions act that not only blocked the possibilities to regulate in a lawful way the radio and the TV frequencies used by the operators, but in practice denied all kind of access to the radio and TV frequencies.  We also found a pile of subordinate legislation in telecommunications, outdoing each other in absurdity and also contradicting each other,” Deputy Prime Minister Bakurdzhiev said.
    Before the entry into force of the effective concessions act, the CPT issued 16 licences for construction and usage of TV stations, 51 licences for radio stations, 94 for cable distribution networks and one for the construction and exploitation of a radio relay line.  Only one licence for using a radio broadcasting station and one for a TV broadcasting station have been recognized as being in compliance with the concessions act.  At this stage all other licences are in limbo.
    Following the entry into force of the concessions act, the CPT unlawfully issued three licences for TV stations and eight licences for construction and usage of cable distribution networks.  They were issued in violation of the law so the prosecutor-general’s office recommends these licences to be declared void, the deputy prime minister said.

BTA news agency, Sofia, May 8, 1998

II.  Government moves bills on radio, television.

    Government-sponsored bills on radio, television and on telecommunications are about to be moved to parliament for discussion after Prime Minister Ivan Kostov endorsed them [on 30th April].
    The radio and television bill envisages equal treatment of all electronic media regardless of the form of ownership, independence of the media and freedom of their employees, the prime minister stated.  The possibility for privatization and licensing of private operators will provide the most serious guarantee for the independence of the media, he added.  The government has withdrawn from immediate participation in the control and management of the media operation and this status quo will remain unchanged, Kostov stated.
    The executive will insist on strict control over the funding and use of the property and resources of the national electronic media.  The government will not interfere in the operation of the radio and the television.  However, the right of the president, the prime minister and the National Assembly chairman to address the nation will be preserved.
    Ivan Kostov voiced the hope that the bill would settle the complicated problems of the media.  It is complied with the Television Without Frontiers directive and the Convention on Transfrontier Television.
    Under the bill the procedures on the establishment and functioning of the National Council on Radio and Television remain unchanged.
    A concession for one of the national television frequencies, earmarked for privatization, will be granted by the year’s end.  The other possibility is that a licence for its usage is granted to a private operator.  The other frequency is expected to be sold next year.  According to the prime minister, even if the buyer is a foreigner there will be Bulgarian participation as well.
    The ministers and the politicians should make efforts to attract more participants to the competition for private operator.  The national radio frequencies will not be sold.
    The general policy in telecommunications will be carried out by a government-appointed body and the telecommunication activity will be controlled by a special government committee, under the telecommunications bill.
    The bill meets European standards, stipulates the functions and distinguishes between the monitoringand licence-issuing bodies, said Kostov.

BTA news agency, Sofia, April 30, 1998

III.  Cabinet approves national media and telecoms bills.

    A State Telecommunications Agency will license networks and services and determine the rules of procedure of communications operators.  The agency will be appointed by the government and will be financed by the national budget, said Posts and Telecommunications Committee Chairman Antoni Slavinski.
    On [9th April] the government approved in principle bills on telecommunications and radio and television.  The bills and commentaries can be found on a special web site on the Internet. 
    The bills provide for two separate state institutions to regulate telecommunications policies.  A body will be set up with the Council of Ministers to implement the government’s policy in this field.  A National Radio Frequencies Plan Council will regulate frequencies allocation among government departments.
    The Radio and Television Bill introduces common standards for all electronic media and includes a separate chapter on radio and television.  Most of the rules refer to the work of the state electronic media, less rules apply to the public electronic media, and the commercial electronic media are the least regulated.
    The bill will be further elaborated in several directions—the principles in formulating programme policies, in raising funds and the administrative and criminal liability of offenders.
    It is unclear whether private electronic media will apply for frequency licences or concessions, Slavinski said.
    The funding of the national media will seek to decrease the role of the national budget and the introduction of fees.  Fees for business customers may be higher.
    The Radio and Television Bill raises no obstacles to the privatization of the second channel of Bulgarian National Television—Efir 2.  Its frequencies may be allocated to a private agent for broadcasting his own programme.  The facilities will remain property of the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company, which will lease them to the new owner of the frequency.

BTA news agency, Sofia, April 9, 1998

IV.  Media group wants abolition of licence concession-granting.

    Concession-granting to broadcasting operators should be immediately abolished, 10 NGOs forming a Group for European Media Legislation proposed at a conference on [4th April].  They adopted a declaration saying it was unacceptable to grant concessions on radio and television frequencies.  The document will be submitted to the Council of Ministers which is to consider bills on telecommunications and on radio and television.
    Posts and Telecoms Committee Chairman Antoni Slavinski presented the telecommunications bill to the participants.  It proposes that concessions on radio and television frequencies be granted by the Council of Ministers or a body authorized thereof.  A National Agency on Telecommunications will issue licences for broadcasting of radio and television programmes.
    The 10 organizations suggest that an independent regulatory body license and control radio and television operators.
    The Group for European Media Legislation consists of the Association of Private Radio Stations, the Bulgarian Association of Licensed Cable Operators, the National Organization of Cable Operators, the Centre for Independent Journalism, the Union of Bulgarian Journalists, the Free Speech Civic Forum, the Union of Journalists in Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, the Access to Information Programme and the Journalists for the EU Association.

BTA news agency, Sofia, April 5, 1998

POLAND

I.  Solidarity wants new broadcasting council elected.

    Solidarity chairman Marian Krzaklewski thinks a new Radio and TV Broadcasting Council [KRRiTV] should be elected. . . .
    “The Sejm [lower house of parliament] should unambiguously reject the KRRiTV report.  The president should also make a clear statement.  A well-paid council with immense power cannot be allowed to make such mistakes,” Krzaklewski said, referring to the decision on [26th May] by the Supreme Administrative Court to revoke the KRRiTV franchises to TVN and Nasza TV.
    Krzaklewski thinks “a new council should be elected.”  A new model for filling the places on it is needed, for “the political model is disastrous.”

PAP news agency, Warsaw, May 27, 1998

II.  Treasury minister rejects new Polish Radio board.

    Treasury Minister Emil Wasacz refuses to accept the election of a new management board for Polish Radio.  The minister has informed the chairman of the National Radio and Television Broadcasting Council [KRRiTV], Boleslaw Sulik, of his standpoint. 
    In a letter to the KRRiTV chairman, Wasacz stressed that in choosing the new public radio authorities the supervisory board had “made it impossible for the treasury minister to carry out his obligations.”  The minister has requested the chairman of the KRRiTV to draw consequences in relation to the persons “who brought about such a situation.”
    On [26th May] morning, Wasacz sent Department XVI-Economic of the Regional Court for the Capital City Warsaw a letter in which he applied for “the suspension of the registration procedure” of the new management board of Polish Radio.  The court had, however, registered the radio management board a day earlier.
    Wasacz sent a third letter regarding this matter to the deputy chairman of the Sejm [lower house of parliament] culture and mass media commission, Tomasz Welnicki ( [of the ruling coalition senior partner] Solidarity Electoral Action—AWS).  The minister wants the deputies from the commission to interest themselves in the election of a new radio management board.
    “It will be necessary to consider how to appeal against the court decision. Court decisions are subject to substantive and procedural appeals procedures,” Welnicki said.
    In relation to the Polish Radio Joint Stock Company, the treasury minister represents the owner, that is the state treasury.  Once a year, in the guise of a one-person shareholders’ annual meeting, he approves the reports of the company authorities.

PAP news agency, Warsaw, May 26, 1998

III.  Ruling coalition opposes registration of new radio board.

    According to Solidarity Electoral Action (AWS) and the Freedom Union (UW) [ruling coalition partners], the election of the new authorities of public radio arouses legal doubts.  The coalition wants to prevent the registration of the new Polish Radio board. 
    The AWS-UW coalition also wants to create a Sejm [lower house of parliament] special sub-committee to deal with the issue.
    Jacek Rybicki, deputy leader of the AWS caucus, said on [25th May] that the board was elected “in a hurry,” therefore “procedures were violated.”
    This was so because the new board was elected before the treasury minister had evaluated the work of the previous board last year. “This must be examined from the legal point of view,” UW caucus deputy leader Pawel Piskorski said.
    The motion to suspend the registration of the new radio board will be filed with the related court on [May 25th or 26th], Deputy Tomasz Welnicki said.
    The public radio supervisory board last week elected a five-member board.  Two of them are members of the [opposition] Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) and the Polish Peasant Party (PSL), and one associated with the UW.

PAP news agency, Warsaw, May 25, 1998

IV.  Senate rejects broadcasting council’s report.

    The Senate on [22nd May] rejected in a vote of 53 to 32 with one abstention the annual report of the National Radio and TV Broadcasting Council [KRRiTV]. 
    Under the Radio and TV Law, it is enough for the report to be accepted by one of the three: the Sejm, Senate or the president, for the council to continue functioning.  The council will have to resign only when the report is rejected by all the three.
    The report has not been examined by the Sejm yet.

PAP news agency, Warsaw, May 24, 1998

V.  Paper views struggle for control of Polish TV.

    Most probably [on 22nd May] the Supervisory Board of Polish Television SA [TVP SA] will assess the company’s work in 1997.  This assessment and approval or rejection of reports on financial and programme activities of the public television’s management will mark the beginning of a battle over the composition of the new board of directors.  The board of directors is the organ which has the biggest say on decisions made in the company.  Its new members will probably be elected in mid-June.
    The TVP SA board holds the real power in public television.  This organ, consisting of five people, makes the most important decisions concerning personnel and programme issues.  These people are the ones who submit to the Supervisory Board for approval candidacies for heads of the various TVP SA channels—First Programme, Second Programme and TV Polonia.  They also elect directors of the public television’s regional branches and make crucial financial decisions.
    The term of the present TVP SA board, chaired by Ryszard Miazek, runs out at the turn of May and June.  The Supervisory Board, which is to convene [on 22nd May], will assess the financial and programme activities of the TVP SA board.  In addition, all the members of the board who worked in this capacity in 1997 will be assessed individually.
    In all likelihood the Supervisory Board will assess their work positively.  The Supervisory Board is also working on a motion requesting the television owner (state treasury minister) to assess the board of directors’ work positively.
    This approval is a foregone conclusion, owing to the composition of the Supervisory Board, which is dominated by representatives of the former coalition of the Democratic Left Alliance [SLD] and the Polish Peasant Party [PSL].  One of our informers says that [the] decisions by the Supervisory Board will mark the beginning of the end of political bargaining over the composition of the new board of directors.  “This bargaining has been under way for a few months now,” he told us.  “The present governing coalition wants to restore political balance in the leadership of the public television.”

‘Zycie,’ Warsaw, May 22, 1998

VI.  Paper looks at political infighting behind TV appointments.

    Although the recent personnel reshuffles at Polish state television [TVP SA] do not mean a political revolution, they have incited fierce protests on the part of the Solidarity Electoral Action [AWS].  Key positions at TVP SA are still held by individuals with ties to the SLD-PSL [Democratic Left Alliance-Polish Peasant Party] tandem.  The storm in their ranks caused by the reshuffles means that the AWS has not abandoned its efforts to obtain influence on television.
    A direct reason that triggered the most recent wave of protests on the part of the AWS politicians was the discharge of Stanislaw Nowak as director of TVP First Programme.  Politicians are most interested in this particular channel (in addition to “Wiadomosci” [newscast]) and changes in its leadership raise most controversy.  Nowak, an active member of the Polish United Workers’ Party in the 1980s, was on the TVP board of management under Wieslaw Walendziak as TVP chairman.  For many months, he remained loyal to his chairman at that time.  The situation changed in 1995, when Aleksander Kwasniewski won the presidential election.
    The present TVP board of management, headed by Ryszard Miazek, appointed Stanislaw Nowak director of the TVP First Programme.  As chief of that channel, Nowak was repeatedly accused of political interference, including barring valuable documentaries and reportages.  In mid-April, shortly before his dismissal, he barred authors of the “Opinions” current affairs programme from making a programme on a lawsuit filed by Kwasniewski against the ‘Zycie’ daily.
    Despite this fact, Stanislaw Nowak was dismissed on 23rd April, while Andrzej Kwiatkowski, member of the board of management, was appointed provisional director of the First Programme.  Under TVP Chairman Walendziak, Kwiatkowski lost a contest for director of the First Programme and the position of the programme’s current affairs manager.  In a television debate before the 1995 presidential election, Andrzej Kwiatkowski was one of two journalists that supported Aleksander Kwasniewski.  Later, the TVP supervisory board appointed him member of the TVP management board.
    After Kwiatkowski assumed management of the First Programme several weeks ago, one of his first decisions was to eliminate “Political Alarm Clock,” a morning current affairs programme made by former ‘Zycie’ and ‘Gazeta Wyborcza’ journalists.
The Presidential and Leftist Group
    After several weeks of Andrzej Kwiatkowski’s tenure as provisional chief of the First Programme, TVP management appointed Slawomir Zielinski, the other journalist who supported Kwasniewski in the 1995 campaign debates, permanent director of that channel.  Before that, Zielinski was chief of the “Panorama” [newscast] in the Second Programme.
    That appointment raised the protests of Adam Brodziak, the last pro-Solidarity member of the TVP board, who resigned saying TVP was embracing all things “presidential and leftist.”  The AWS’s Jan Maria Jackowski, chairman of the Sejm Culture and Mass Media Committee, stated that this was how the “Kwasniewski group,” represented both by Kwiatkowski and by Zielinski, was preparing for the next presidential campaign.  The internal regrouping in the television balance of forces means also replacement of a person vacillating between the SLD and the Freedom Union [UW] with a director completely loyal to the leadership of the postcommunist camp.
    The replacement of Nowak with Kwiatkowski and then with Zielinski, although it was carried out inside the same political camp, raised protests of the AWS.
    The AWS has sought to gain influence on state television since the legislative elections.  But the government-proposed revision of the law on radio and television (allowing the state treasury minister to dismiss their supervisory boards) stands no chance of being made into law because after the president refuses to sign it, which is almost a sure thing, the Action and the UW will not have enough votes to reject Kwasniewski’s veto.

‘Rzeczpospolita,’ Warsaw, May 12, 1998

VII.  Cabinet requests help of private TV stations.

    Michal Kulesza, the government’s plenipotentiary for the administration reform, [on 28th April] filed a complaint with the National Radio and Television Council [KRRiTV] against Polish state television [TVP].  In the government’s opinion, TVP has not broadcast a single information programme or a broad debate that would explain the basics of the state administration reform.  The government has appealed for major commercial television stations to provide news of the reform.
    “As a result of negligence displayed by state television on the issue of its public information duties, fundamental issues related to the system of reconstruction of the Polish Republic, which are one of the main challenges facing Poland at the turn of the century, are viewed by most citizens as incomprehensible quarrels conducted by politicians or sensational reports from manifestations in defence of a particular governorate,” Minister Kulesza wrote in the complaint to KRRiTV Chairman Boleslaw Sulik.
    The government is accusing TVP of a lack of ethics and objectivity because it presents the position of one side only. . . . 
    KRRiT Chairman Boleslaw Sulik said at a news conference devoted to the Council’s fifth anniversary that when he was leaving his office, the letter of protest had not been delivered to his desk yet.  “It is not the first time that we learn from the media of a protest sent to us by the government,” Boleslaw Sulik complained.
    “It is disputable whether there are not enough programmes presenting Minister Kulesza’s position,” Michal Strak from the KRRiTV said ironically.  He noted that if the coalition called a referendum, both its supporters and opponents would be able to speak out on TVP.
    TVP Chairman Ryszard Miazek said that he was surprised by the protest.  TVP is ready to send the KRRiTV recordings of many programmes devoted to the reform. TVP’s First Programme is currently preparing information programmes that will be aired from June.
    Wieslaw Walendziak, head of the Prime Minister’s Chancellery, has appealed for commercial television stations to broadcast news of the self-government reform.  “We are now holding talks with major commercial stations,” Government Spokesman Tomasz Tywonek told ‘Zycie.’  However, he would not disclose what stations.
    Grzegorz Miecugow from TVN [private television station] has told ‘Zycie’ that representatives of Minister Kulesza contacted him [on 28th April] with a proposal to cooperate on promotion of the administrative reform.
    “There is a certain problem here because TVN is a commercial station and the government has no money.  We would have to think how the reform could be shown to attract viewers.  TVP is in a better position because it receives money for this purpose from viewer subscription fees,” Miecugow explained.
    Zygmunt Solorz, chairman of Polsat, said that no government officials had yet asked him to provide information of the administration reform.  “But if this happens, we will want to discuss specific conditions and we are willing to do this job,” he has assured.

‘Zycie,’ Warsaw, April 29, 1998

VIII.  PM regrets public TV fails to back government.

    The government may commission commercial TV to screen programmes informing about the planned administrative reform, Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek said [on 28th April].
    “We regret that public television does not want to support the government in such an important matter as the reform,” Buzek said.  According to the prime minister, public TV should help the government to explain to citizens the essence of the reform and the advantages it will bring to them.  TVP should also work to inform the society “about positive measures taken by the government.”
    Buzek added that television had wider audience than the press and that is why the government wanted programmes about the reform to be broadcast by TV.

PAP news agency, Warsaw, April 28, 1998

SLOVAKIA

I.  Watchdog says TV coverage of party assembly was unbalanced.

    “The Slovak Television Council, at its session [on 14th May], says that by broadcasting two special news segments from the HZDS [Movement for a Democratic Slovakia, main party in ruling coalition] convention in Kosice (25th April), the balance of news coverage was breached, as well as the approved structure of Slovak Television,” reads the council’s declaration issued [on 14th May].  The council thereby asked the Slovak Television (STV) director to take this under advisement.  As the declaration further points out, the council decided that STV should enable other parliamentary political parties to have equal presentations.  At the same time, the council members protested against repeated attacks on the impartiality of their work and decisions.
    The council also ordered the STV director to introduce graphic markings of programmes, carrying information about the suitability for age groups of children and young people—mainly with respect to elements posing a threat to moral and educational values.  The council, as well, protested against Freedom House (the US-based media monitoring organization) ranking Slovakia among the countries with limited freedom of the press.  According to the council, the broadcasting of the state-run STV is, despite criticism and partial shortcomings, one of the most important sources of objective and balanced information for the Slovak public.

TASR news agency, Bratislava, May 14, 1998

II.  Private radios, TVs protest at ban on covering election campaign.

    The Slovak Association of Independent Radio and Television Stations will launch protests against discrimination against private radios and televisions before the September elections, the association says in a statement given to CTK [on 12th May].
    Conducted via Markiza Television and private radio stations which are members of the association, the week-long protests will begin on [13th May], the statement says.
    The government election bill bars private radios and televisions from covering political developments during the election campaign.
    Under the bill, which is to be discussed by parliament next week, only the media which have the status of a public corporation are allowed to spread political information before elections.  These media, mainly Slovak Television, are notorious for clearly siding with Premier Vladimir Meciar’s government coalition.
    In its statement the association calls on deputies to prevent the “anticonstitutional” law from being passed.  The planned restriction of the private media jeopardizes the democratic character of the autumn parliamentary elections, the statement warns.

CTK news agency, Prague, May 12, 1998

III.  Opposition slams TV coverage of ruling party assembly.

    Slovak Television (STV), by its performance, has disqualified itself utterly and has demonstrated clearly that the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia [HZDS, main party in ruling coalition] has privatized it and turned it into its press department.  This statement was made by the leader of the Slovak Democratic Coalition (SDK, [opposition five-party party bloc]), Mikulas Dzurinda, in response to STV’s direct broadcasts from the HZDS assembly in Kosice.   That is, public service STV altered its programmes on its first channel on [25th April] and in two blocs, at 1430 and 1700, broadcast direct clips from the HZDS assembly in Kosice.  Then, during the evening, it broadcast the hour-long speech by the movement’s leader, Vladimir Meciar.  S. Dlugolinsky, STV’s deputy programme director, was responsible for the change.
    According to STV’s staff, such practice is a “novelty.”  Until now, STV has not carried direct relays of the assemblies of the political parties and movements.  According to the SDK leader, such techniques will not help the HZDS, just as the nomenklatura television did not help the old regime before 1989.  Dzurinda called upon citizens to “reject such primitive brainwashing.”  According to the [leftist opposition] Party of the Democratic Left, public service television “is conducting party propaganda for the ruling movement from our money.  The HZDS, brazenly and in front of thousands of Slovak citizens, has begun to employ publicly the practices that are typical of dictatorial regimes.”

‘Sme,’ Bratislava, April 27, 1998

YUGOSLAVIA AND FORMER YUGOSLAVIA:
BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA

I.  Serb ministry condemns idea of joint TV service.

    The Serb Republic [RS] Information Ministry issued a statement [on 26th May] in reaction to frequent mention of the so-called joint Bosnia-Hercegovina television, especially at news conferences of OHR [Office of the High Representative of the international community] representatives.
    The statement was issued in response to agencies reporting about a statement of OHR representative [Rida] Attarashany.  With regard to that, the Information Ministry states that all the presented ideas about Bosnia-Hercegovina television as a joint public radio television fall in the realm of improvization and irresponsible statements that can only be characterized as an underhanded effort to change the Dayton Agreement.  The Information Ministry warns that, under the Dayton Agreement, the information system is the sole province of entities.  The RS government will never agree to adding or taking away from that agreement, not even in the field of information, says the statement issued by the Information Ministry, warning all the relevant parties to relinquish artificial and imposed ideas.  The RS Information Ministry demands equal treatment of both entities in line with the Dayton Agreement and concludes that common ground in the field of Information is only possible if it is in the interest of both entities and if entities reach an agreement on that.

Bosnian Serb radio, Banja Luka, May 26, 1998

II.  OHR proposes joint television service.

    The Office of the High Representative [OHR] held a news conference in Sarajevo [on 25th May] at which the spokesman of this organization spoke about the transformation of radio-television stations and armies and the integration of sporting organizations at the level of Bosnia-Hercegovina.
    Radio and television stations, as well as the overall media arena in Bosnia-Hercegovina, should be transformed, so that the first channel should belong to a public and joint radio-television station of Bosnia-Hercegovina, while the second one would be given to the entities’ media organizations, the Serb Radio-Television and the radio-television of the Federation of Bosnia-Hercegovina, the OHR proposed in Sarajevo [on 25th May].
    The third channel, according to the proposal by the OHR, would broadcast programmes of the OBN [Open Broadcasting Network] television run by the international community.  According to what the OHR spokesman said on that occasion, the television of Bosnia-Hercegovina would be located in Sarajevo, at the headquarters of the former Sarajevo Television, which was renamed by the current Sarajevo authorities Radio Television Bosnia-Hercegovina at the beginning of the war, even though it has always belonged only to the Federation of Bosnia-Hercegovina.  The new state-owned television, whose establishment requires consent on the part of the Presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina, would be headed initially by [word indistinct] who would chair meetings of the board of directors and who would make sure that decisions are made by consensus.  Only this media organization would be a member of international associations.  If the Presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina agrees to the proposed solution, the transformation of the media arena should be completed within two months, the OHR stated.
    According to the Dayton accords, the sphere of information is supposed to fall under the entities’ jurisdiction.

Kanal S Television, Pale, May 25, 1998

III.  Sfor troops to withdraw from Serb transmitters.

    Troops of the NATO-led stabilization force, Sfor, are to withdraw from a Bosnian Serb radio and television transmitter at Trebevic on 28th May, the Tanjug news agency reported.  The agency said that this was agreed in principle at a meeting in Pale on 22nd May of representatives of Sfor, Serb Radio-TV (SRT), the local police and the post office.  The Bosnian Serbs will then become in charge of security at the transmitter, and only some Sfor equipment will remain around the facility.
    A spokesman for the multinational Division North of Sfor announced in Doboj on 21st May that Sfor troops would withdraw from five SRT repeaters in early June, the Bosnian Serb Kanal S TV reported.

Kanal S Television, Pale, May 21, 1998

IV.  Changes expected in organization of TV and radio.

    Negotiations are under way on the restructuring of television in Bosnia.  According to a report by the Sarajevo newspaper ‘Slobodna Bosna,’ the government station TVBiH will become an umbrella organization that will incorporate both government and Bosnian Serb television and transmitters within Bosnia will no longer be available to Croatian or Serbian TV.  The article also reports on reaction to the establishment of an independent body to regulate broadcasters and the imminent opening of satellite Ljiljan TV.  The following is the text of the report, headlined “It will not be possible to broadcast Croatian and Serbian television from Bosnian transmitters” ; subheadings as published:
    The OHR [Office of the High Representative of the international community in Bosnia-Hercegovina] last week officially announced the formation of an independent media commission that should finally provide a legal framework for the media in Bosnia-Hercegovina.  This body will be called the “Interim Media Standards and Licensing Commission” (IMSLC) and, according to what we were told in the OHR, it will work on harmonizing the Bosnian legal framework for media with European practice. 
    Currently, there are around 200 radio and television stations in Bosnia-Hercegovina, and the majority of them—the radio stations in particular—are pirates.  This is because the Bosnia-Hercegovina Communications Directorate cannot, for understandable reasons, control the whole territory of Bosnia-Hercegovina, and inter-entity coordination is nonexistent.  For example, the St John radio from Pale has nine frequencies, and one of them that can be listened to in Sarajevo overlaps with the frequency of the local Sarajevo Radio Zid [Wall].  In the majority of cases, municipalities issue frequency licences to local radio stations.
There is no censorship
    Reactions of Bosnia-Hercegovina journalists to the establishment of the IMSLC were not positive, even though the commission’s goal is to introduce order into the legal chaos currently reigning in the Bosnia-Hercegovina media.  Emphasis has been placed on the introduction of censorship, and it is interesting that this interpretation was first made by a journalist of the ‘New York Times’ on 24th April.  Simon Haselock, an OHR spokesman, denied the ‘New York Times’ journalist’s interpretation and accused him of having created a false impression of the IMSLC’s planned activities.
    John Watkinson, the chairman of the experts’ team helping to create this commission, also said in his statement to the press that censorship was not the IMSLC’s goal.  However, he failed to be precise when speaking about the competencies that the commission will have in regard to bans and penalties for Bosnia-Hercegovina media, since the work on the draft of activities is still in progress and there are no final decisions yet.  Nevertheless, Watkinson denied press reports that the IMSLC will issue “work licences” to journalists.
    “The commission has no intention of issuing ‘work licences’ to journalists. As in other countries, editors or trade unions in Bosnia-Hercegovina will have the right to judge who meets conditions for working in journalism.  The IMSLC will create a basis for regulations within which it will be possible energetically to express different views,” Mr Watkinson said.
    ‘Slobodna Bosna’ learned that the IMSLC will deal mostly with electronic media and that its most difficult task will be to resolve the issue of Bosnia-Hercegovina Television [TVBiH].  Our source vehemently denied the information that appeared in the Bosnia-Hercegovina press that the OBN [Open Broadcast Network] will be given the frequency of TVBiH’s first channel, that the second channel will be in the possession of the current television, which will be transformed into the Federation [of Bosnia-Hercegovina] television, and that [Sarajevo] canton television will be broadcast on the third channel.
    “That is pure disinformation.  The OBN is completely irrelevant.  Everybody understands that many issues regarding the OBN are unresolved, that the OBN does not have a developed infrastructure, and that that television has no future in Bosnia-Hercegovina.  Our goal is to reconstruct TVBiH,” the source said.
    We learned from sources close to the state authorities that negotiations on TVBiH are in progress and that they are being held at the highest level of state, that is, between Alija Izetbegovic, Bosnia-Hercegovina Presidency chairman, and Kresimir Zubak, Presidency member.  Both parties agreed that TVBiH will not be divided along ethnic lines.  According to what has already been agreed, TVBiH will be formed as a public enterprise.  The negotiating parties at the top level agreed that the current TVBiH management will have to be discharged, and that the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia-Hercegovina will nominate members of the Governing Board that will have to have representatives of all ethnic groups.  The OHR will give the final word on the “aptness” of the members of the television’s governing board and, in this transitive stage, that will be the filter ensuring that the people in the television’s management are not party proteges.
Halt to HRT and SRT
    In other words, in the transitional period the governing board will only partially have power over that public corporation, since a supervisor for TVBiH will be appointed, just as is the case with [Dragan] Gasic for SRT [Serb Television].  Just like Gasic, the supervisor will be authorized to censor certain subjects, hire people, dismiss employees, and therefore have almost absolute power.  In the OHR they claim that the supervisor’s role will be yet another mechanism that will ensure that TVBiH really will be a public institution and that its journalists will be free from political pressures.
    The second channel of the current television will be given to the federation television, the creation of which is almost certain, and in all likelihood that television will unite programmes of the 10 canton televisions.
    As a public enterprise, TVBiH will, in a way, have the role of an umbrella institution that would incorporate both the SRT and the federation television in its system.
    “Pirate attacks” on Bosnia-Hercegovina frequencies will be halted, and the services provided from the Croat and Serb majority territories to the televisions of the neighbouring republics will have to end.  In other words, according to one of our sources from the OHR, in the negotiations with President Izetbegovic, Kresimir Zubak promised that broadcasts of Croatian Television [HRT] programmes from three transmitters that Croatia has been using abundantly will be stopped.  “Nobody will be able to forbid Mostar Television to broadcast within its programme the HRT newscast, for example, and to take over some of its programmes on the basis of their signed agreement, but the HRT will not be able directly to use the transmitters that it uses illegally now,” our source claimed.
    In return, Izetbegovic promised that TVBiH will not be dominated by the Bosniaks any longer and that the future public enterprise will fully open up to professionals of all ethnicities who will not advocate the interests of national parties.  On the contrary, they will act in accordance with professional codes, the draft of which will be prepared by an OHR team in cooperation with non-discredited journalists and public personalities from all of Bosnia-Hercegovina.
    In the past days intense preparations have been made to start broadcasts of Ljiljan television, which, according to well-informed sources, also has ambitions to be a satellite television.  The fact that Ljiljan television will be a satellite station does not mean the editorial team and journalists will not have the same responsibility as the other television networks.  In the same way that there are bodies at the international level controlling land frequencies, so there exists the international Intelsat and Eutelsat corporations regulating the satellite frequencies spectrum.  A government obliges itself to nominate an authority (sometimes two) that regulates satellite signals broadcast from that country.  In Bosnia-Hercegovina it was the PTT [Post and Telecommunications] that was in charge of all frequencies, except those for radio and television networks, and it will keep these competencies in the future.  Thus, the IMSLC will also control the broadcast of Ljiljan television regardless of satellite signals.
 In the OHR they claim that the process of media reconstruction is being carried out speedily and that the transformation of TVBiH will be completed by the September elections.

‘Slobodna Bosna,’ Sarajevo, May 16, 1998

V.  Independent body to regulate broadcasters.

    All electronic media in Bosnia-Hercegovina will have to request a licence for continuation of broadcasting from an independent commission which will be established by the announced September elections.
    The Commission for Mediation in Media Standards and Distribution of Licences shall be established in line with resolutions of the Bonn conference on the implementation of the peace agreement.
    It will comprise lawyers and other experts from foreign media and from Bosnia-Hercegovina, John Watkinson, who is leading the team of experts that has the task of securing the work of the commission, told a press conference in Sarajevo on [8th May].
    He explained that it is only obligatory for electronic media to request a permit, but not for print media.  Electronic media from Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia will have to ask for permission to broadcast if they use earth transmitters in Bosnia-Hercegovina, he said.
    “The commission will look after the establishment of media standards by which the spread of ethnic hatreds and encouragement of violence shall be prevented,” said Watkinson.  The commission will penalize media which do not respect professional standards and the heaviest penalty will be cancellation of licence or prohibition of work.

HINA news agency, Zagreb, May 8, 1998

VI.  OSCE bans paid radio-TV election campaigning.

    Head of the Mostar-based Office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) told news conference [on 5th May] that the Temporary Electoral Committee for the September elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina has decided to ban paid political advertising on radio and television.
    Political parties will be able to advertise, but only under special conditions which will soon be set by the Temporary Electoral Committee, [David] Foley said. 
    We shall undertake drastic measures to ensure an equal coverage of political parties, coalitions and candidates, he said.
    Foley stressed that measures regarding the use of incendiary language, i.e., language entice hatred via the media [as received], have been made stricter.
    Unlike the past elections, Foley said, during the September elections, political parties would be able to make alliances so that votes given to individual parties would be pooled.  This will enable small political parties to win seats in the parliament, Foley said.

HINA news agency, Zagreb, May 5, 1998

VII.  Serbs and Sfor agree return of TV transmitters.

    The Bosnian Serb government is to regain control of key radio-TV transmitters which have been under the control of NATO-led troops since October 1997, when NATO considered that the Bosnian Serbs based in Pale were broadcasting reports aimed at sabotaging the Dayton peace agreement.  The following is the text of a report by Pale-based Bosnian Serb Radio St John:
    [Bosnian] Serb Republic Prime Minister Milorad Dodik and Sfor [NATO-led Stabilization Force] Commander US Gen Eric Shinseki have signed a memorandum of understanding in Banja Luka.  The signing of the memorandum marks an end of Sfor’s action in which it provided security protection for TV transmitters belonging to Serb Radio and TV, Prime Minister Dodik’s office announced [on 14th April]. 
    The statement says that the memorandum refers to transmitters Duge Njive near Doboj, Udrigovo near Bijeljina, Veliki Zep, Leotar and Mt Trebevic, for which Sfor has provided security protection since October last year.  The memorandum was drawn up after a project of restructuring of [Bosnian] Serb Radio-TV had been endorsed, technical administrator Dragan Gasic appointed and Serb Radio and TV statute approved by the Serb Republic government, a statement says.
    According to the statement, the memorandum envisages that all Sfor equipment and facilities should remain on locality for further use, with the Serb Republic being responsible for them.  In addition to Serb Radio and TV technical staff, Sfor members and staff of the Office of the High Representative will also have access to the transmitters at any particular time, providing they have the necessary documentation and letters of accreditation, the statement goes on to say.
    Complete technical documentation with the precise list of equipment and facilities and a list of technical faults that ought to be repaired forms a part of the memorandum.  An agreement reached previously regulated protection of the facilities, division of responsibility between the army and the police, number of security personnel and the type of weapons which the personnel may carry, the statement says.
    Security protection of facilities on Mt Kozara [northwestern Bosnia-Hercegovina], Duge Njive, Mt Trebevic and Udrigovo will be provided by the Serb Republic Ministry of Internal Affairs, while the Serb Republic Army will provide security protection for the facilities in Veliki Zep, Kmur, Lebrisnik and Leotar, the statement says.

Radio St John, Pale, April 14, 1998

CROATIA

I.  Changes at Croatian TV “to take place in June.”

    “During talks with President Tudjman we decided to carry out extensive organizational changes in Croatian Radio and Television [HRT], including considering a solution for the third channel of HTV [Croatian Television].  Those changes will take place very quickly, as soon as June this year,” we were told [on 26th May] by Hrvoje Sarinic, the presidential chief of staff.
    That information suggested that an important, but still partially compromise, solution had been reached regarding personnel changes and the balance of power in the presidential staff and the HDZ [Croatian Democratic Union] leadership, including changes in HTV. 
    That could mean that following the legal procedure, or the proposal of the government and the discussion and ratification by the assembly, somewhat later than has been announced but definitely during June, Ivica Mudrinic, presently director-general of HRT, will leave the leading office in the national television network and that great changes will take place at the television at the same time.  A part of that is the idea about Vesna Skare Ozbolt as the future director-general.
    The course of events corroborates the theory about the change in that office being viewed as a very important political issue that would outline future steps and relations within the HDZ and the state.  The point is that the change in the office of television director was Sarinic’s second stipulation before withdrawing the resignation he had tendered as presidential chief of staff. Allegedly, the first thing he stipulated was membership in the Main Board for National Security.
    The statement that a change in the HRT leadership would take place very soon is supposed to mean that the president, despite possible doubts within the HDZ leadership, has decided that it is important to keep Hrvoje Sarinic close to him.
    On the other hand, the fact that Ivica Mudrinic stated in an interview for our daily that it had been agreed that he should remain the head of HRT, that he has been seen very near President Tudjman on Bjelolasica, and that there is speculation about the Law on the HRT being removed ffrom the assembly agenda, have been interpreted by many as a counterattack and victory of the other faction of the HDZ.
    June is as near as next week.  Accordingly, many things will be clarified very soon.

‘Vecernji List,’ Zagreb, May 27, 1998

II.  Parliament debates amendments to radio-TV law.

    The parliament’s House of Representatives on [23rd April] continued its debate on two draft amendments to the Law on Croatian Radio-Television (HRT).  One draft is by the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and the other by Croatian People’s Party (HNS) representatives.
    The HDZ Bench proposes strengthening the realization of public interests in the area of providing information, change of systems, increasing the HRT Council’s responsibilities, as well as obligatory payment of subscriptions.
    According to the HDZ proposal, the HRT Council would have 22 members, nine MPs and 13 members from various scientific, cultural and other institutions.  All members would be appointed and dismissed by the Croatian National Parliament.
    HDZ suggests that the Council, on the basis of a public appointment, instates and dismisses the position of editor in chief, on the recommendation of the HRT director.  Editors in chief cannot be a political party official at the same time.
    HDZ also proposes the obligatory payment of subscriptions.
    HNS representatives judge that their draft amendment to the Law on HRT, supported with the signatures of 30 opposition MPs, is the necessary minimum for the actual transformation from a state to public radio television and cancellation of the state’s monopoly on Croatian Television.
    This draft is actually the text of a proposal offered by the group of broadcast journalists, Forum 21.
    HNS suggests that the responsibilities of creating and producing programmes be separated from management responsibilities.
    HNS proposes that the HRT council has 25 members, nine MPs and 16 from public institutions.  Those 16 would not be appointed by the parliament.
    It also suggests that the editors in chief of the radio and television and other editors be chosen by the Council on the basis of public appointments, however without the recommendation of the directors but based on the opinions of HRT journalists.  Those editors would not be members of political parties.
    The HDZ Bench and HNS representatives propose that HRT broadcast on two television channels in the future, which would open possibilities of the state issuing a broadcast licence for the current third channel.
    By the second reading, HDZ will work out a mechanism for protecting employees of the third channel.  HNS suggests a public tender for the broadcast licence and proposes that this broadcaster should have the right to use the HRT infrastructure.

HINA news agency, Zagreb, April 23, 1998

III.  HRT director discusses reform of public television.

    The director of Croatian Radio and Television (HRT), Ivica Mudrinic, has given details of the forthcoming reform of HRT.  The changes are aimed at meeting proposals made by the Council of Europe and the European Broadcasting Union.  The reform will affect many aspects such as the composition of the HRT Council, the launch of a third TV channel and the introduction of a TV licence.  The following are excerpts from a report headlined “We will privatize channel three” by Croatian newspaper ‘Jutarnji List’; subheadings as published:
[Q]     Is it true that you and your closest associates, not the Board of the National Council of the HDZ [ruling Croatian Democratic Union] for Culture and the Media, compiled the draft modification to the law on the HRT [Croatian Radio and Television]?
[Mudrinic]     In its last session, the HRT Council assigned management the task of preparing an analysis of the proposals that had come from various European institutions, such as the Council of Europe and the European Broadcasting Union.  We made the analysis and prepared the guidelines for the modification of the law. 
[Q]     According to the law, the third channel should be separated from HRT.  Will it be given to the opposition or put on the open market?
[A]     Only the Croatian State Parliament is authorized to make such changes.  The parliament will decide!
[Q]     What do you, as the current director of HRT, think about that?
[A]     I do not think that we should categorize media space according to whether a channel, a programme, or anything similar, belongs to the party in power or the opposition.  I think that it should be defined according to the principle that there is a public radio and a public television that will suit the public and promote our cultural tradition.  Private capital should be used in the remaining part of the radio and television space.  Almost every European country has such a model and I think that Croatia must find a similar solution.
[Q]     Does the contest for the nationwide television broadcasting licence opened by the Council for Telecommunications concerns channel three or a fourth channel?
[A]     As far as I know, it will be the channel now known as channel three.
Representatives in the Council
[Q]     Do you agree with those who believe that the 13 members of the HRT Council, who will not be parliament representatives but persons active in the cultural, public, or religious life, should be elected by public, cultural and religious institutions and not by the parliament?  That would prevent the council being ruled by one party.
[A] In my opinion, the Croatian State Parliament is a body that represents all citizens of the Republic of Croatia and the representatives that sit there won a tremendous number of votes.  Accordingly, if anything represents the Croatian public, the Croatian State Parliament certainly does. . . .  As for the members of the council who are not parliament representatives, the law can be changed.  After all, however, the parliament should appoint the body that will handle the HRT’s programme orientation and content.
[Q]     To what extent will the proposed changes affect your duties?
[A]     The proposed changes will not essentially affect my duties, I believe, because we normally act as if the structure of the council was similar to the recently proposed one.  The council is already comprised of members of both the opposition and the HDZ and they are taking care of the Croatian public.
[Q]     But the same Croatian public criticizes you for being a partisan television of the HDZ!
[A]     Oh, well, some have criticized us for that, and that is all right.  That is just another part of the battle for influence and, eventually, power.  It is the lawful right of various groups and organizations in society to say so and express their opinion in such a way, but whether it is true is an entirely different story.  It is more a matter of perception than of reality.
Changes in programmes
[Q]     Will the percentage of funds coming from commercial advertising fall as the new draft law introduces a television licence?  That is something you should do as a public television.
[A]     I am glad that the new law will finally fully solve the problem of TV licence.  There is no reason to reduce the income from commercials and the law on telecommunications says clearly that the HRT has the same status as a private licence holder nationwide.  I find that most acceptable, because the HRT must produce and broadcast noncommercial shows, such as educational and drama programmes, in which the HRT invests vast sums.
[Q]     How much of the income from commercials will you lose when the third programme is separated?
[A]     The contents of the third programme will move into the remaining two programmes if the parliament decides for the separation.  In that case, both the first and the second programmes of the HRT will undergo substantial changes and our plan and contents will be adjusted to the new conditions.  Accordingly, we will not lose sports or music or entertainment, because we have to see to it that our subscribers get as good a “package” of programmes as possible.
[Q]     How would you comment on the fact that future HRT editors will not be able to be members of political parties?
[A]     That is all right.
I will not leave this way
[Q]      Would you suspend your membership in the HDZ or leave the party if the parliament accepted the initiative that the director of the HRT cannot be a member of any political party?
[A]     I would only decide on that if such a proposal was adopted.  I am presently a member of the HDZ and hold no office in the party apart from my membership, which I do not think bothers anyone.  That is my constitutional right and I do not think that anybody would dispute it.

‘Jutarnji List,’ Zagreb, April 15, 1998

IV.  Ruling party agrees to Croatian TV reforms.

    The HDZ [ruling Croatian Democratic Union] agrees to the privatization of the third TV channel, to the transformation of state television into a public television, to the open and public selection of editors, to banning editors from being high-level party officials and to the appointment of a small part of the HRT [Croatian Radio and Television] Council along the lines of the party structure in the Croatian State Parliament.  The council would largely consist of representatives of public institutions. . . .
    Nine members would be elected from parliament, in line with the party structure, and 13 members would be appointed by the Croatian State Parliament, as suggested by various cultural, sports, scientific and religious institutions.  The opposition insists that the Croatian State Parliament appoint only parliamentary representatives to the council and that various institutions appoint their own representatives, without the patronage of the Croatian State Parliament. 
    “The HDZ wants to maintain enough space for manipulation and rigid control of the council, that is, of the whole Television.  There was more democracy in Croatian Television during the war, and it will be difficult for them [HDZ] to overthrow our proposal.  We will do everything we can to expose the attempts by the HDZ to maintain control over the television, and to throw dust into the eyes of the international community,” said [Radimir] Cacic [of the opposition Croatian National Party, HNS].  He also pointed out that the ruling party wanted to maintain great influence over the general manager and to make it possible for him to continue to appoint and dismiss editors.  The opposition wants to transfer that task onto the council and eliminate general manager from the broadcasting part of the television. . . .
    “We are now rushing the proposal through for economic reasons—in order to, for instance, solve the issue of the TV licence,” said Deputy Speaker [Jadranka] Kosor, rejecting the possibility that the issue was a matter of cosmetic surgery for the ruling party.  She also expressed her hope that the international community would positively assess this latest move by the HDZ.

“State TV becomes public TV,” ‘Jutarnji List,’ Zagreb, April 15, 1998

SERBIA-MONTENEGRO

TENDERS FOR FREQUENCIES

I.  More bids invited for broadcasting frequencies.

    Yugoslav Information Secretary Goran Matic [on 1st June] said that the deadline for the distribution of frequencies to radio and television stations had not expired and that all legal and private persons have the right to submit requests for the legalization of media.
    Matic said at a news conference that those who have not fulfilled the conditions from the public announcement on the distribution of frequencies still had 30 days to provide the documentation.
    Federal Telecommunications Minister Dojcilo Radojevic said that none of those who had submitted a request for a permit for radio broadcasting activities had been rejected and that it was not in the Yugoslav government’s interest to close down media. 
    He said that radio stations broadcasting in the Albanian language had also submitted requests and that the “Selavi” station’s request had been positively resolved.
    Radojevic said that the problem was the more than 100 radio station owners who had not responded to the announcement and who were obstructing the signals of the radio and television stations that had proper permits and had invested a lot of funds into the stations.
    According to him, the goal of the announcement on the distribution of frequencies was to legalize as many media as possible and to protect them.
    The decision by the Federal Ministry for Telecommunications on handing over the rights for the temporary usage of radio and television frequencies had resulted in the 247 positively resolved radio and 73 television frequency requests.
    Radojevic said that the federal government had also passed the decree on subsidies for the temporary use of frequencies, which defines the criteria on the size of the monthly subsidies, considering the user’s economic possibilities and the state’s interest.
    He said that the extent of the subsidy would depend on the number of inhabitants in the service zone, the strength and height of the transmitter antenna and the degree of development in the municipality in which the service zone is located.

Beta news agency, Belgrade, June 1, 1998

II.  Government reduces radio-TV fees by 75 per cent.

    At its session [on 27th May] session chaired by Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic, the Yugoslav government adopted a number of draft laws and international agreements, which were submitted to the federal parliament, a government statement said. . . .
    The government decided to reduce fees for the use of radio-TV frequencies by 75 per cent in order to ensure better conditions for the work of electronic media in Yugoslavia.
    The decision, which will take effect on 30th May, is to make order in the field of telecommunications and to make frequencies available to all users under equal conditions in the entire country.
    Also, basic preconditions would be ensured that the radio and television stations realize their rights and obligations which all electronic media in the world have.  The Yugoslav government has thus expressed its commitment to stimulating the freedom of the media and public expression.

Tanjug news agency, Belgrade, May 27, 1998

III.  Agency critical of frequency tender.

    At the start of 1998 the Yugoslav federal government announced a tender for radio and television frequencies.  For independent electronic media which have no licences or have temporary permits, the tender was long overdue.  Other electronic media close to the government obtained 10-year permits without a tender, in the absence of any public scrutiny, and without an obligation to pay any related fees.  Control over the distribution of frequencies is an exclusive competence of the federal government in Belgrade.
    The state-run Serbian Broadcasting Corporation [SBC—RTS in Serbo-Croatian], which has three channels, is the only medium which reaches all viewers in Yugoslavia.  The company is fully controlled by the government, which uses it freely for its own propaganda purposes, these, at this point, being to present the situation in Kosovo as a consequence of the “separatist” aspirations of the Kosovo Albanians and to discredit the reform-orientated Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic on the eve of general elections in the smaller federal unit.
    The monopolistic position of the SBC was seriously shaken by the opposition victory in local elections in Serbia, finally recognized in the spring of 1997, after three months of civil protests.  As a result of this victory, the opposition parties came in control of the local media in Serbia whose number simultaneously increased.  However, the majority of these media operate without licences, or with temporary permits, pending a frequency distributing tender.
    The tender, which closed on 15th May, has caused much commotion.  Of 30 independent radio and television stations in Serbia, only three were granted permits: the Belgrade radio station B92, Pancevo Radio and Television and the Zajecar-based F Kanal.  The operation of other stations has practically been banned.  The Serbian Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) branded the tender “devastating” for the freedom of information in Serbia.  ANEM announced it would boycott the outcome of the government’s frequency tender and is planning activities to defend the free flow of information.
    Even those media that were granted frequencies will have difficulties in exercising their broadcasting rights.  Only two days before the closing of the tender, the government announced how much it would charge for the use of frequencies.  A TV station covering an area of a city with a population of 1.5 million would have to pay DM40,000 per month, while a TV station that covers more than one city should pay a monthly broadcasting fee of DM60,000.  Legal aide to ANEM Milos Zivkovic told BETA that with such fees, Yugoslavia has become one of the states with the most expensive frequencies in the world.
    In a country such as Yugoslavia, impoverished by a prolonged crisis, very few media can afford such high fees.  On the other hand, pro-regime and regime-run media that already have frequencies will not have to pay anything.  The Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia described the frequency fees as “absurdly high” and a “blow to the freedom of information.”
    The International Association of Free Press (IFEX) has demanded that the FRY government revoke its decision on high frequency fees.  The organization described the fees as “a deliberate attempt to silence independent media and voices.”
    A selective distribution of frequencies under the guise of introducing order into the information sector came immediately after an intense independent media-bashing campaign in Serbia.  The campaign gained momentum when, at the end of March, the extremely influential wife of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and informal leader of the Yugoslav Left, Mirjana Markovic, accused the independent media of “unpatriotic reporting on Kosovo.”  Markovic said that the independent media “were acting hand in hand with foreign powers,” who exert pressure on FRY over the Kosovo issue.
    Official dissatisfaction over independent media reports on Kosovo was fully expressed after a police action in the region of Drenica at the end of February, in which over 80 people lost their lives.  The journalists who reported about it were listed as enemies of the state, and a number of independent media editors in chief, who gave the go-ahead for such reports, were interrogated by the police.  Some of them had to explain why they used the expression “killed Albanians” instead of “killed terrorists” in the reports and headlines about Drenica.
    All journalists in Serbia without exception were told by the authorities that they were expected to cooperate rather than to criticize, especially when Kosovo was concerned.  Or, as the Yugoslav information secretary, Goran Matic, put it, they are expected to “share with the authorities the responsibility for resolving the Kosovo issue.”
    The threat looming over the independent media in Serbia has become more serious than ever since the new republican hard-line government announced it is preparing a new information law which should be finalized by the end of this month.  The draft information law prepared by the previous government, which was sent to the legislature for adoption, had been recalled.  The failure of the draft law prepared by her ministry, the former information minister, Radmila Milentijevic, interpreted as owed to the new composition of the Serbian legislature after the last autumn elections, and to the fact that two strong parties—the Radicals and the Serbian Renewal Movement of Vuk Draskovic—did not participate in its preparation.  In an analysis commissioned by Beta, the European Institute for the Media described the draft law as being far below European standards and insufficient for the development of free and pluralistic media in Serbia.
    Judging by the draft university law which is to be adopted on 26th May, the announced information act will probably be yet another step back.  The draft university law was met by strong resistance at the University of Belgrade which has warned that the new act will mark the virtual end of the university in Serbia.  The controversial act was drafted by the Yugoslav Left and the Serbian Radical Party cabinet members who will be the authors of the new information act as well.

“New Threats to Media Freedom,” Beta news agency, Belgrade, May 21, 1998

IV.  Independent Serbian media to defy licence curbs.

    All members of the Association of Independent Electronic Media [ANEM] will continue broadcasting their programmes despite the Federal [Yugoslav] Telecommunications Ministry’s decision on the allocation of temporary frequencies, the association decided at an extraordinary session [on 17th May].
    In view of the ministry’s decision to allocate temporary broadcasting frequencies to only one radio station [Radio B92] and two TV stations [Pancevo TV and TV5 in Nis] out of the 21 radio and 17 TV stations which are members of ANEM, and because of the exorbitant fees set for the use of frequencies, ANEM members have decided to act in unison. 
    [On 17th May Radio B92 reported the director of independent Belgrade-based Index Radio, Nenad Cekic, as saying that his station would “certainly not disappear without a trace,” even though the Telecommunications Ministry had denied it a licence: “We have no intention of suspending broadcasts and we are technically very well equipped to continue broadcasting in all conditions.  Index Radio will certainly not disappear into thin air.  We shall keep broadcasting our programme unless we are physically prevented from doing so, Nenad Cekic said.  He added that the station would start broadcasting on a third frequency, and that it was thinking of setting up a TV transmitter to broadcast various satellite and ANEM programmes.”]

Radio B92, Belgrade, May 17, 1998

V.  High frequency fees are “blow” to media freedom.

    The Independent Association of Serbian Journalists [NUNS] [on 13th May] assessed that the Federal Government’s decision to set absurdly high fees for the use of radio and television frequencies was an overt blow to the freedom of information.
    “The authorities in Serbia, hiding behind the Federal Government, are trying to stop the opening up of the media being carried out by the newly formed radio and television stations after the citizens’ protest and once again to impose their full monopoly,” the NUNS statement says.
    The NUNS says that “suitable” stations had been permitted to use the frequencies free of charge and without any public inspection.

Beta news agency, Belgrade, May 13, 1998

VI.  Government sets criteria for fees for use of frequencies.

    The federal government has set the criteria for the level of monthly fee for the temporary use of radio frequencies and TV channels for all users.  The criteria are: the number of inhabitants per area covered, the level of [economic] development, the type of station and the basic fee, calculated in dinars.  The monthly fee is increased by 50 per cent for the use of a second and any subsequent frequency or TV channel, and also for every radio and TV station in the radio or TV network.
    When asked how the criterion for the monthly fee was set and whether the editorial policy of the media requesting the frequencies was taken into consideration, Federal Information Secretary Goran Matic had this to say for B92:
[Matic—recording]     No one will be asking about the content of programmes, whether you are dependent or independent and what your political views are.  That is not important at the moment.  The bid will concern the technical distribution [as heard] and has nothing to do with the character of the media.  [End of recording]
    ANEM [Association of Independent Electronic Media] has responded to the decision of the federal government by saying that in this way the free media are being suffocated in a perfidious way.  Such high monthly fees would even be beyond the means of radio and TV stations in the richest countries in the world, a statement by ANEM says.
    For instance, a Belgrade TV station—if it is part of the network—is expected to pay some DM60,000 per month for the use of a temporary frequency, ANEM said, adding that federal regulations did not envisage such fees.  On the other hand, the federal bodies are referring to Article 9, Item 4 of the federal constitution, although there is no Item 4 in the constitution, and Article 9 refers to civil rights and liberties, ANEM said.  ANEM also announced that it would start proceedings before the Federal Constitutional Court in order that the legality of such a decision can be established.

Radio B92, Belgrade, May 12, 1998

VII.  Authorities said “buying time” on frequencies issue.

    The Serbian authorities are keeping the independent media at a safe distance, attempting to prevent their influence on the general population.  The authorities are keeping the independent media far from all of their official sources and use every opportunity to show them that they are not a wanted part of the system.  That was confirmed at a reception which Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic organized on the occasion of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia’s Constitution Day.  At the reception which was attended by about 1,000 guests, the welcome mat was pulled out from under senior Montenegrin officials, and the independent media as well. . . .
Frequencies
    The control of distributing radio and TV frequencies was the sole responsibility of the federal state, which allotted them according to its own discretion and outside tenders, in other words in the same manner they took them away from the ones who had them.  The long awaited call for tenders for frequency distribution was made public at the beginning of the year, but the decision is not yet known.
    Aware that the electronic media are accessible to all people, making it the most influential media, the authorities in Belgrade, by constantly delaying the allotment of radio broadcasting frequencies and television broadcasting channels, “are buying time” and keeping all the independent electronic media in suspense.  It was finally announced that 15th May will be the final deadline for allotting frequencies.
    On the media plane, the situation concerning the regime deteriorated when, after the victory of the democratic opposition at the local elections in the majority of cities in 1996, the Association of Independent Electronic Media significantly increased its membership.  That network of independent radio and TV stations, which currently covers at least 70 per cent of the territory of Serbia, Montenegro and Republika Srpska [Serb Republic] in Bosnia, represents a great danger to the government’s attempts at strangling true and objective informing.  Apart from direct broadcasting of Belgrade B-92 programmes, the members of the Association of Independent Electronic Media also rebroadcast programmes of the BBC, the Voice of America or other global radio stations which have a Serbo-Croat service.  At the same time, relying on local sources as well as news agencies Beta from Serbia and Montena Fax from Montenegro, these radio and television stations are starting to prepare their own news programmes which substantially differ from the fare served up by the pro-regime media.
    All the electronic media members of the Association of Independent Electronic Media competed for frequency allotment, but judging by the actions of the authorities in the past, it is not very likely that they will get them, irrelevant of the fact that the majority meet all the conditions.  This was foreshadowed by the closing of the TV Pirot station (on 21st April) and the confiscation that station’s equipment.  On the occasion of the closing of that station, on 29th April, the Association of Independent Electronic Media sent an appeal to the Contact Group to “use its international and political mechanism and influence the authorities in FRY to allot frequencies to all the radio and television stations which are members of the Association of Independent Electronic Media, for which they media competed on time.”  On the occasion of the closing of TV Pirot, the Committee for the Protection of Journalists in New York, sent a protest letter to Milosevic.

“Media in Yugoslavia: Campaign of Terror,” Beta news agency, Belgrade, April 30, 1998


FORMATION OF RTJ

I.  Federal TV programme “not welcome” in Montenegro.

    Montenegrin Information Secretary Bozidar Jaredic stated [on 1st June] that Radio Television Yugoslavia (RTJ) was “not welcome in Montenegro,” because this was “not a Yugoslav television but a television of the Yugoslav Left.”
    “A television station that will affirm a reformed and open Yugoslavia is welcome; a television station that will affirm the federal institutions and the two member republics as equals within the common state,” Jaredic told the BETA agency. 
    He added that RTJ would be welcome in Montenegro once Montenegro and Serbia had agreed on the programme orientation and management of the Yugoslav Television.
    Jaredic said that “he does not know what (Momir) Bulatovic had in mind” when he announced unification of the FRY’s information system upon being appointed the federal prime minister, “unless this was an attempt to discipline through the information system.”
    “Bulatovic planned to achieve this through ‘JUL Television.’  I doubt that he will succeed because we have been opposed to this television from the very beginning.”

Beta news agency, Belgrade, June 1, 1998

II.  RTJ “not financed from federal budget.”

    Federal Finance Minister Bozidar Gazivoda told Beta [on 12th May] that the Radio and Television of Yugoslavia (RTJ) is not being financed from the federal budget.  Asked whether it was possible for the Federal Secretariat for Information to redirect funds for this television station without a prior decision by the federal government, Gazivoda said: “I do not know.” 
    Gazivoda said that he himself had not instructed the federal foreign currency audit team, which he heads, to investigate if the funds of the Federal Secretariat for Information are being spent in a legal way, because he “had no reason for that so far,” but that the audit team can carry it out on its own initiative.
    RTJ has been broadcasting a two-hour experimental programme over the second channel of the Radio and Television of Serbia, it uses the Yugoslav flag as its sign and it is situated in the federal government building known as SIV III.
    The Federal Finance Minister said that he “does not have information on whether some funds have been frozen since the Contact Group decided to freeze the financial assets of the FRY and Serbia abroad.”

Beta news agency, Belgrade, May 12, 1998

III.  New Radio-TV Yugoslavia launched.

    Radio-Television Yugoslavia [RTJ] began its first broadcast [ON 27th April], on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia’s Statehood Day.  RTJ’s programmes are being broadcast by the second channel of Television Serbia and, as announced by acting editor in chief Jovan Ristic, it will soon be carried by Television Montenegro and Banja Luka-based TV stations.
    The new station has been founded by the Yugoslav government and the chairman of its managerial committee is Ljubisa Ristic, chairman of the Yugoslav Left [JUL].
    The pilot programme, which is being broadcast from a studio in SIV III building [in Novi Beograd], began with five minutes of news and a weather forecast.  Federal Information Minister Goran Matic then spoke about RTJ and its goals.
    The experimental stage, two to three hours of programmes daily, will last for two months, as will the role of the acting editor in chief, Jovan Ristic told the press before the initial broadcast.  He said that by then the station should get its own channel, transmitters and other equipment.
    RTJ has not employed a single journalist or technician and until its team is completed, programmes will be produced by part-time RTS [Radio-Television Serbia] staff recruited by Ristic.
    According to Ristic, journalists from Art, BK, Studio B, RTS and TV Politika stations will contribute to RTJ programmes while negotiations are under way with Montenegrin TV and Banja Luka-based TV stations.
    Captions on contributions will give names of journalists and stations at which they have full-time jobs, Ristic said.
    According to the acting editor in chief, the goal of RTJ is to integrate the Yugoslav media and broadcast reports on activities of federal institutions.
    The experimental broadcast will consist of news bulletins based on reports from federal government sources and Tanjug, weather forecasts and interviews with federal ministers and FRY ambassadors.
    FRY ambassador to Prague Djoko Stojicic will be the first guest and he will inform RTJ viewers about events in the Czech Republic.
    Ristic is planning to launch “Reprezentacija,” a sports magazine, and he has announced the live relay of the Buducnost-Crvena Zvezda basketball game for tomorrow.
    Yugoslav National Bank Governor Bozidar Gazivoda will be the guest of the “Resor” [Department] programme [on 28th April].
    Ristic said that all slots would feature topical reports and that he was confident the programme would have a strong following.

Beta news agency, Belgrade, April 27, 1998


OTHER MEDIA NEWS

I.  Authorities ban local Pirot TV in eastern Serbia.

    Inspectors of the Federal Ministry of Transport and Communications [on 21st April] banned Pirot [in eastern Serbia] TV, a member of the Association of Independent Electronic Media [ANEM].  This is what our radio has been told by Momcilo Djurdjic, the chief editor of Pirot TV:
[Djurdjic]     Pirot TV stopped broadcasting its programmes [on 21st April].   The reason -two inspectors of the Federal Ministry of Telecommunications escorted by two police officers burst into our studio.  Under the pretext that we did not possess a licence, they took away our connection and banned the operations of Pirot TV.
    In response to our question as to why they were banning our TV station in the middle of the licence-issuing process, which is open until 15th May, they just shrugged their shoulders.  We are still broadcasting our radio programmes, because the radio has been broadcasting for the past 20 years, and in this instance they were unable to find a valid reason to ban radio broadcasts.  However, they realized that Pirot TV—which was very popular and which left a deep impression on our viewers—was a great problem for the communist dictatorship and therefore they banned our TV, although our questions were left unanswered.

Radio B92, Belgrade, April 21, 1998

II.  Media association denounces closure of TV Pirot.

    The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) announced that Television Pirot was shut down and its equipment seized [on 21st May].
     This media association strongly protested against the brutal raid on TV Pirot’s studio, the suspension order issued by the Federal Ministry of Telecommunications and the seizure of equipment, and demanded that the television station be allowed to operate unhindered.
    TV Pirot is one of ANEM’s members that participated in the public tender for temporary allocation of television channels.  Given the fact that it meets all criteria for securing a frequency, it is expected to legalize its work after 15th May 1998, when the results of the tender are announced, ANEM reported.
    This association reports that the federal inspector for radio frequencies, although informed about the participation of this television station in the public bid, nevertheless seized its equipment and served it with the suspension order.

Beta news agency, Belgrade, April 21, 1998