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KOSOVO
AND MEDIA INTERVENTION
I. EBU names head
of Radio-TV Kosovo.
The European Broadcasting Union [EBU] today
announced that Eric Lehmann, a Swiss, will be the
director of Radio-Television Kosovo (RTK), a public
station that is being set up in the region by the EBU,
the United Nations and the OSCE [Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe].
RTK
will begin broadcasting programmes in the Serbian and
Albanian languages on 19th September.
Lehmann
(52) is currently the chairman of the Swiss state
television SBC [Swiss Broadcasting Corporation]. He was
formerly a television journalist and chief editor of a
well-known newspaper.
He
will take up his new post in October. Until then the RTK
position will be held by Richard Dill, a German, who
worked for the German state television channel ARD. (Beta
news agency, Belgrade, 7 September 1999)
II. OSCE statement
on role of new Radio-TV Kosovo.
Radio Television Kosovo (RTK) will hold its first
television transmission on Sunday 19th September 1999 at
1900 [1700 gmt]. This marks an important step towards
establishing an independent public broadcasting service
in Kosovo.
The
initial two-hour broadcast will contain news (local and
international) and information programmes in both
Albanian and Serbian languages. It will also serve as a
relay for UNMIK [UN Mission in Kosovo] public information
programmes. This daily transmission will form the nucleus
of a future regional public service respecting the
programme needs and expectations of the entire population
of Kosovo.
The
studios of Television Kosovo are located in the former
Radio Pristina building. Viewers will be able to receive
RTK television on Eutelsat W2 16 degrees east.
Given
the local conditions, UNMIK and OSCE decided to implement
a two phase project:
The
first phase involves the establishment of an emergency
television broadcast every day for two hours via
satellite to all Kosovo homes equipped with a satellite
dish starting on 19th September 1999 at 1900. Technical
support is being provided by the European Broadcasting
Union (EBU) which has extensive experience in setting up
transmission facilities. An international operations team
headed by interim director-general of RTK, Richard Dill,
will be responsible for the training of competent local
staff in international standards of journalism and the
most up to date broadcast technology.
The
second phase will address several aspects such as the
extension of programmes, the resumption of terrestrial
transmission and the rehabilitation of regional centres.
RTK’s
mission is to provide an independent public service
broadcasting service in the European tradition, produced
by Kosovars for all the people of Kosovo. A professional
and independent public service broadcasting service will
play a vital role in promoting reconciliation, peace, law
and order and the establishment of a democratic civil
society. (OSCE web site, Vienna, 16 September 1999)
III. New EBU-run
Kosovo TV not connected with Pristina Radio-TV.
A communique of the Provisional Steering Council of
Prishtina Radio-Television RTP , signed by Martin Cuni,
states: “We are informing the public, the media and
the workers of Prishtina Radio-Television that the launch
of the Kosova Television service that has been announced
Radio-Television Kosovo, the public service station being
set up in Kosovo by the European Broadcasting Union, is
due to launch at 1700 gmt on Sunday 19th September , has
not been carried out in cooperation with us or with the
workers of Prishtina Radio-Television. This will be a
programme that will be used to present public information
programmes for UNMIK the UN Mission in Kosovo , without
the participation of the RTP institutions and of its
workers.” (Kosovapress news agency web site, 16
September 1999)
IV. Pristina
Radio-TV “not consulted” over new station.
It has been announced that the broadcasting of a
two-hour television programme will begin in Kosovo
tomorrow [Radio-TV Kosovo actually launched on Sunday
19th September]. The interim management council of
Prishtina Radio Television [RTP] reacted to this in a
statement written by Martin Cuni [the council’s
chairman], which said that the cooperation with the
institutions and workers of this Kosova radio-television
station was not sought for this [new] programme.
We
talked to the chairman of the interim management council
of RTP, Martin Cuni, to find out why this happened and
whether real work could be done in the television sector
in Kosova without RTP’s workers and management
staff.
He
said that the OSCE and UNMIK [the UN Mission in Kosovo]
has announced that the broadcasting of the satellite
programme called RTK [Radio-Television Kosovo] will begin
tomorrow or Sunday. The interim management council of RTP
was not consulted about this and there was no agreement
with the council or with the workers of RTP. It is
interesting that this has not occurred in the case of any
other institution. No institution was damaged as much as
RTP during the war and its workers and its great wealth
have been disregarded. We reacted to this, from the very
start, in various ways. The beginning of operations of
Radio Prishtina was the first step, but it is heard only
in the vicinity of Prishtina. There has been no increase
in transmission capacity so that it can be heard
throughout Kosova.
Mr
Cuni says that the RTK channel is starting by
broadcasting by satellite. That is, building a house
starts with the roof. The OSCE and UNMIK want to set up a
radio-TV station that is of a hybrid type, from an ethnic
aspect, and intended only for providing information, as
if we had all the conveniences of a Western country. For
Kosova, broadcasts dealing with art, culture, science,
education and other subjects are needed.
We
cannot say why this is happening but it is indicative
that this is being done with a tendency to ignore the
basic problems, the fact that, without the RTP workers
there can be no RTP programme, Martin Cuni says. He adds:
“We are not opposed to UNMIK and OSCE setting up a
radio-TV centre for its own needs, but this is not RTP or
RTK.” (“There can be no Radio-Television Kosova
without its workers,” Kosovapress news agency web
site, 17 September 1999)
V.
Radio-Television Kosovo begins broadcasting.
Radio-Television Kosovo (RTK), a new satellite TV
service based in Pristina and funded by the European
Union and other international organizations, began
broadcasting at 1700 gmt on Sunday 19th September.
RTK
broadcasts via the Eutelsat W2 satellite at 16 degrees
east (11489 MHz, horizontal polarization, audio
subcarriers 6 .60 and 7.20 MHz).
Programming
commenced at 1700 gmt on 19th September. The station
identified itself in both Albanian and Serbian, with the
captions reading respectively: “Radio Televizioni i
Kosoves” and “Radio Televizija Kosova”
(the latter in Cyrillic).
A
news bulletin in Albanian was followed by a video report
on a Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) parade; the report also
featured, among others, KLA commander Agim Ceku, Hashim
Thaci and Pashtrikut zone commander Tahir Sinani (all
identified from captions). The next item was a recorded
“exclusive interview” with UN Mission in Kosovo
(UNMIK) Administrator Bernard Kouchner, who spoke in
French with superimposed Albanian translation. There
followed more reports on the quality of drinking water,
shops selling clothing, sports news, and an item on the
setting-up of RTK and equipment that the new station had
received from abroad .
The
31-minute news in Albanian was followed by a 29-minute
music segment, a repeat of the news headlines in
Albanian, and a further short musical interlude.
A
news bulletin in Serbian was then read out, followed by
another interview with Bernard Kouchner, speaking in
French with superimposed Serbian translation.
Asked
whether he could provide proof of his mission’s
success, Kouchner says he was pleased to be talking about
RTK, adding that three months was not a long time. He
said there must be security for everyone but there was
still a lot of mistrust. Asked about possible future
Serbian-Albanian coexistence in Kosovo, Kouchner said the
people of Kosovo must distance themselves from past, but
over time coexistence can be achieved.
One
of the international organizations involved in setting up
RTK, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE), said in a press release on 16th September
that “the studios of Television Kosovo are located
in the former Radio Pristina building . . . technical
support is being provided by the European Broadcasting
Union (EBU) . . . RTK’s mission is to provide an
independent public service broadcasting service in the
European tradition, produced by Kosovars for all the
people of Kosovo . . . .” (BBC Monitoring Research,
19 September 1999)
VI. Albanian TV
views reaction to new Kosovo Radio-TV.
The satellite broadcasts of Kosova [Kosovo]
Radio-Television from Prishtina [Pristina] for Albanians
abroad have given rise to many controversial debates.
Many expatriates express their critical opinions about
the content of its broadcasts, going on air from the
Prishtina studio.
They
wonder why these programmes are devoid of any real
content, why they say so very little about the Kosova
Liberation Army [UCK] and its political transformation,
why they fail to provide enough information on the major
efforts made to establish institutions in Kosova and the
work carried out by the Kosova political subjects to
normalize life, reconstruct Kosova and ensure education
to children and youths there.
The
opinions which have arrived in our editorial office say
that these programmes are keeping silent about the
continuous acts of provocation committed by the Serbian
provocateurs in Mitrovice [Kosovska Mitrovica], the
five-week-long protests staged by Rahovec [Orahovac]
inhabitants against the Russian troops presence and such
things.
Kosova
Radio-Television, our compatriots go on, should tell the
truth about Serb crimes and atrocities perpetrated in
Kosova, the burning of villages, the massacre of Kosovar
children and Albanians’ self denial and hope of
rebuilding Kosova. If such a situation persists, we think
it is hardly likely for the Kosova Radio-Television to
meet the expectations and aspirations of the Kosova
people for freedom and independence. In the democratic
world, free press and media express and advocate the
aspirations and wishes of a free people. Is Kosova
Radio-Television going to realize this objective, they
ask. Further on, they say that so far its programmes have
only created distrust among Albanians living abroad.
(Albanian TV, Tirana, 26 September 1999)
VII. Yugoslav News
Agency Tanjug condemns Unmik over new Kosovo TV.
The UN civilian Mission in Kosovo UNMIK has today
announced that “Radio-Television Kosovo RTK “
will begin operating on Sunday 19th September, and will
broadcast programmes in Serbian and Albanian of the
mission UNMIK , which is headed by Bernard Kouchner, who
has so far not distinguished himself for his objectivity
when Serbs are in question and who also violates, in many
areas, the mandate determined by UN Security Council
Resolution 1244. . . .
In
the first stage it will only be possible to see the
programmes via satellite, whereas the second phase will
introduce a broader range of programming, the restoral of
regional centres, and the establishment of mobile
terrestrial systems.
UNMIK failed to explain why it was necessary to establish
such mobile systems, but it is known that, during the
aggression against Yugoslavia, some of the main targets
were transmitters and the Radio-Television Serbia RTS
building in Belgrade itself, in order to conceal the
killings of civilians and the destruction of civilian
buildings from the world.
Kfor
Kosovo Force , which destroyed the transmitter on Mokra
Gora this summer and thus disabled reception of RTS in
the region, also joined in this war against the Serbian
media, but such operations were not carried out to stop
Albanians from receiving the television and radio
programmes from Tirana.
Kfor
Commander Mike Jackson justified the operation on Mokra
Gora by saying that the damaged transmitter, located at
an altitude of 1,700 metres, was allegedly endangering
its surroundings.
Keeping
in mind this Kfor action, as well as the support that
Kouchner has been giving the Albanians so far (he takes
part in their demonstrations and is nominating the
terrorist Jashari for the Nobel Prize), one can ask the
reasonable question of how informative this RTK will
really be and to what extent it will be yet another
medium enlisted to achieve the interests of NATO,
Washington and London. (Tanjug news agency,
Belgrade, 17 September 1999)
VIII. Yugoslav
agency says new broadcaster tool of West.
The UN civilian mission in Kosovo [UNMIK—UN
Mission in Kosovo] today announced that
“Radio-Television Kosovo [RTK]” will begin
operating on Sunday 19th September, and will broadcast in
Serbian and Albanian programmes of the mission, which is
headed by Bernard Kouchner, who has so far not
distinguished himself for his objectivity where Serbs are
concerned and who also violates, in many areas, the
mandate determined by UN Security Council Resolution
1244.
The
statement says that the initial two hours of programme
will have local and foreign news, as well as other
current affairs programmes.
Technical
support for the project has been secured by the EU for
the broadcasting, whereas an international team with
temporary director Richard Dill will be responsible for
training the entire local team.
In
the first stage it will only be possible to see the
programmes via satellite, whereas the second phase will
introduce a broader range of programming, the restoration
of regional centres, and the establishment of mobile
terrestrial systems.
UNMIK
failed to explain why it was necessary to establish such
mobile systems, but it is known that, during the
aggression against Yugoslavia, some of the main targets
were transmitters and the Radio-Television Serbia [RTS]
building itself, in order to conceal the killings of
civilians and the destruction of civilian buildings from
the world.
Kfor
[Kosovo Force], which destroyed the transmitter on Mokra
Gora this summer and thus disabled reception of RTS in
the region, also joined in this war against the Serbian
media, but such operations were not carried out to stop
Albanians from receiving the television and radio
programmes from Tirana.
Kfor
commander Mike Jackson justified the operation on Mokra
Gora by saying that the damaged transmitter, located at
an altitude of 1,700 meters, was allegedly endangering
its surroundings.
Keeping
in mind this Kfor action, as well as the support that
Kouchner has been giving the Albanians so far (he takes
part in their demonstrations and is nominating the
terrorist Jashari [reference to Azem Jashari, killed by
Serbian security forces in spring 1998] for the Nobel
Prize), one can ask the reasonable question of how
informative this RTK will really be and to what extent it
will be yet another medium enlisted to achieve the
interests of NATO, Washington, and London. (Tanjug news
agency, Belgrade, 17 September 1999)
IX. Use the power
of television to bring down Milosevic.
By Eugene Secunda, a
professor of media studies at New York University
THE United States and its Western allies gathered in
Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, at the end of July to announce a
new financial-aid package to rebuild the Balkans. But
they made it clear that no money would go to Serbia until
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was removed from
power. Almost two months later, he is still running
Serbia.
A
combination of denial and passivity seems to be the
prevailing sentiment in the Serb military and among a
majority of Serbs, and it is preventing them from moving
against Milosevic. They are reluctant to recognize the
harsh fact that Serbia has become a pariah state. They
can’t acknowledge that their ruined economy can only
be repaired with the help of the international community,
and that the international community will begin
rehabilitating Serbia only after Milosevic is gone.
Clearly, the Serbs must be convinced that forcing
Milosevic out of power is their best hope for the future.
One powerful tool of persuasion that has not yet been
tried has the potential to mobilize them. That tool is
independent, over-the-air television.
Early
in July, it was reported that Ivan Novkovic, a
31-year-old technician at a television station in a small
southern Serbian town, had interrupted the regular
broadcast of a championship basketball game with a
videotape that he made. The tape demanded that a local
Milosevic crony quit as commissioner of the Jablanica
region. Novkovic called for viewers to support his
demand.
About
20,000 Serbs responded to Novkovic’s summons.
Protesting Yugoslav army reservists demanded that the
local television station film and broadcast the
demonstration. But shortly after he spoke to the crowd,
Novkovic was arrested on a vandalism charge and
imprisoned. Citizens have since staged public protests
demanding the technician’s release.
Novkovic’s
success speaks to the power of television. Embraced in
its infancy by the Soviets and their satellites as the
most effective media vehicle to influence public opinion,
television remains the most potent information source in
Eastern Europe. There is no reason why the United States
and its NATO allies cannot use a nationwide television
service, just as Novkovic used a local TV station, to
hasten the end of Milosevic’s rule.
This
would mean launching an independent television station
easily accessible to Serbs. Its signal could be sent by
powerful land-based transmitters broadcasting from
Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo, as well from NATO-friendly
countries like Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania.
Because the station would beam its signal from locations
outside Serbian government control, it could broadcast
news and commentary programs that counter
Milosevic’s self-serving propaganda generated by the
country’s mass media, over which he has an iron
grip.
When
NATO’s bombing campaign began in April, Milosevic
muffled all Serbian media opposed to his policies, either
by official decree or through intimidation. Six months
earlier, he squelched political dissent by banning the
rebroadcast of Serbian-language news programs distributed
by the British Broadcasting Corp. and other Western
programming services. Today, independent Serbian-based
broadcasters, like Belgrade’s outspoken and popular
Radio B-92, have either been shut down or taken over by
Milosevic loyalists. Serbian journalists who have
attempted to report objectively have suffered police
harassment or worse.
The
U.S. military beamed television broadcasts over
frequencies accessible to Serbian audiences from an
EC-130 Lockheed Hercules transport during the campaign.
Every day the aircraft, equipped with radio and
television transmitters, circled just outside Serbian
airspace, broadcasting programs, produced by U.S.
psychological-operations personnel and Radio Free Europe,
in the Serbian language. But few Serbs were exposed to
the message because of the plane’s relatively weak
10,000-watt signal.
The
Serbian government complained about this intrusion on its
airwaves to the United Nation’s International
Telecommunications Union, or ITU, the agency responsible
for coordinating telecommunications networks and services
among governments. The ITU acknowledged that the use of
aircraft for such a purpose is a violation of its
regulations. But it reported that since none of the NATO
countries accused by the Yugoslav government responded to
its requests for information about the broadcasts, no
further action was taken.
NATO
member countries are currently supporting several
projects that use broadcast media to inform Serbs how the
“ethnic cleansing” of Kosovo led to the bombing
of Serbia and the country’s economic ruin. One of
these is “Ring Around Serbia,” a 24-hour
FM-radio news and information service launched by the
U.S. government. Program content is supplied by the Voice
of America, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. The
broadcasts reach Belgrade and other major Serbian
population centers, but they lack the visual dynamism and
appeal of television, which can now be accessed by
receivers in virtually every Serbian home.
Traditionally,
Milosevic’s greatest support comes from smaller Serb
communities that are almost exclusively reliant on
state-controlled television for information. An
independent, uncensored television service could target
these people’s minds.
To
assure maximum viewership, recently released Hollywood
movies and TV series, dubbed in Serbian, could be
integrated into the station’s schedule during prime
time. This programming could be augmented by subtitled
CNN, BBC Worldwide and other European newscasts.
With
repeated television exposure to the bloody consequences
of Milosevic’s policies, a growing number of Serbs
will be encouraged to “come out of denial.”
Once they face the facts, they may be able to respond to
the West’s offer to help their beleaguered nation
rebuild its infrastructure and economy by repudiating
Milosevic and his failed policies.
Poland’s
Lech Walesa was once asked what caused the peoples of
Eastern Europe to overthrow communism. Gesturing toward a
television set nearby, he said, “It all came from
there.” Serbian television viewers are just as
likely to be inspired to dump Milosevic if they receive
credible and well-produced television programs revealing
the lies in his propaganda. (The Houston Chronicle,
September 28 1999)
X. Journalism in
Kosovo.
To the Editor:
“Kosovo’s Incipient Media Ministry”
(editorial, Aug. 30), suggesting that the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe plans a large and
perhaps censorious bureaucracy to regulate the news media
in postwar Kosovo, is an unfortunate overreaction to a
rather modest plan for a regulatory unit of perhaps a
dozen people, most of them locally hired Kosovars, whose
purpose would be to bring the rule of law to news media
in a fragile and chaotic situation.
Broadcasting—especially
television—has played a great role in the hands of
propagandists in fomenting ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and
Kosovo over the last decade. Authentic journalists in
Kosovo need the protection and encouragement of a small,
Western-style regulatory agency to establish reasonable
limits on partisan political control of radio and
television stations and on the incitement of violence and
hatred.
Krister Thelin
Director General of the Independent Media Commission in
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Aug. 31, 1999
(The New York Times, September 6, 1999)
XI. Kosovo’s
Incipient Media Ministry.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe, which is supposed to be developing democratic
institutions in Kosovo, is proposing new rules for the
news media that could hurt the cause of democracy and a
free press. The O.S.C.E. is directing a radio station and
will do the same with television. It will also set up a
media monitoring group and regulations on print and
especially broadcast media. Respected Albanian-language
newspapers and radio stations survived in Kosovo before
the war despite Belgrade’s censorship. Today,
independent reporters there can certainly use European
support, including training and financing. But they do
not need more official media, nor another group of
outsiders to tell them what they can and cannot say.
The
O.S.C.E. proposal is in part a response to the danger
that hate groups will take over broadcasting stations.
Groups of armed men have muscled their way into at least
one small radio station and broadcast appeals to
Albanians to attack their Serb neighbors.
Kosovo
needs proper regulation of its airwaves to reserve
licenses for legitimate applicants instead of those with
the bigger guns, with some licenses reserved for
multi-ethnic, Serbian and Roma-language stations. But
this can be done without the large bureaucracy the
O.S.C.E. contemplates. Its staff would train local
journalists, monitor newspapers and broadcasts, and have
ultimate control over a TV station and a radio station
with local staff. The bureaucracy would also impose as
yet unspecified regulations on what journalists can say,
especially broadcasters.
This
approach is overkill. The project to train journalists
and support promising local news media is worthwhile. It
will be undercut, however, if high-paying, O.S.C.E.-run
stations grab the best reporters. At least two worthy
news organizations—the newspaper Koha Ditore and
Radio 21—want to start television stations. The
O.S.C.E. should help them and other qualified applicants,
by granting licenses, training staff and providing
financial support to new stations. The monitors and
regulators are also a bad idea. The best way to combat
hate speech is not to ban it, but to insure that
Kosovo’s citizens have access to alternate views.
There is added danger if the regulations are broad enough
to bar other ideas the international community does not
like. It is risky to establish even well-intentioned
government-controlled broadcast stations and to attempt
to regulate ideas and expression in a region where these
powers have been so tragically misused. (The New York
Times, August 30, 1999)
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