Dogaðaji na medijskoj sceni u Srbiji i Crnoj Gori

15.07.2005.

July 5-12, 2005

NEW OWNER, OLD CONCEPT

BELGRADE, July 6, 2005 (Vecernje Novosti) - Around 150 radio and television stations in Serbia, to be privatized until the middle of next year, are founded and owned by local governments.

The process of privatization of local media could finally get under way, since the Ministry of Culture and Media has recently adopted the new Bylaw on privatization of these radio and television stations.

Although the privatization of those media outlets is to be conducted in line with the Privatisation Act, the Bylaw would regulate the protection of the professional conduct.

The Bylaw on privatization of local and regional radio and television
stations prohibits political party or legal entity owning a political party, or institutions founded by the Republic of Serbia or autonomous province, to buy those stations. The potential buyer will also be obliged to provide the assessment of the Broadcast Agency regarding the unauthorized media concentration in order to participate in the tender or auction.

The Bylaw also stipulates that the continuity in production and program broadcasting needs to be maintained from the day of selling contract signing and for the period of at least five years. In this period, the owner will not be allowed to change the professional orientation.

If the privatization is concluded before the frequency allocation
competition, the purchase itself does not guarantee the buyer the broadcast license. The Bylaw stipulates that "the provision referring to maintaining the continuity in production and program broadcasting does not apply to RTV stations unsuccessful in the license issuing public competition".

Despite this, Slobodan Kremenjak, legal representative of the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), with its twelve radio and television stations waiting for the privatisation, predicts that this process would start very soon, before the frequency allocation procedure. "Maybe that's
the better way", Kremenjak said, representing the general view of the Association, "since it would leave space for the buyers' necessary investment".

"If the process of broadcast license issuing is concluded before the
privatisation, there is a possible risk that half of those broadcasters
would close down due to their difficult financial state. It is an advantage, though, for those employees believing that their media outlet could operate commercially, since they can reorganize and buy off the station at a considerably low price", said Kremenjak.

Member of the Broadcast Agency Council Slobodan Djoric also expects the privatisation process to begin before local and regional radio and television stations enter the process of frequency allocation, but probably not before next year.

"The frequencies would be in stations' use for eight years, which would multiply the value of those stations that get the frequency. Buyers interested to purchase before the frequency allocation process would have to make good assessment of what they are buying. However, all the cards would be on the table before the competition, so they would know exactly the size of the media market, competition, the criteria and costs. Based on that, the
potential buyers will decide if their investment is worthwhile", Djoric
explained.

He also points out that the basic program concept is not subject to change, adding that the Broadcast Agency would determine the program standards available for the broadcasters before the competition.

UNDERHANDED DEALINGS WITH TABLOIDS

BELGRADE, July 6, 2005 (B92) - The crew of the B92 television show Insider has come upon the audio record from the meeting of General Nebojsa Pavkovic and editor of the daily Nacional Predrag Popovic held in 2002.

The recording, made before the presidential elections, confirmed that the former Chief of General Staff of Yugoslav Army and candidate for president Pavkovic and Nacional editor Popovic had discussed the letters of Ljiljana Buha, wife of Ljubisa Buha, formerly published in the dailies Nacional and Identitet.

In his book "Assassination of Zoran", weekly Vreme journalist Milos Vasic wrote that the letters of Ljiljana Buha were also the topic of the meeting held between Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic and Nacional editor. Vasic wrote Popovic had admitted to publishing the letters for money.

Deputy Editor-in-chief of daily Kurir Dragan J. Vucicevic however said that the money was never discussed at the meeting.

Weekly Vreme journalist Teofil Pancic believes that one of the main problems of the Serbian tabloids is the editorial policy, that is, the purpose of these papers, and what they have been used for. Pancic said that tabloids like Identitet and Nacional, which were banned and shut down during the emergency state in the country, were the mouthpiece of the mafia.

"I'm not saying that all working for these papers knew that they've been working for the mafia, but I think it was obvious that the dominant people in them were inclining to that side. As soon as the emergency state was over, these papers emerged again, maybe under new name, but certainly in more mutant profile, and continued to prosper and boom", said Pancic.

During the police activity "Saber", dailies Nacional and Identity were shut down by the decision of the Serbian Government. Dusan Spasojevic and Milorad Ulemek were identified then as the owners of these papers.

The case of B92 correspondent from Bor being attacked by the local politicians solely because he was doing his job is a good illustration of the state of journalism in Serbia.

B92's program Insider has also pointed to the consequences which political influence and criminal circles have on local journalism in their investigation of the involvement of certain media in events before and after the murder of the Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic. The possibility to prevent or diminish political influence on the media is very small considering the inactivity of prosecution, delayed implementation of the legislation and inconsiderable power of the journalists' associations. That is why it was possible for Spasojevic and Ulemek to own today closed papers Nacional and Identitet.

Speaking for B92's radio program Kaziprst, Belgrade Media Center Program Director Nebojsa Spaic however said that the fact that Ulemek and Spasojevic owned the Belgrade dailies was not the problem of journalism:

"That has nothing to do with journalism. The problem lies in the papers that have been, and still are, violating the professional standards and ethical codes of journalism. However, there is one more thing here that shows why all this is not that simple. I am deeply convinced that the freedom of the press as one side of the coin is far more important than the professional ethics as the other side", said Spaic.

Independent Association of Serbian Journalists (IJAS) said that the bloom of the tabloids in Serbia could not be prevented. Journalism codes of the Association were applicable only to its members, which is roughly half the number of journalists working in the Serbian media today. President of the Association Nebojsa Bugarinovic said that there is nothing left but the moral and public criticism of these papers, giving the example of the G17 Plus urging the Court of Honor to react against the negative reporting of the daily Kurir on this political party.

POLITICIAN THREATENED JOURNALIST

MAJDANPEK, NIS, July 6, 2005 (B92, Beta) - Radio B92 and Slobodna Evropa correspondent Dejan Radulovic has received death threats.

Radulovic said he has been threatened by Sasa Jovanovic, chief of the Majdanpek Democratic Party Council group.

"Jovanovic called me after the story was broadcast on the radio, using very primitive language to threaten me. He said he would discuss matters differently next time we met. I'm not sure what he meant by "we will discuss things differently". It is interesting that I had not mentioned the name of the certain person in the statement. The situation in the local municipality was described solely by the people from the Democratic Party. I have however reported the death threats to the police, just in case", said Radulovic.

INFORMATION COMMISSIONER'S OFFICE FINALLY SET

BELGRADE, July 7, 2005 (B92) - Six months after being appointed, the Serbia's Commissioner for Public Information Rodoljub Sabic has been given an office.

Since being appointed by the parliament and after several complaints that he had no telephone, computer and basic resources for work, Sabic has finally been given the office allocated to implementing the Free Access to Information Act.

The legislation was touted by all democratic parties in last year's election campaign as being one of the most important anti-corruption measures, giving all citizens the right to monitor the work of the government and its bodies.

"As in other countries, the legislation provides for areas of information to which access must by and large be restricted, but a reason must be given for this, and if the person seeking information is not satisfied, he may then apply to the commissioner", said Sabic in the Radio B92's Kaziprst.

Numbers of the Public Commissioner's office in 42, Svetozara Markovica Street in Belgrade are 011 268 11 37 and 011 268 12 55.

B92 SUES MIRA MARJANOVIC

BELGRADE, July 8, 2005 (B92) - Broadcast company B92 has authorized the legal representatives of this media house to file legal complaint against the Editor-in-chief of Belgrade daily Srpski Nacional Mira Marjanovic.

"After many years of touting for decriminalization of libel and defamation, we have come to the point where, for the first time, we have to file such legal complaint. Unfortunately, the slow implementation of the stipulations that need to provide for full respect of the freedom of expression and protection for those whose rights and reputation have been damaged, drove us
to the only possibility we have been allowed by the laws of this country", said in the statement of RTV B92.

"Since the democratic changes in October 2000, B92 has never been exposed to such threats and attacks as today. After the explosive devices planted under the broadcast vans, broken cameras and death threats to journalists, the reaction of the state was always and merely the silence, or in some cases, the notice of the prosecution that these actions did not contain criminal
attributes for official prosecution. No one was held responsible for all attacks on B92 in the past years. The state sends us the obvious, well understood message, while the attacks keep intensifying. Blatant attack on the editor of the TV B92's program Insider, being a pattern of certain media for destroying a public person and preparing his public lynching, demands the final word of the local judiciary", said in the statement.

"We will continue to promote the decriminalization of libel and defamation, but also other amendments of rules which would enable more adequate protection of legal entities in the civil lawsuits from damaging their reputation. The reputation of the station B92 has been formed by the generations of journalists and correspondents for more than 16 years. The result of mutual endeavor is the trust of our listeners and viewers. We will fight for the positions we reached by respecting the principles to which B92 has been faithful to since the first day of its existence. When the sustainability of our arguments has been opposed with the fabrications, B92 will strive to protect all its journalists and associates individually by launching appropriate legal proceedings, and notifying the public of each of
these lawsuits", said in the statement of B92.

The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) protested most strongly at the witch hunt being conducted by daily tabloids Srpski Nacional and Kurir for ANEM member RTV B92 and journalist Brankica Stankovic, the editor of B92's investigative program Insider.

"In a program broadcast on July 4, the Insider crew examined the pattern by which a public figure is destroyed in the media and the ground prepared for a public lynching. We are now seeing an attempt to apply this same pattern to Stankovic herself and to discredit Radio Television B92.

Thus Kurir, in its July 6 edition, in an article by Dragan J. Vucicevic, who had himself taken part in the Insider program broadcast two days earlier, condemns B92 for daring to talk about media witch hunts. He accuses B92 of "Goebbels-like totalitarian propaganda, manipulation and indoctrination," as well as "malicious editing and the worst kind of frame-up". He also labels Brankica Stankovic "a liar, a manipulator and a fraudster".

Srpski Nacional joined the fray, also in its July 6 issue, coming up with a fantastic story about how TV B92 and Insider are actually a smokescreen for sexual orgies. This is presumably intended to indicate that any findings which this program and this station come to, and any messages they convey, are not particularly important or credible", said in the statement of the Association.

ANEM calls on the democratic public and especially all media companies and journalism associations to react sharply to articles which breach professional ethics and journalist codices. These articles are aimed at a public lynching of people who think differently and ultimately at stifling public debate about the abuse of the media and the profession of journalism. Such abuses happen far too often in this society.

We are seeing that every attempt to examine the events of the recent past, whether they be the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic or the crimes committed during the wars of the last decade, results in the same, undoubtedly orchestrated, attacks. ANEM believes that the pattern of media outlets acting as branch offices of various political, quasi-political and criminalised centres of power function must be dismantled and the lethal influence of these on media and society brought to an end. This task should be a priority for journalists, the media and professional associations",
said in the statement of ANEM.

Media Council of the Belgrade Media Center stated that the monthly analysis showed numerous examples of violation of ethical codes in the Serbian tabloid press.

The Council also stated that two journalists' associations, Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (IJAS) and Journalists' Association of Serbia (JAS), have been working together on the ethical code of journalism in the attempt to regulate media sphere in Serbia. The code would oblige the media to regularly publish the reports on unprofessional conduct.

Gordana Susa, the rapporteur of the Council, said that one such code would cause certain media to close down.

The reporting of the print media on the author and editor of investigative program Insider has also been criticized by eight non-governmental organizations and Civic Alliance of Serbia, which has also accused the weekly Evropa for the same unprofessional conduct.

Culture Decontamination Center's Borka Pavicevic said that the official reaction was necessary:

"This kind of addressing to public is simply scandalous and odious, but we have to talk about them. We must not keep our mouth and eyes shut, for no good will come out of it."

Cedomir Jovanovic's Liberal Democratic Fraction has also announced taking the issue with several Belgrade papers to court.

Cedomir Jovanovic will file a legal complaint against abovementioned dailies for the articles published recently.

Jovanovic denied of having given the statement to the Nacional on July 7, 2005, nor having spoken to any journalist of this daily. Jovanovic is ready to repeat and append all that he publicly stated in the investigative program Insider, for the purpose of determining the whole truth, said in the statement of the Liberal Democratic Fraction.

RTK STAFF EVACUATED

PRISTINE, July 8, 2005 (Beta) - The police has ordered the Radio Television Kosovo staff to leave their working posts due to the "suspicious bag" that was found in front of the garage of the television station.

The Kosovo police officers had secured the area where the bag had been found and notified the KFOR Special Forces for dismantling explosive devices.

As Beta News Agency reported, RTK Security spotted the suspicious bag around 4.30 p.m. and had immediately notified the Kosovo Police.

Radio Television Kosovo continued regular broadcast soon.

RTK has received several telephone warnings of the explosive devices, but all of them were false alarms.

NEW YORK TIMES JOURNALIST IN JAIL

NEW YORK, July 8, 2005 (Beta) - New York Times journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Judith Miller has been sentenced to prison after refusing to divulge the name of a confidential source.

Judith Miller refused to reveal the name of her source to the Grand Jury which was investigating how the name of the CIA operative agent had leaked into public. Judge Tomas Hogan sent her to prison, where she would stay until she decided to talk or until the term of the Grand Jury expired in October.

The journalist however stated that she, despite the fact that she did not want to go to prison, had to protect her sources.

"If journalists cannot be trusted to guarantee confidentiality, then the
journalists cannot function and there cannot be a free press", said Miller.

The Grand Jury has tried to determine who from the United States 2003 administration had revealed the name of the CIA agent Valerie Plaim to the media, and whether certain legislations had been breached with this act.

The name of the CIA agent leaked to public after her husband, diplomat Joseph Wilson, had criticized the war in Iraq, and his earlier attempts in Africa to prove that the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had been trying to procure uranium in the early nineties.

Reporters without Frontiers stated that the imprisonment of the journalist was a sad day for the freedom of press.

The judge's decision to lock her up is absurd, a dangerous precedent and very bad message that USA sends to the rest of the world", said in the statement of the Reporters without Frontiers, in which this organization called on the USA Congress to bring the Draft legislation on the federal level as soon as possible, which would give the right to journalists to protect their sources of information.

40 JOURNALISTS KILLED SO FAR IN 2005

BELGRADE, July 10, 2005 (Danas) - 2005 is turning out to be another deadly year for journalists.

According to the statistics of the International Press Institute (IPI), 40 journalists, in particular those investigating corruption, drug trafficking and other illegal activities, have been killed so far this year.

At least 11 journalists and media staffers have died in Iraq alone, six were killed in the Philippines and two each in Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Haiti, Mexico, Pakistan and Somalia. Journalists were also murdered in nine other countries - in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Ecuador, Lebanon, Libya, Nepal, Russia, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

The list of countries with the recorded murders of journalists however did not include Kosovo. Journalist of Bota sot Bardilj Ajeti had died last month in an Italian hospital where he was treated after the attempted murder. He was shot from a moving vehicle on June 3, near the village Bresalce in East Kosovo.

According to the Institute's statistics, the number of killed journalists
increases each year (with respect to 1999, when 89 victims were recorded) - in 1997 the number of killed journalists was 28; 1998 - 50; 2000 - 56; 2001 - 55; 2002 - 54; 2003 - 64 and 2004 - 78.

Speaking about this deadly trend against journalists, IPI Director Johann P. Fritz said that many journalists were accidentally caught in the cross-fire when reporting on various conflicts, while many more were deliberately targeted.

"Most of these attacks ware committed with impunity. All too often, there is little or no evidence to suggest that the authorities are taking decisive action to identify and bring to justice those responsible for these heinous crimes."

Fritz called this failure of governments around the world to ensure
immediate and thorough investigation into these killings unacceptable.

Several journalists were killed in Serbia and Montenegro in last few years. Murderers of journalists Milan Pantic and Slavko Curuvija are still unknown, the death of Dada Vujasinovic still unsolved, while the court trial for murder of Dusko Jovanovic in Podgorica is still in procedure. Beside Ajeti, journalist Bekim Kastrati, Ajeti's newsroom colleague, was killed in Kosovo in 2002, and before him, Sefki Popova, journalist of Rilindja.

BOMB FOUND OUTSIDE DAILY DAN

PODGORICA, July 12, 2005 (B92, Beta) - According to the staff of the Podgorica daily Dan and the police, an explosive device was found in front of its building last night.

The Podgorica police confirmed that the device marked as rocket manual launcher was found last night.

"It is true the explosive device was found in a bag left in front of the
building of daily Dan", said the Deputy Chief of Security Center in
Podgorica Milan Tomic.

The examining magistrate of the Podgorica Court Dejan Dragovic stated that no one had been brought in for hearing by the police. Dragovic however confirmed to the Beta News Agency that the police investigations were underway but that he had not been informed on the iidentification of eventual suspects.

Today's edition of the daily reported that the surveillance camera in the building recorded an unidentified, hooded individual leaving the bag with the explosive device in front of the ads department. According to the reports, the device was marked as RBP 64 mm M80, in "transport-ready" position.

Deputy Chief of the Security Center in Podgorica Milan Tomic told Beta News Agency that the police had undertaken all necessary measures to determine the origin of the explosive device and identify the individual who had left it in front of the daily Dan newsroom.

Povratak