Media Developments

Although coalition parties were claiming that putting the broadcasting sector in order was one of their priorities, elections of new members of the Broadcasting Agency Council (BAC) were not announced until mid-January, which means an entire year after the Government was formed. From the list of 16 candidates, the Parliament of Serbia should have elected eight members of the BAC and later on they should have elected the ninth member, from Kosovo.

According to the adopted changes to the Broadcasting Act, the BAC should have been elected before November 2004. Candidates should be proposed by the Parliamentary Board for Culture and Information (six candidates for three positions in BAC), the Assembly of Vojvodina (two candidates for one position in BAC), universities (2-1), non-governmental organizations (2-1), the religious community (2-1) and professional associations of journalists, filmmakers and composers (2-1).

The Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (IJAS/NUNS), the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), the Media Center and various actors' and composers' associations refused to participate in the nominating procedure because they felt that the changes to the Broadcasting Act have seriously damaged the original idea about the BAC as an independent expert regulatory body (January 15, 2005)

The Parliament of Serbia elected eight members of the BAC, causing new disputes related to that body. Aleksandar Vasic, Nenad Cekic and Vladimir Cvetkovic from the Parliamentary Board for Culture and Information were elected. This came as a surprise to the Serbian public because Cvetkovic and Cekic were previously considered as obstructions to democratic policy in the broadcasting sphere by the opposition parties which are now in power.

Goran Karadzic, the former General Manager of TV Apolo from Novi Sad, was elected from the Assembly of Vojvodina. Svetozar Stojanovic, a former Advisor to Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, was elected from the universities and, most surprisingly, Velimir Milosevic, a person unknown to the public, was elected from the civil sector, although he has never had any kind of cooperation with non-governmental organizations.

Slobodan Djoric, from the professional associations, will also be a member of the BAC. Djoric is known as a former media advisor for one of the ruling parties, G 17 Plus, and one of the authors of the Broadcasting Act. Bishop Porfirije was elected from the religious community; he was also a member of the previous BAC . The fact that the other candidate proposed for this position was a representative of the Serbian Orthodox Church, which means that other religious communities were not represented in the election process (February 17, 2005).

The legally proposed procedure assumes that a lottery should be organized in a Parliamentary session, in order to define the term of office for each of the elected candidates. According to the provisions of the Broadcasting Act, three members have two-year terms, another three members have four-year terms and three of them have six-year terms. However, there were violations of the lottery procedure and it turned out that five members will have two-year mandates. Ten days later, the Glas javnosti daily published the transcript of the dialogue between the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the Parliament which proved that the papers used in lottery had been marked beforehand. (February 27, 2005)

Serbian Minister of Culture and Media, Dragan Kojadinovic stated that 1600 electronic media outlets are currently operating in Serbia (March 2, 2005) This proves the need for the BAC to begin working at full capacity.

The Serbian media situation was analyzed in the USA State Department's regular report. It concluded that the Serbian Government has "significant influence" on three channels of RTS (Radio Television of Serbia) and on some other broadcasters, but no "formal control" over them (March 1, 2005)

Minister Kojadinovic said that RTS employees who voluntarily resign will be offered social programs for which the Government has already provided the financial means. It is estimated that between 1200 and 1500 of the 6000 employees of that company, should be dismissed. However, the RTS Syndicate did not agree to this offer and demanded twice the amount in severance pay. The government is offering 100 euros for each working year spent at RTS. (March 29, 2005)

Intimidation and Harassment

After a long period of silence, Minister of Interior, Dragan Jocic publicly commented on the murders of two Serbian journalists, Slavko Curuvija (murdered in 1999) and Milan Pantic (murdered in 2001). Actually, it was yet further proof that state institutions were not prepared to expedite the investigations. Speaking of the Curuvija case, Jocic repeated the old phrase about the necessity of clearing up the case and the importance of finding those who had given the orders for the murder rather than the murderers themselves. However, he did not mention any progress in the investigation.

However, he presented shocking news about the Pantic murder. Jocic said that Pantic had been killed by "accident", and that it was not "premeditated." "Those who had been ordered only to threaten him, killed him. There are many facts about Pantic's case, but the Criminal Procedure Act is also an obstacle in this case." It remained unclear in which way the Criminal Procedure Act was blocking the identification of the murderers and how it was possible that the minister knew all the mentioned details but that no criminal charges had been filed. (March 7, 2005)

After its triumph in the last local elections the Serbian Radical Party appointed its people to the key positions in many local media, founded by the municipalities. The most controversial example is TV Apolo in Novi Sad where the Serbian Radical Party appointed its prominent member, Sasa Adamovic, to the position of general manager.

One of Adamovic's first moves was the firing of two journalists because they had supported their colleague who refused to air the integral version of the press release of Maja Gojkovic, the mayor of Novi Sad, explaining that press releases had never been aired integrally. (January 25, 2005)

Soon afterwards, more journalists were fired and Adamovic demonstrated new examples of the political misuse of his position. TV Apolo aired a live broadcast of a three hour rally organized by Serbian Radical Party to support its leader Vojislav Seselj, who was indicted by the prosecuting attorneys of The Hague Tribunal and who is currently imprisoned in The Hague. (February 24, 2005.)

After being ordered by the Serbian Radical Party, that runs the local governance in Vrbas, local TV Backa stopped its broadcasting. The journalists of that company organized a protest because they were dissatisfied with their salaries. In response, Branislav Petrovic, the mayor of Vrbas, came to their office and ordered them to leave.

A group of unidentified young men physically attacked and robbed Lorant Hever, a Radio Novi Sad journalist and a correspondent for Kosut Radio in Budapest. As Hever said, a group of "three or four boys" attacked him at about 2 a.m., put his head in the snow, took one thousand dinars from him and uttered ethnic slurs. (January 30, 2005)

It is quite unclear whether the TV magazine in Croat language on TV Novi Sad (part of the RTS system), that was cancelled last year, will have any future. Although, back in December 2004, the Serbian and Croatian Prime Ministers agreed on the necessity of having the magazine Tragom hrvatskim (Croatian Trace) in the program again, TV Novi Sad accused its editors of spreading hate. At the press conference, they said that TV Novi Sad was discriminating against the Croatian minority and obstructing the magazine because of its hatred towards Croatian people.

In addition, RTS General Manager Aleksandar Tijanic promised that the magazine would return to the program schedule, but nothing has happened. That led to claims by the National Council of Croats that there was discrimination against Croats in Vojvodina. (March 2, 2005)

The Municipal Court in Kikinda, a town in Northern Vojvodina, sentenced Zeljko Bodrozic, editor-in-chief of the local print media outlet Kikindske, and Vladislav Vujin, a former editor of Kikindske to pay 150 euros each plus court costs. They are guilty of insulting Slavko Kolarski, a lawyer from Kikinda. Kolarski is well known because one of his clients is Dmitar Sergrt, a high ranking member of Slobodan Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) which was a notorious oppressor of Kikindske, a media outlet close to the opposition, during Milosevic's rule and the draconian Public Information Law, adopted in 1999. Bodrozic holds the Serbian record as the journalist with the highest number of legal sentences against him. (February 15, 2005)

Legislative framework

Although adopted after a long delay, the Free Access to Information Law is still far from being implemented in Serbia because the Government obviously is not very eager to do so. The crucial proof is the fact that Rodoljub Sabic, who was appointed to the position of the Secretary for Free Access to Information of Public Interest, is seriously obstructed in performing his legally defined duties. It is within the mandate of the Secretary to supervise the implementation of the Law and provide aid to citizens in exercising their rights given them by the Law.

"I have nothing, no employees, no office. I even had to pay for the seal of the Secretariat myself," says Sabic about his situation, in which it was quite impossible to expect implementation of the Law. (January 28, 2005)

Several non-governmental organizations, including the Youth Initiative for Human Rights and the Committee of Lawyers for Human Rights, are monitoring the implementation of the Free Access to Information Law. According to their conclusions, more than a half of all official institutions, both on the national and local level, do not respect the law, in terms of ignoring the requests from the citizens for the information those institutions are obliged to provide.

However, some archaic laws are being implemented in Serbia, making it one of the rare countries in which journalists could go to prison for insulting politicians. According to the proposed Criminal Procedure Act, journalists or other citizens who participate in public life could be sentenced to prison for unauthorized publishing of the personal or family details of officials leading to any potential damage to their honor and reputation. The penalty for more severe insults is punishable by up to three years of imprisonment. (January 18, 2005)

OSCE representatives said that the legal provisions for imprisoning journalists and other persons convicted of insult and libel are non-civilized and non-European. Zoran Stojiljkovic, the Minister of Justice, in the Serbian Government, promised that the Government would propose amendments to the law, which would replace prison sentences with financial penalties. However, he expressed doubts about the possibility that Members of the Parliament would accept such solutions since they have recently been exposed to extreme and unprofessional criticism by the media. (January 25, 2005)

The Organization of the South/Eastern European Media (SEEMO) also criticized the Draft of the Criminal Procedure Law. SEEMO addressed Boris Tadic, the President of Serbia, Vojislav Kostunica, the Serbian Prime Minister and Predrag Markovic, Speaker of the Parliament, reminding them that such legal provisions are in violation of internationally recognized standards. (February 24, 2005)

The Youth Initiative for Human Rights, launched a campaign for changes in the Criminal Procedure Act that would enable audio-visual recording and public broadcasting of the war crimes trials, which, according to that non-governmental organization, would contribute to the process of establishing transitional justice in Serbia. (March 17, 2005)

The Minister of Culture and Media accepted the arguments of the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia and moved the deadlines for privatization of print media outlets to April 2006. (February 15, 2005)

The Public Information Law, adopted in 2003, prescribed that print media outlets needed to be privatized by April 22, 2005. The minister said that many media outlets have not been prepared for privatization.

Significant political changes

The main political topic during this period was the specific and long-lasting war of nerves between the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia in The Hague and Serbian authorities over the extradition of three famous army and police officers, indicted by the Tribunal for war crimes committed in Kosovo during the 1999 conflict. The indicted are Nebojsa Pavkovic, former Head of the Army of Serbia and Montenegro, Vladimir Lazarevic, also an Army general and Sreten Lukic, Deputy Minister of the Police of Serbia. The fourth member of this team seems to be, at least temporarily forgotten by The Hague; actually, Belgrade is not acknowledging the request to transfer him since he is probably not hiding in Serbia, but in Russia, with the support of the Russian secret service.

Pressure on Belgrade from The Hague, as well as from the entire international community, has been increasing and the Serbian Government has treated this issue extremely delicately. It is frightened by the unavoidable negative public reactions in the event of the arrests of these people who, until recently, had been presented as war heroes. All of the public opinion surveys conducted in Serbia show a growing animosity towards The Hague Tribunal and especially Carla del Ponte its Chief Prosecutor, who is permanently demonized by the Serbian media.

In addition, the Serbian Radical Party (SRS), the strongest party in Parliament, opposes extradition. They are joined by Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), which, ironically, provides the necessary Parliamentary support to Kostunica's minority Government. So, the generals' case is generating the Government's crises. That is why Kostunica and his ministers preferred the generals' voluntary decisions to give themselves up to The Hague. The public has speculated about secret negotiations between the Government and the indicted generals, with the mysterious assistance of controversial tycoons, who provided enormous amounts of money in return for the generals' decision to cooperate with the Government and voluntarily go to The Hague.

The Government breathed its first sigh of relief with the decision of Vladimir Lazarevic (February 3, 2005.) to surrender to The Hague. For that reason, the Prime Minister generously praised him in public and even the Archbishop of the Serbian Orthodox Church met him and publicly glorified his voluntary departure to The Hague. Almost none of the influential politicians mentioned the reasons for which Lazarevic had to go to The Hague: war crimes and grave violations of the humanitarian rights. The media has generally behaved unprofessionally and has ignored these crucial facts, which produces permanent confusion in the public.

The Coalition of Eight Non-Governmental Organizations (which unites the most active and influential organizations in the civil sector) strongly criticized the nationalistic rhetoric of the highest officials in the Lazarevic case and stated that victims of war crimes have once again been neglected and insulted. (February 7, 2005)

The above-mentioned confusion in the public was made even more complicated in the case of Police General Sreten Lukic, who declared his will to cooperate and go to The Hague, but only after his health improved. Lukic was seriously ill and was scheduled for heart surgery. However just a day after the surgery, he was extradited. The official version presented by the Government was that Lukic voluntarily traveled to The Hague, but the media has provided considerable evidence, to the contrary. The "Volunteer in slippers" has raised many doubts in the public, but the Government stuck to its version of the story. (March 31, 2005)

The toughest task for the Serbian Government turned out to be General Nebojsa Pavkovic, who continually rejected offers to voluntarily go to The Hague in order to spare the Government the embarrassing situation of arresting him. One question that re-surfaces every March 31st is whether the US government will continue its financial support of and aid to Serbia-Montenegro. If the State Department's most recent report is any indication, help will continue this year, mostly for the implementation of laws and the protection of human rights. Moreover, the condition for receiving aid is once again, Hague cooperation. Helena Djordjevic, of the Voice of America, says that the US has given aid to Serbia-Montenegro in order to develop the aforementioned fields, and the aid will continue this year, according to the US administration's report on the development of democracy around the world. The document is a continuation of the report on the state of human rights around the world, released last month. In this new text, it is stated that the US government will give financial support to the non-governmental sector and to the independent media for the further development of democracy. (January 30, 2005)

In downtown Belgrade, posters have appeared calling for a boycott of Radio Television B92 and anti-Semitic graffiti was written in front of the Jewish cemetery and on several non-government organization headquarters. The posters show the B92 logo inside the star of David with the following message: "Boycott B92 because of its anti-Serbian influence, its dangerous influence on the Serbian youth, its support for the independence of Kosovo, the spreading of drugs, homosexuality and other Western sicknesses and the multiracial new world order." The message "Serbia to Serbs" also appears on the poster, which is signed by the name of the National Formation. Last night, graffiti appeared outside the buildings which house the Helsinki Human Rights Council in Serbia and the Humanitarian Rights Fund. The Helsinki Council helped at a petition signing event at Republic Square the night before entitled "Stop the Silent Conspiracy" a campaign against rising anti-Semitic sentiments in Serbia, which was organized by eight non-government organizations. In front of the organization's headquarters last night, the message "Sonja Biserko - Jewish pawn - obedient servant of the World Jewish Movement" was written. (March 22, 2005)

The three persons found guilty of distributing and displaying the posters around Belgrade that included a call for a boycott of Radio Television B92 and anti-Semitic messages, have been sentence to ten days in prison. (30.01.2005.)

Two years ago on March 12th, Serbian prime minister and President of the Democratic Party, Zoran Djindjic, was assassinated. He was the first democratic Prime Minister of Serbia. His government was elected on January 21, 2001, after the democratic revolution of October 2000 and the coming of the Democratic opposition into power. Boris Tadic, the Serbian President, and current President of the Democratic Party, representatives and members of the Democratic Party, members of prime minister Zoran Djindjic's cabinet and members of his family paid tribute at Djindjic's grave at the arbored walk of outstanding persons located in the New Cemetery. Officials, friends and admirers placed wreaths and flowers there and lit candles in his memory. After many officials paid their respects, more than a thousand citizens, who continued to arrive all day in groups, carrying flowers and candles, visited Djindjic's grave. Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica placed a wreath on the commemorative plaque near the entrance to the Serbian government building, where Djindjic was shot and killed two years ago. Foreign Affairs Minister Vuk Draskovic and ministers of the Serbian government accompanied him. (March 12, 2005)

The Hague Tribunal has charged Ramush Haradinaj, Kosovo's Prime Minister, with 37 counts of war crimes in the organization of the violent campaign which forced Serbs and other non-Albanians out of Kosovo. The indictment accuses Haradinaj of 37 separate counts of persecution on religious and political basis, murder, rape, inhumane behavior and mistreatment of civilians, destruction of property, unlawful foreclosures and deportation. The indictment states that these crimes were allegedly committed between March 1 and September 30 1998. According to The Hague's indictment, this period represented the Kosovo Liberation Army's full-forced effort to obtain full control of, or in other words, to expel all non-Albanians from, the Dukadjin zone, which is a section of Kosovo near Pec. Haradinaj has gone to The Hague. (March 10, 2005)

Dimitrij Rupel, the Slovenian Foreign Affairs Minister and Chief of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe mission, said that Kosovo will be the greatest topic of discussion for both the OSCE and the Council of Europe in 2005.

Rupel met in Strasbourg with CoE Secretary-General, Terry Davis, where he reiterated that Kosovo will be Europe's main concern this year, and that the OSCE will be a key player in solving the problems in Kosovo. (February 24, 2005)

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said that he could not imagine any Serbian government agreeing to give Kosovo independence. "Belgrade is often criticized because of a lack of unity regarding the Kosovo question." Kostunica said in an interview with FoNet. He stated that the problem is to be found elsewhere and that a united stance does exist in Belgrade. "There are differences in opinion regarding strategies, and individual questions, such as elections in Kosovo, but when it comes down to the question of whether Kosovo should be independent or not, there are no differences in opinion." (February 27, 2005)