<nettime> ANEM WEEKLY MEDIA UPDATE: June 23 - 29, 2001

["geert lovink" <geert@xs4all.nl>]

From: <mediawatch@lists.opennet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2001 11:43 PM
Subject: ANEM WEEKLY MEDIA UPDATE: June 23 - 29, 2001


YUGOSLAV ARMY DENIES JAMMING INDEPENDENT MEDIA

BELGRADE, June 23, 2001 - The Headquarters of the Yugoslav Army denied
that there are some minutes from the meeting between representatives
of the Yugoslav authorities, Army, and the police, in which, according
to what Radio Free Europe had reported, jamming of the electronic
media was agreed upon.    

"On the basis of the conclusions from that meeting, a plan was drawn,
according to which the relevant services and units of the Yugoslav
Army were responsible for intensifying reconnaissance of so-called
informative and commando communication lines, which is their regular
task," the official statement said.    

"There were no minutes made it that meeting, nor was the meeting
taped, so the materials published must have been taken from the
notebook of some of the participants of the meeting," the official
statement added.   

"The Headquarters officers do not know the results and achievements of
the actions carried out according to that plan by the relevant
departments of the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications, and
especially by the employees of the department of federal Intelligence
Agency," the statement concludes.    

Belgrade daily Danas published some details Friday about this meeting,
in which among others Yugoslav Army chief Nebojsa Pavkovic, former
federal Intelligence Agency head Rade Markovic, and former federal
Information Minister Goran Matic took part.   

According to Danas, Pavkovic said in the meeting, "A large number of
radio and television stations broadcast programmes that are
practically hostile.  We think that we should use our knowledge and
technical equipment to eliminate some of them completely from the air,
to jam some of them, and as the third segment of our activities we
should devise a plan for psychological and propaganda counter efforts
against such information."      

Goran Matic asserted in the meeting that his Ministry had "limited
resources for jamming," while Rade Markovic concluded that it was not
good if every one of them were eliminated from the air, and that some
space should be left for them, because of the pretence of democracy."

"We will play the card of their absence of legal and legitimate work
licenses, which leads to chaos," Danas reports that Markovic said,
referring to the minutes whose existence was denied by the Yugoslav
Army.  (B92).   


CEROVIC: LIVE BROADCAST OF PARLIAMENT NOT IN PUBLIC INTEREST

BELGRADE, June 23, 2001. - The Radio Television of Serbia board of
directors proposed to the Serbian Parliament that RTS should end live
television coverage of the republic parliament sessions.

"The live television coverage does not serve but rather undermines the
public interests of our society, in the way we understand them," they
wrote in a letter to the Serbian parliament speaker Dragan Marsicanin.

RTS board member Stojan Cerovic told B92:

"This manner of speaking which you can hear there, this string of
scandals that happens day in, day out, the abuses and hate speech are
all things people should be protected from.  It would be much better
if a summary of Parliament sessions, daily or as often as necessary,
were made, as a detailed report of their work, in which the editing
committee should make all the necessary omissions of these undesirable
messages.  There are also some other reasons for it: this all costs
too much, one of the three channels of Radio Television of Serbia is
completely sacrificed, and we cannot plan the programme scheme in
advance.  If you have those live coverage programmes that you never
can tell how long will they last, you cannot stick to any programme
schedule," Cerovic told B92.           


JOURNALISTS RECEIVE PANTIC MURDER PRESS KIT

BELGRADE, June 23, 2001 - After ten days of investigating into the
case of the murder of the journalist Milan Pantic in Jagodina, the
police assembled a press kit on the murder.  

Upon request from the Independent Association of Serbian Journalists,
police and media have begun cooperating on this case.

At the press conference in Media Centre at the Criminal Police
Headquarters, general Radovan Knezevic presented the press kit
containing information to be published in all the media.  

"We have managed to profile face of the man who committed the murder
of your colleague Pantic, by dint of hard work in the field," Knezevic
said.  

He appealed for help so that the murderer would be discovered and
imprisoned as soon as possible, by the coordinated efforts of the
media and the police.  

He added that the police have more information about the murderer, but
this would be kept secret in order that the possible reports on the
murder could be more easily investigated.  (B92)  


INDEPENDENT JOURNALISTS AND POLICE COOPERATE

BELGRADE, June 24, 2001 - After the murder of the journalist Milan
Pantic in Jagodina, the Independent Association of Serbian Journalists
(NUNS) began a cooperation initiative that was accepted by the federal
and republic Governments, and by the Serbian Ministry of Internal
Affairs.    

Two groups of their representatives were formed, one for the media
actions and the other for the coordination of their work, Dusan
Janjic, editor-in-chief of the news agency Beta said.  

"Our first aim is precautionary measures.  We demand the authorities
start adequately protecting professional journalists.  Our second aim
is that the perpetrators of these crimes be found.  We are working on
establishing a hotline, the number of which will not be publicly
known, but which will be given to the media boards.  All Serbian
journalists will be able to dial that number to be in the direct
contact with their colleagues.  Those journalists who are being
threatened, and all the others who are under any kind of pressure will
be able to use that line," said Dusan Janjic.        

In addition, the Independent Association of Serbian Journalists also
began a campaign called "Stop the Mafia", with the aim of "preventing
that the journalists from paying the highest price for the inability
of the society to eliminate mafia".   

"We proposed that the first question in each and every press
conference organised by the Ministry of Internal Affairs will be:
'What have you achieved in your investigations of murders of Milan
Pantic and Slavko Curuvija?'" Nebojsa Spaic said at the press
conference in the Belgrade Media Centre.    

"The representatives of the authorities also agreed that murder,
threats, or any other kind of violence exerted upon the journalists
would be treated as a threat or murder of a judge or a policeman,"
Spaic added.   

The police supported the Independent Association of Serbian
Journalists initiatives.

Criminal Police Headquarters head general Radovan Knezevic said that
the police would be glad to take part in this campaign.

"If any of you are threatened to while you work, if somebody prevents
you from writing or publishing your work, feel free to call this
number that will be available to you, and we will use all the
technical means available to us to discover the perpetrator, and to
prevent further incidents of threats," Knezevic promised.    


CONFERENCE ON EDITORIAL CODE FOR THE ELECTRONIC MEDIA

BELGRADE, June 27, 2001 - A three-day conference on the theme "An
Editorial Code for the Electronic Media" organised by ANEM and the
Council of Europe opened Monday evening in Belgrade's Intercontinental
hotel.   

While there is no more hate speech in Serbian media, electronic media
suffer from unfair political attitudes and fear from politicians,
meeting participants affirmed.  

While opening the meeting, federal Information Minister Slobodan Orlic
pointed out the importance of applying ethical criteria to journalism,
and added that the media in Serbia could be divided into categories of
state-run, "allegedly independent," and independent.   

"The politicians from the new government are not ready to support
development of the professional journalism in Serbia," Orlic said,
pointing out that many of those politicians were members of boards of
directors in the state-run media.   

"Times during which the professional attitude towards journalism was
the last criterion for assessing the work of journalists, and during
which the editorial and ethical code was a mere caricature of those
qualities in the most influential media that were allegedly state-run
and in reality run by the political parties, these times were behind
us.  That is exactly the reason for such a painful democratic turning
point in those media, because there is a shortage of professionals who
would simply perform their task as journalists well, and because there
is a surplus of the former henchmen who can by no means meet those
requirements."         

The President of the Board of Directors of the Association of
Independent Electronic Media, Veran Matic, said that the media in
Serbia had been "the key factor if disseminating hatred" during the
last ten years.   

According to Matic, there is no more hate speech in Serbian media, but
there is political unfairness, which is reflected in calling Albanians
"Shiptars", Roma "Gypsies", and so on.

Matic also pointed out that the same kind of political unfairness
towards Serbs could have been found in the media from the West, in
their reporting on the wars waged in the territory of the former
Yugoslavia, and on the events that had happened in Serbia.   

Council of Europe media adviser Mario Othaimer said that it was
necessary to develop freedom of speech and a system of accountability
for media, in order to make the establishment of moral and editorial
principles possible.   

The representatives of some thirty electronic media from Serbia
attended the three-day conference.  (B92)


MILOSEVIC SUPPORTERS ATTACK JOURNALISTS

BELGRADE, June 29, 2001 - FoNet news agency reported that its
photojournalist Petar Pavlovic had been attacked while trying to take
photos of the protests against Milosevic's extradition to The Hague
Tribunal. Milosevic loyalists first tried to take Pavlovic's camera,
and then began hitting and kicking him. Pavlovic hit the ground
several times, but somehow managed finally to break free. He sustained
a serious injury to the jaw and has a number of bruises and scratches
on his body and head.       

The Belgrade Media Centre said that a large number of domestic and
foreign journalists, cameramen and photojournalists, were severely
beaten in Belgrade's Trg Republike, where Milosevic's supporters had
gathered. Shouting, "You are to blame," the furious protestors
attacked anyone they recognized to be a journalist.    

According to ANEM's information, Beta journalist Suzana Rafailovic and
Studio B cameraman Milo Petrovic were also attacked. Glas javnosti
reported that BK TV and Associated Press crews were also physically
assaulted.   
 


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