Syndicate: <nettime> Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Reiterates His Threats

[Veran Matic <matic@b92.opennet.org> (by way of Andreas Broeckmann)]

Vojislav Seselj Reiterates His Threats to Independent Media

Belgrade--October 6, 1998

In the "Interview of the Day" show by Radio B92, leader of the Serbian
Radical Party and Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Vojislav Seselj today
reiterated his threats with repercussions for journalists who work as
correspondents of the international media and for local broadcast media
outlets which carry news programs by foreign media.

Seselj interpreted yesterday's note sent by Serbian Information Minister
Aleksandar Vucic as an official warning which might very soon be followed
by an official decree of the Serbian Government that would include
sanctions for those who breached the decree's ban on rebroadcasts of news
shows by foreign media.

Although Vucic's note had qualified the rebroadcasts of the foreign
programming as "a direct attack on the constitutional system and legal
order of the country, as well as a conscious involvement in espionage
activities against your own people" and threatened with "adequate
punishement", legal sanctions Seselj today listed included closures,
seizures of equipment and possibly criminal procedures against individuals.
He neverhteless strongly advised that broadcast media take this warning
seriously, because the "Serbian Government shall prevent any attempt to
undermine our [Serbia's] defense power" by rebroadcasts of "foreign
psychological propaganda".

He warned that not only would broadcast media be forbidden to carry foreign
news programs, but their editors would be summoned for briefings in the
Serbian Government and the Information Ministry where they will be
instructed as to the content of their stations' programming.

He insisted that "journalists taking money from the American, German,
British and French media" were "spies helping these countries' anti-Serb
efforts", and added that the criterion for foreign support to local media
was these media's anti-Serb position.  He named Radio B92 as one that
qualified as "anti-Serb".


--
Veran Matic, Editor in Chief	                 tel: +381-11-322-9109
Radio B92, Belgrade, Yugoslavia		         fax: +381-11-322-4378

          Radio B92 Official Web Site --- http://www.opennet.org/


---
#  distributed via nettime-l : no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime> is a closed moderated mailinglist for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: majordomo@desk.nl and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
#  URL: http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/  contact: nettime-owner@desk.nl