YUGOSLAVIA / SERBIA:

RUSSIA AND THE WESTERN COMMUNITY MUST BECOME ENGAGED TO END MEDIA AND OTHER REPRESSION

On 19 May, the IHF Secretariat and the Helsinki Committees in Finland, Greece, Russia, Serbia and Sweden all called upon democratic governments to protest against the recent Serbian government take-over of independent and opposition media.

The invasion of Radio-Television Studio B, TV Mladenovac, Radio B2-92 and Radio Index by police forces on 17 May and the confiscation of RTV Pancevo’s transmitter constitute the latest steps in a series of attempts by the Serbian regime to impose its control over independent electronic and printed media in the country, in the context of a general escalation against democracy.

It is an unfortunate coincidence that these actions took place while the Yugoslav Minister for Foreign Affairs was on an official visit to the Russian Federation. A reaction from the Russian Federation would be crucial at this point to calm the situation, particularly by requesting early elections.

The take-over followed a Decree of the Serbian Government - signed by Vojislav Seselj, vice-president of the government and president of the neo-fascist Serb Radical Party, and by Milovan Bojic, vice-president of the government and high official of the Yugoslav Left, the party of Slobodan

Milosevic's wife Mirjana Markovic - which appropriated the property of all electronic media that broadcasted to the State nationwide. Only local independent electronic media remain in Serbia at present, and there are general fears that the government might close down most of them as well.

Recent events illustrate the significant escalation of state repression of the media, which has been increasing since the adoption of the Public Information Act and the opposition’s demands for early elections.

The active engagement of the international community is greatly needed under the circumstances. Strong messages should be sent to the regime, asking for the cessation of repressive actions and the reinstitution of the occupied media to their rightful owners. Western governments can be instrumental in ensuring the continuation of the broadcasting of these independent media through retransmission, and in helping strengthen the radio and TV signals of foreign media (for example in Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia) and of Western media broadcasting in South Slavic languages.

In the meantime, the media space has been dramatically reduced, widening the space for rumors and misinformation, and further enhancing political confusion and the dangerous situation existing in Serbia.

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Source: IHF

For more information please contact the IHF, tel. +43-1-408-8822, e-mail office@ihf-hr.org