INFORMATION IN KOSOVO

AIM, PRISTINA

Careful analysts of the circumstances in Kosovo agree on one thing: Kosovo heralded the break up of Yugoslavia, through an information - propaganda war. Probably to counter the general media campaign, mainly negative, against the Albanians, the Kosovo media in the Albanian language started creating in 1990 their own national public opinion. Thus, for instance, special attention was paid to the opposition of the Albanians to change the Constitution of Serbia without the consent of the then Provincial Assembly, to personnel purges in the state party organs of Kosovo, as well as to the main people in the media, which ensued after the notorious eighth Congress of the Serbian communists.

However, as known, at the beginning of July (July 5) 1990, the Serbian authorities, with the help of the police discontinued the broadcasting of the programme in the Albanian language of Radio Television Pristina, when 1,300 journalists and other technical personnel of Albanian nationality lost their jobs. Only a month later the Assembly of Serbia prohibited the RILINDJA, the only daily in the Albanian language in the territory of the then Yugoslavia. Since RTV Pristina was a center broadcasting almost around the clock, mainly in the Albanian language (programmes in the Serbian, Turkish and Romany languages were not discontinued), covering part of Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro (where the Albanians account for a large share of the population) and RILINDJA was read in the whole country, the Albanian population numbering almost 2,5 million found itself in an information blackout. The then correspondents of these media in Belgrade, were prohibited from entering the Serbian and/or the Yugoslav Federal Parliaments.

Shortly afterwards, on the information scene in Kosovo there appeared a certain number of private papers and magazines in Albanian, which were mainly registered in Slovenia amd Croatia. Because of the beginning of the war in these republics and poor economic support, they were short lived. The role of the daily paper in Kosovo, precisely at the time of the American - Iraqi conflict over Kuwait, was taken over by the hitherto agricultural magazine BUJKU, as well as by two weeklies - FJALJA (word) and SHKENDIJA (spark) which came out alternately, when the BUJKU was not printed (two times a week as a rule). The youth magazine the ZERI (voice) became a political magazine. Soon after that temporary measures were imposed on the Sales Network by a decision of the Serbian authorities. In 1992 the Serbian authorities brought a decision on merging the information and publishing houses RILINDJA, JEDINSTVO and TAN into a single one called the PANORAMA.

The journalists and workers employed in the Albanian media were not surprised when even the name of the printing house was changed from RILINDJA to GRACANICA (the name of a village on the outskirts of Pristina, with an almost 100% concentration of the Serbian population), without anyone having asked them for their opinion. In 1991 and 1992, all the editors-in-chief of the Albanian media were punished with 15 to 60 days of prison, because of a published article, headline, or as was the case with the then editor-in-chief of the weekly ZERI, Bljerim Salja (1991), who was punished when this paper published an ethnic map of the Albanians on the grounds that he had in that way "disturbed the public and insulted the patriotic and socialist feelings of the citizens". Xhemail Rexhepi, Zenun Qelaj, Veton Suroi, Gani Bajrami, Sanije Gashi and numerous journalists who were subjected to one to several-day "treatments" were also not spared for such and similar "sins".

At the end of April and the beginning of MAy 1993, the decision of the Assembly of Serbia to merge the publishing houses (RILINDJA, JEDINSTVO and TAN), in the Albanian, Serbian and Turkish languages, into the PANORAMA was implemented. In protest, the then editor-in-chief of the ZERI (i.e. after Bijerim Salja, note by the author), Adem Demaci, went on a hunger strike and was joined by some 250 colleagues and writers.

The strike ended after 11 days. The merging of RILINDJA into PANORAMA was not accepted. A deadline of seven days was given for the BUJKU and other magazines, to register as new and private ones, fifteen days for the employed to decide whether they would agree to the economic conditions of the newly created PANORAMA. All the giro-accounts of these Albanian media were revoked, and as stated by the then Receivership Director of the Sales Network Radomir Dimic, "the money from the giro-accounts of these media was immediately transferred to the account of the newly formed PANORAMA. All papers in the Albanian language stopped coming out, except the BUJKU, whose status has still not been "regulated". In any case, the receivership management of the GRACANICA printing house started dictating the price of the printing of this paper so that for a certain period of time the BUJKU was fifteen times more expensive than, for instance, the JEDINSTVO, a local paper in Serbian, and even ten times more expensive than the Belgrade BORBA. For the use of office space, which was previously almost four floors and now barely half of one, the employed have to pay about DM 3,500 a month. Just before the new 1994, the ZERI started coming out again (employing most of the old journalist staff who cover the most topical political subjects related to Kosovo).

They have their correspondents in the republics of the former Yugoslavia, as well as abroad. In every number they carry comments of connoisseurs of Kosovo and the Balkan situation, but also forecasts of the denouement of the Kosovo knot. Then, almost after two years, the KOSOVARJA also appeared on the stands (a paper for women which, occasionally carries articles about the political situation in Kosovo). FIJALA and SHKENDIJA are being printed again, and, in addition to articles on the theatre, literature and cultural events, they also carry the latest news.

The financial investments of the SOROS Foundation enabled the relaunching of the monthly of the Association of the Sociologists of Kosovo - the THEME (theme), headed by Skeljzen Malici. Sociologists from Kosovo, as well as from abroad contribute to this paper. It deals with topics from every day life, but from the sociological aspect. Some articles are devoted to the history of the Albanians. In 1993 alone, this Foundation invested DM 100,000 as support for the relaunching of the Albanian political magazine the KOHA (time). Its concept differs somewhat from other papers coming out in this region, because in addition to journalists who are full-time members (6 - 7 of them, and a number of permanent associates) who mainly cover topical political subjects, it also carries the texts of the AIM and of well known journalists in Europe and the world. The paper for children - the PIONERI- is also starting to come out, as well as a new magazine, the FORUM, whose editor-in-chief is Adem Demaci. The daily BUJKU, on eight pages, carries daily information about events in the territory of Kosovo. News and information is most often taken over from the "Information Center of Kosovo", which is thought to be close to the most influential party of the Kosovo Albanians - The Democratic Union of Kosovo.

This paper too, like all the other mentioned ones, has received support from the SOROS Foundation - the BUJKU, on several occasions for purchasing newsprint. The TRECE OKO (third eye), is the first erotic magazine in this area, printed in the Albanian language, edited by a team of young photo-reporters and journalists. It is financed from its own sources and started coming out at the beginning of January this year. The Islamic community here also prints its own paper. All in all, part of the journalists and other technical staff who lost their jobs in 1990 (about 3,000 of them) have come back to the profession. As far as registration is concerned, this "obligation" has been fulfilled for all the papers.

This "turnabout" is evidently mutually beneficial. The Serbian authorities realised that by prohibiting papers in the Albanian language they were creating a poor image of themselves in the world, and that objectivelly, whatever the nature of the texts printed in papers in Albanian, they do not endanger the policy being implemented by the current Serbian authorities toward Kosovo and the Albanians, for everything remains a closed circle. Economic interests are also involved, sufficient monthly sums to keep the printing house going and to provide salaries for the employed in PANORAMA and GRACANICA. On the other hand, the Albanians, accepting to register these papers, take advantage of the opportunity to inform their compatriots in more detail about topical developments concerning Kosovo, but viewed from different angles. The picture of the newly emerged situation is even clearer in view of the fact that the Ministry of Serbia in charge of information did not envisage the territory of Kosovo when it called for applications for the distribution of frequencies for the opening of private radio and TV stations, i.e. 200 channels.

As for the current programme on TV Pristina, as already said, the center broadcasts in the Serbian, Turkish and Romany languages, with two informative programmes daily, lasting 5 and/or 10 minutes, respectively, as well as the NEWS at 7.00 p.m., in the Albanian language, all that after the "model" of a programme in Albanian broadcast by TV Belgrade (i.e. translated news mainly of TANJUG). At 7.30 p.m. TV Pristina takes over the main information programme of TV Serbia from the studio in Belgrade. On Saturday there is a feature film, dubbed in the Albanian language, usually a rerun and from time to time, a documentary or music show found in the film library. Radio Pristina has a somewhat higher percentage of programmes in Albanian, but made on the same principle.

The RILINDJA, which was prohibited in 1990, started coming out in Switzerland two years ago, and more recently the ZERI, with a somewhat modified editorial policy, adjusted to the workers temporarily employed abroad.

Violeta OROSI AIM Pristina