FIFTH COLUMNISTS AMONG THE FIGHTERS AGAINST

SELF-DECAY

"If you give me a dinner - you've fed me for the day, if you give me tools - you've taken care of me for a long time". By paraphrasing the ancient Indian proverb, Goran Vezic, Director of Split Agency, the "Stina", picturesquely expressed the essence of the relations between rich world donors and international institutions, on one, and poor independent media on the other, which turned out to have been the most original and the most inventive contribution to the discussion about this issue at a recently organized Round Table in Ohrid.

For more than a hundred journalists from about 16 countries, mostly from the Balkans and the former Yugoslav space, almost everything during the two-day meeting reminded of playing an old record, heard a hundred times before. Most of us know each other so well that we know in advance what each one of us will have to say and what lies heavily on each of our minds, although ultimately it can all be brought down to the same thing: the common fear that the independent media will experience what a high official of the Socialist Party of Serbia has a long time ago recommended concerning a disobedient intellectual: "Leave him to decay from within by himself".

The Third Round Table of the Brussels News Associations (IFJ) in Ohrid was an attempt to find an answer for a question that had never been uttered - how to help the independent media in the Balkans not to decay from within by themselves. There was much complaining on account of the authorities and few ideas how to call them to their senses. It all seemed to be reduced to the same thing. State radio-television stations had been left aside a long time before this Round Table, as something impossible to change and budge. But while they keep "hitting right in the head" the entire population of their respective states and even broader, the small independent media will remain just mosquitoes on the tail of the regime monster, so that, as one of the participants in the discussion said, their range is reduced down to "covering the Soros Foundation and the embassies".

The meeting in Ohrid would have passed like any other similar gathering, had it not been for an incident/conflict/misunderstanding, depending how it was interpreted by different participants, that happened at the very end and that stirred the stale waters of numerous gatherings on the same topic and with the same epilogue. The first arrows at the Coordinating Centre of the IFJ and the FIEJ (the Association of Publishers) in Ljubljana which deals with the independent media in the Balkans and which organized this meeting, were shot by two ladies from Amsterdam: Mabel Wisse Smit of the EACPB (the European Action Council for Peace in the Balkans) and Adrienne van Hetern who is staying in Belgrade since recently and is a member of the newly-established association, the ABV (formed by the independent weekly VREME and the independent Radio B92), and until recently the Director of a famous cultural centre in Amsterdam where Willem Houwen was quite active until he became the head of the Ljubljana Centre two months ago.

When asked to explain her accusations on account of the Centre for the AIM, Ms. Smit says: "It is a good thing that the Centre exists, but it seems to me that the people in it do not understand the situation on the ground, and they are monopolizing their position. I do not agree that the Centre should closely cooperate with big organizations such as the IFJ, FIEJ, UNESCO or the Council of Europe on the one hand, and neglect non-governmental organizations on the other. What's most important, you can hear the journalists complain that the Centre is not doing enough, that it does not supply them with sufficient information, but the journalists do not dare speak up publicly, because the Centre decides who will get the money (we are speaking about 150 thousand ECU) from the "Urgent Fund". Only the individuals who are not interested dare criticize", says Ms. Smit, whose newly-formed EACPB is claimed to be a present of her wealthy father by ones, and that she was helped by a close friend, a Bosnian official in the UN, by others (there is no evidence about either).

Sasa Mirkovic from the Belgrade Radio B92, which is a veteran-media in contacts with numerous world institutions dealing with independent media, gives his reasons for being dissatisfied with the Centre: "The international community is not aware of our main postulate that the independent media in the ex-Yugoslav space are an essential part of democratic and peace processes. Viewed from the aspect of the symbolic financial aid, one would rather say that it is done just for the sake of appearances, they are giving little just to be able to say that they are giving something, but in fact this means - giving to "peaceful policy" of Milosevic or Tudjman, Mirkovic says for the AIM and adds that the mediators, such as the Centre, or the IFJ, are unnecessary, because they just needlessly take a part of the money. "When one knows that the mediator overestimates its role, like in the final document from the meeting in Ohrid, then doubt arises that we are being manipulated. If all the states receive donations according to the same principles, then illogical things result. Therefore, we propose that permanent centres of decision-making be established in Zagreb, Belgrade and Sarajevo without any financial compensations, because infrastructure already exists there. Many prefer to be silent about it, because they act according to the principle 'half a loaf is better than none', and they know that they can lose even that if they complain". To the question why they have chosen to criticize the Centre now that a new man has come to its head who deserves to be given a single chance at least, Mirkovic answers that the Ohrid Table did not suggest that anything would change.

Although the appearance of the "fifth columnists", as the group of dissatisfied journalists was called by one of its members (Petar Lukovic, editor of the VREME), Aiden White, the first man of the IFJ, reacted quite strangely at first, and then tried to pacify the situation in the end, as the following statement for the AIM shows:"I think that some 20 to 30 different organizations dealing with the independent media certainly should be inter-connected, in Ljubljana or elsewhere. Therefore, it is very important that it was, after all, agreed in Ohrid that the Centre ought to continue to operate and to include as many NGOs as possible in its activities. We have already scheduled a meeting."

Willem Houwen remained the calmest and the most reconcilable of all. He has recently come to the head of the Centre in Ljubljana and the people from the independent media know him as a person who has been their lobbyist for years, a connoisseur of the circumstances in the Balkans, an unconventional person whose appointment to the post could be interpreted as a possibility to shake up the considerably bureaucratic institution such as the IFJ has become. "Some of the complaints on our account are undoubtfully founded", Mr. Houwn says in a conversation for the AIM. "What ought to be kept in mind, though, is that the Centre was formed on the basis of a kind of a longterm strategy. The Centre is, therefore, a process, and only in the past few months it could have become efficient in donating money and sending equipment. It is understandable that the people from the independent media have made some kind of a balance, saying 'some NGOs have already offered us assistance' and that is certainly true. But, this Centre is something else, we are trying to develop longterm strategy to see what is complementary with other things, we are making expertise not to make another mistake such as the Radio-brod (Ship), we are developing some kind of a guide for allocation of money, and all that needs time, years maybe. In any case, accusations that we are making a centralized bureau are unfounded. It is also a little impractical for each city to have its Centre, not only from the aspect of the money, but because, for instance, these cities already have branch-offices of the Soros Foundation which have done a great job. The Centre in Ljubljana is daily in contact with them, meaning that we in Ljubljana wish to observe each environment as a separate entirety. What has happened in Ohrid I tend to interpret just as a misunderstanding", Mr. Houwen says.

Majority of the journalists at the Ohrid gathering, listened to the "skirmishes" between those (publicly) disassatisfied and the IFJ in silence. Whether because they did not understand what it was all about, or because they did not dare speak - for reasons Ms. Smitt gave, or, what may be even most likely, due to fatigue by several years of wrestling with the regimes in their respective countries. Among those who did react, Mile Isakov, President of the Independent Journalists of Vojvodina, and Zeljko Ivanovic, Director of the "Monitor", were probably most right to the point when they proposed a "game with open cards" and definition of principles for allocation of the assistance, in order to avoid "solving problems in hallways and according to affinities". In an unofficial chat, the editor of a Sarajevo newspaper commented on the whole complication in an "original" way saying: "I would gladly tell them all to go to..."

It is actually very difficult to understand where the "clutch" is. There is little money, and a lot of hungry mouths to feed - this is certainly one of the reasons of the misunderstanding. There is also the (justified) fear of certain media that, should the aid be distributed from a single centre in the future, they would be left without their allowances which used to come from several sources thanks to their skill. There is also the fear of centralization of power (and money), especially when it is known that the Centre is supposed to operate among those who have lived together until yesterday, separated in blood and now their greatest fear is that someone will try to link them again, even if only by means of the Centre. All that gives reason for serious talks which will be opened soon at a joint meeting of the IFJ and the interested NGOs and institutions. Up to the point questions were put forward in Ohrid, though. If it is for the benefit of the independent media in the Balkans - everything is alright. All criticism is welcome. So long as it is not just a quarrel of jealous rivals. Or, as one of the youngest participants of the gathering, Igor Brlek, the editor of the Ljubljana Radio-Student, told us: "Everyone wants money, everyone wishes to distinguish oneself, and these people who have come from Europe have gathered that meagre sum of money, so that I think that this could be resolved only by a fight. The shock would have been complete then".

Milica Pesic AIM