A BATTLE WON, THE OUTCOME OF THE WAR UNKNOWN

Three Weeks that Shook the NIN

AIM, BELGRADE, December 11, 1994

The NIN has won the battle with the Director of the "Politika" Company, Zivorad Minovic, the notorious "scandal-maker" at the time of Milosevic's years of winning power, both before the Eighth Session of the Serbian League of Communists which marked the beginning of his domination, and today. The danger of destruction and closing down the weekly NIN has never threatened it so directly in its sixty-two-year old history than in November, when Minovic demanded 40 per cent of the ownership of NIN (instead of the the present 10 per cent), was refused, and then banned sale of the weekly in "Politika"'s news-stands. He deprived it of the properly agreed services of "Politika"'s printing works, distribution network, photo-laboratory, composing room.

This national institution, comparable to the significance of Letopis Matice Srpske or the National Theatre, will, it seems at the moment, retain its independence. The Director of the NIN, Tomislav Dzadzic, signed a contract on long-term business cooperation with the printing works ABC which helped the NIN when it was in distress, major technical problems are resolved, so that the weekly in its standard edition can be purchased at news-stands of the "Borba" - NIN's new business partner.

Purchase of the Reject

The history of the disagreement of "Politika" Company and the NIN began in March 1991, when the weekly appeared with the following title on its front page: "NIN liberated". That is when NIN's estrangement from its previous conception began, which, as recently one of the NIN's journalist, Milo Gligorijevic, wrote, had reminded many of its readers at the time of the bulletin of the Communist City Committee of Belgrade. Changed as it was, it dissatisfied Zivorad Minovic, alias the Communist regime, so he pushed it to the wall and blackmailed it, thanks to ownership transformation - it would either return into the arms of the regime or remain on its own in the inflationary market chaos.

The editorial staff feared to be left on its own, but the Director of the Company, Minovic, instisted that the NIN leave the enterprise "Politika" for good and completely. At the time (in 1993), he unwillingly kept ten per cent of the shares as the founder of the enterprise, claiming that the Company did not need more than "one, two, three per cent". "If you do not wish to seek joint owners and financiers, we will find them for you. We will separate you and register you, with partners we shall choose on our own", the threat read. Between the two evils, the editors chose the less harmful one - they chose independence.

Why does the "Politika" Company now wish to buy what it rejected a year ago?

The NIN consolidated itself, it has no more debts, its annual circulation is over a million copies with a rising trend. It started the precess of privatization and capitalization of its remaining assets. But the regime does not like its contents. Nor does it like the names of enterprises and people the NIN has chosen for its future joint owners.

The editors decided to let 52 per cent go into private hands, and to capitalize the rest of its assets in order to raise money for modernization. Contracts were signed, but not registered in court because of constant bureaucratic delays, which is also a form of pressure exerted by the state.

The MP Holding with Milan Panic, the rival of Slobodan Milosevic at the latest presidential elections, at its head was expected to become the owner of 25 per cent of the shares, but the regime press led by the "favourite" at the time, Vojislav Seselj, proclaimed that Milan Panic was a Serbian traitor and virtually sent him away.

Soros was planned to be the the other co-founder with 14 per cent of shares, and it is well known what the regime thinks about his organization which experienced a true harangue in the past few months, as "a foreign service" with a "well-known task". As we learn, Soros desisted from the deal and the already signed contract, fearing that the regime would "shut its offices down".

Finally, 3.1 per cent are the share of MP "Tradeks", i.e. Miki Savicevic, the legendary and successful former director of "Genex", who was among the first to fall victim after the Eighth Session, as an unreliable support of the new Milosevic's power at the time.

That is the context in which the reply of Ratomir Vico, the Republican Minister of Information, should be observed, to a letter - appeal for help, addressed to him by the Editor-in-Chief of the NIN, Dusan Velickovic.

Vico, in a "consoling" tone, recommends the editors to try to see eye to eye with the "Politika" Company, for there is no reason for fear of its sharing in the ownership of the NIN. "Large private owners with great political ambitions and big problems in making these ambitions come true can be great danger for free journalism", Ratomir Vico warned, and thus unintentionally reached the very essence of this multi-layered story.

• The case of the NIN shows that the regime is changing the model of pressure. It used to be done by phone before, or through actions of the so-called task forces, and then came pressures and threats. Now, they start with threats, then offer to buy people with money, as Dragan Hadzi Antic, or Karic brothers are doing. This is a Mafia model of pressuring the press. The regime started to promise money. Soon, a number of rascals among us will get tremendously rich, they will be paid for "transfer" - one of NIN's journalists, Stevan Niksic, says. - Minovic acted according to orders from the top, from the very top. It is possible that now, that same "very top" wishes to pull out now that it has become obvious that the NIN will not give in, and to blame it all on Minovic. The attacks have become routine for us, because various people trained this skill on the case of NIN, and did not succeed. The crisis is surmounted, but I know that the regime will not give up. It control everybody around us - paper manufacturers, courts, it can have us arrested. It all depends on its good will, after all.

Spreading Monotony

The battle of the editors lated for three feverish weeks.

On November 18, already, the journal "Politika" gave the explanation for its decision to deny services to the weekly NIN, "due to disagreement", and the NIN answered: "This is a lie intended to confuse the public, and behind it, of course, is political bullying and unmasked intention to kill the weekly which does not wish to belong to anyone but the public of Serbia and Yugoslavia, which highly estimates its open and democratic attitudes, its critical position and independence".

Downtown Belgrade, in Knez Mihajlova street, in front of the "Ruski car" (Russian Tsar) restaurant, members of the NIN editorial board sold their journal themselves. They were joined by party leaders and intellectuals, and the democratic Serbian public cheered them. News-stands of the "Borba", "Stampa", "Dnevnik", owners of cafes who were all ready to help sold the new edition. The NIN became topical, fresh evidence that the regime of Serbia did not give up the battle for full control of all independent media, which had started with Independent Television Studio B and the "Borba" daily.

Andrej Mitrovic, a historian, characterized the events as - spreading of monotony. "Since the Eighth Session, this regime is constantly reinforcinig its position by provoking crises in the society and disturbing normalization which is necessary for creative activities. This is a typical regime which lives on the crises, that is how it appeared and how it continues to operate."

"Those who claim even Oplenac and Beli dvor (residences of Serbian monarchs) are theirs, naturally think that so are the "Borba" and the NIN", writer Matija Beckovic commented.

"Slobodan Milosevic obviously assessed that the USA and foreign powers treat him as an ally, and that he can get some kind of an additional fee from these powers in the form of a silent agreement to his control of all independent media", Nikola Milosevic, the President of the Serbian Liberal Party, said. On the other hand, Dr. Miroljub Labus, assessed that the authorities were weaker than what someone might think, as long as it was forced to control each and every newspaper, and medium.

The new Russian Minister of Information, Sergey Grizunov, stated for the AIM that sometimes the servants were even more servile than the master expected, that they tried to be greater Catholics than the Pope, and made moves which even Milosevic himself would never have made.

French and Greek official representatives visited the NIN, offered help and thus showed whose side they were on.

The case of the NIN was used by the two most powerful men in the "Politika" Company, Zivorad Minovic, its Director, and Dragan Hadzi Antic, Director of the newspaper, to make public the long smouldering conflict which could be anticipated on the occasion Aleksandar Tijanic was discharged from the post of Director of TV Politika. In the struggle for primacy in the heart of the President of Serbia and his wife, Mirjana Markovic, they both claimed the NIN for themselves from quite different stances. Dragan Hadzi Antic declared: "The contract on the NIN's leaving the Company was signed by Dr. Minovic, and I have never agreed to it. It is only natural for the NIN to be side by side with the daily Politika and I personally claim that if the NIN comes to me, the journalists will have double salaries than they have now".

On December 5 it could already be anticipated who had won the battle. Minovic repented, and the Company, through its representative in the Management Board of the NIN Company for Newspaper Editorial Activity, Slobodan Lazarevic, offered reconciliation and return to the distribution network of the "Politika". People from the NIN refused it, and undertook business obligations with the distribution network of the "Borba" and the ABC printing works. They will wait for the outcome of the court proceedings instituted because of "Politika"'s breach of the Contract on Mutual Cooperation.

It remains for Minovic to settle accounts with the NIN in the information journal of the Company, called "Politika za nas" (Politika for Us), the only one where, besides TV Politika and "Politika ekspres", Dragan Hadzi Antic has not become the sovereign ruler yet. Optimists anticipate that the conflict will be resolved by Minovic's earned retirement after long years of "zealous dedication" to his work, Dragan Hadzi Antic's going abroad as a correspondent, and the NIN surviving unblemished and open-minded.

"Wise authorities need critical thought", the Editor-in-Chief, Velickovic, sums up the three-week fever, in the latest issue of the NIN. "Not only as a test and reason for improvement, but also as the best possibility to show that it is right about something by denying such thought with valid arguments. Whether there will be enough of such wisdom in Serbia will soon be clear, among other, through the destiny of the media which have chosen, like the NIN, full independence".

Gordana Igric