CONTROLLED BY PALE AND BELGRADE

Media and Elections in RS

Regional political inclinations contribute to additional dramatization of war between Belgrade and Pale regime-controlled media, each giving preferntial treatment to its respective favourites. Those in Eastern Bosnia who watch Radio-Television Serbia (RTS) incline mostly to the official authorities in Pale, and those in western Bosnia who can watch nothing but Pale Serb Radio-Television (and TV Zagreb, but RTS in no way) are inclined mostly to opposition parties

AIM Banja Luka, August 4, 1996

Among the topics which are observed as the most prominent ones in this election campaign accompanied by an atmosphere of tension and nervousness is the topic on treatment of political parties in the media of Republic of Srpska (RS). In view of the fact that media in RS are partially relying on the same media in Serbia and the FR of Yugoslavia, an analysis of media presentation of party programmes and activities must refer to that territory as well.

All the media of RS, both the electronic and the printed ones, are absolutely controlled by the ruling Serb Democratic Party (SDS) and only due to a technical or graphic mistake, a contribution can appear in these intermediaries of truth between the political mind of the ruling state political establishment and consumers of that truth - the masses - which is not hundred per cent affirmation of the SDS and Serb national interest conceived in the manner, by measure and taste of the ruling party.

The ruling SDS has at its disposal the Serb Radio-Television with studios in Banja Luka and Pale and a network of local radio stations which carry all the major political, informative and documentary programs of the state radio, and fill the remaining part of the program mostly with entertaining, musical and sports programs.

The SDS also has at its disposal the daily Glas srpski from Banja Luka, the weeklies Javnost which has been published in Belgrade during the entire war although its subtitle reads that it is published in Sarajevo, and Oslobodjenje, Serb, of course. "Guardians of the state seal" from the SDS are exceptionally zealous and vigilant, so that nothing can escape their eye and ear that does not affirm the existing status in RS and that does not emphasize the nation-building role of the SDS headed until recently by Radovan Karadzic.

Along with them, local journals also advertise the SDS. They are published in all the centres for a number of years already and have a numerous readership, ranging, for example, from Javnost, to Svitanja from Doboj, Kozarski vjesnik from Prijedor, Srpski glas from Zvornik, and some other journals from Trebinje, Brcko, Prnjavor, Modrica...

All the listed media, without any reservation and scruples, are "spokesmen" of the ruling party, but especially the radio and television which in the beginning of July this year carried out the greatest "personnel shifts", not to say purges, since their foundation. Therefore, nowadays, at the posts of editors-in-chief, responsible editors of the daily news programs all the way down to editors of different programs, are solely and exclusively persons ready to obey the first man of the Serb Radio-Television, Ilija Guzina, or someone even more powerful whose role remains hidden from the eyes of the public.

At the same time, state-controlled media which have diligently registered everything that has been happening in the SDS, from the local to the highest level, have ignored all activities and manifestations of other parties, even those which are not too distant from the ruling one - the Serb Radical Party (SRS), the National Party (NS), the Serb Patriotic Party (SPaS), the Fatherland Party and similar, to say nothing of the parties of left political orientation.

Nothing can explain, least of all justify, the fact that the Convention of the Socialist Party of RS got equal space and time in the media as any local committee of the SDS, or that the First Election Assembly of the Party of Independent Social Democrats of RS was not even registered by cameras of state television, so that the public was informed about it only through reports of the Serb news-agency SRNA. Even if it happened that the official media of RS informed their citizens about the stances of the opposition parties, it was only to the extent and when these opposition parties supported the politics or a specific move of the current administration or a personal act of a representative of the authorities. Any unbiased stance, opinion or an initiative, and especially - God forbid - criticism or laying responsibility at the door of state agencies, institutions or individuals, could not be passed. No pasaran!

Indeed, the fact that the opposition parties, their activities, stances, proposals and candidates, are ignored by the "domestic" media in RS does not bother some of them as it did seven or eight months ago. The reason for that is the fact that in the meantime they have been "carried" by newspapers, TV and numerous radio stations from Serbia, so that there is not a single important news program, political program, which does not at least mention parties from "the other" side of the Drina. Ever since the election campaign began in mid July, a mobile crew of TV Serbia and Radio-Belgrade is constantly in RS mostly following the activities of those who are favoured by official Belgrade - the Alliance for Peace and Progress (SMP) and the Democratic Patriotic Block (DPB). Major news agencies from FR Yugoslavia, Tanjug and Beta, also have their permanent correspondents in Banja Luka, Pale and other regions of RS, who send daily news to their headquarters about activities of the parties, leaders and candidates of these two coalitions, so that their views and activities are presented in the entire FR Yugoslavia, and even abroad.

In the electronic media duel between Belgrade and its political will on one, and the authorities of RS, the Serb Radio-Television (SRT) seated in Pale has been in the lead so far. In fact, ever since the conflict of the authorities in Pale with the Belgrade regime, the SRT does not broadcast programs of Radio-Television Serbia from Belgrade. This program can, therefore, be watched only by the Bosnian Serbs who live in regions bordering Serbia, but not by those in the west who live in vicinity of Banja Luka. Political inclinations contribute to additional dramatization of the media war. Those in eastern Bosnia who watch the RTS are mostly inclined towards the official authorities, while those in the west who can watch only the SRT (and TV Zagreb, but in no way the RTS) are in favour of the opposition parties.

The same thing that Tanjug, Radio and Television Belgrade are doing, but with more bias, more aggressively and less professionally is done by correspondents and journalists of dailies Vecernje novosti, Politika, Politika ekspres, Borba, Dnevnik and other newspapers published in Serbia and read in RS. Vecernje novosti, the daily with the greatest circulation from Serbia, has recently sent one of its best journalists to help out its correspondent in Banja Luka, with the "mandate" until the end of the elections and the task to vivisect the ruling party every day, not hesitating even to apply the method of classical substitution of theses, quotations taken out of context and similar.

Nevertheless, the greatest job in favour of the opposition parties gathered around the left - on the opposite pole of the ruling SDS, was done by the newspapers and other printed publications which have occasionally or continuously been published in RS. Primarily Novi prelom should be underlined among them. It is a biweekly influenced by the Social Liberal Party. Novi prelom was published until spring

1. Then after a pause of two and a half years, since last December, in longer or shorter intervals between issues, it has been appearing regularly at the newsstands, but only as far as Bijeljina. The aggressive Nezavisne novine has the same dose of influence. It has been published in Banja Luka since the end of last year, at first as a biweekly, and since July this year as a weekly. Although it calls itself "independent", it is known in the local public as "Dodik's journal", that is as a journal of the Party of Independent Social Democrats of RS headed by Milorad Dodik of Laktasi and Belgrade.

In Doboj, with great material difficulties, Alternativa was started, as a privately-owned journal which also aspires to be independent, but keeps informing its readers about processes and relations from leftist perspective. Panorama from Bijeljina has a similar orientation, although it is less professional, and it presents various political and ideological views and orientations. For the time being, this list of opposition journals of leftist or "independent" provenance ends with Ekstra magazin from Bijeljina, which has the honour to be the first and so far the only banned newspaper in "the westernmost Serb state".

By far the most unfavourable position is that of those opposition parties in RS which have not, for democracy implicit, standard access to state-controlled media, but which do not enjoy support of Belgrade either. Among eight such parties, somewhat better position is held by the Serb Radical Party (SRS), the Party of Serb Unity (SSJ) and the Radical Fatherland Front "Nikola Pasic". Their specific extenuating circumstance is that they have "parent" parties (and their cash-boxes) in Serbia to back them. Apart from it, these parties have or have had until recently their own party papers: the SRS - Zapadna Srbija published in Banja Luka, the SSJ - Srpsko jedinstvo published in Belgrade, and the Radical Fatherland Front "Nikola Pasic" had until recently the journal Otadzbina from Banja Luka at its disposal.

The other parties have neither their papers nor are they followed by "domestic" media. In the election campaign which has just started, they have as much time and space which are necessary for the state-controlled media not to be discredited by the OSCE. They are not visited or followed by journalists from "brotherly" Serbia either, both the opposition or the position.

Regardless of being older than the SDS, the Democratic Party of Federalists had the opportunity to be a guest on one or two local radio stations at the most. There has never been a single text in Belgrade dailies Politika, Borba or any other journal about, say, the Serb Party of Krajina, the National Party of RS or the Fatherland Party. Nothing to say about Belgrade television or radio. But, they are not represented in media in RS either. Representatives of the Serb Peasants's Party (SSS) from Modrica cannot be seen or heard in any program on agriculture, nor has the weekly Javnost ever published any information on the Serb Patriotic Party (SPaS), although it was founded back in spring 1993 and has committees and other bodies in more than thirty municipalities of the RS. This also refers to the Radical Fatherland Front "Nikola Pasic" and almost all small and "young" parties in the RS.

Those who have no media of their own, have no voice, and those who have no voice cannot be heard of, they might not even exist. The opposition parties in RS which will participate in the elections independently, in other words those which have not joined any coalition, block or union, are in the most difficult position. And those which are not in power.

(AIM) Milan Vidovic