TWILIGHT OF JOURNALISM

Local Media

AIM Banja Luka, 16 June, 1997

Not a single local media in Republica Srpska has achieved any significant success which deserves attention with its editorial policy and created image. State television still has unquestioned influence on the market of information.

"Local journalism" did not have a respectable tradition before the war either. The best journalists left small towns and went to big cities to work for "big" newspapers. Factory journals and bulletins which treated problems of local interest, were most frequently used for cleaning window panes and lighting fires. It is almost impossible to read articles on high circulation topics in local journals or hear in a program of a local radio-station. Twilight of journalism in Republica Srpska has not circumvented the local media.

Nevertheless, it would be wrong to think that these media have no influence whatsoever. Local media participated in brain-washing of the people and their full indoctrination mostly felt during the war. Only the method of work has changed nowadays. Messages to the recipients have remained the same. The main characteristics of both the printed and the electronic media in RS are hatred towards other nations and idolatry of the political oligarchy in power. The influence of the electronic media is much greater, of course. There is almost not a single municipality in RS which does not have its own radio station. Channels on which they broadcast their program are so "cramped" that it is very difficult to find a signal on an ordinary radio set. Even the municipality of Petrovo (Bosansko Petrovo Selo) which was formed during the war, has its radio-station in the municipal building. The name is more than "symbolic" - Radio Ozren (by the nearby mountain). Those who wished to have their own radio-station were not at all concerned about the fact that none of the employees has ever had a single day of experience working as a journalist.

The program of local radio-stations in RS is mostly based on music directed towards the young population. It is possible to hear information which have previously been window-dressed and adapted to the political needs. From the waves of Radio Doboj, Radio Teslic, Radio Modrica, Radio Prnjavor, new "folk" music and political orations of newly-risen politicians are blaring. It is not at all an exception that the editor-in-chief broadcasts a program the guest of which is the director of that same radio station and that it lasts for hours. This happened in Doboj recently. Ozren Jorganovic, editor of Serb Radio-Doboj, brought to his program as a guest the director Milenko Gligoric, although he has a regular program of his own on that same radio. The example of Serb Radio Doboj illustrates the nauseous situation in the media. The director of the municipal radio is at the same time the vice-president of the municipal organization of the Serb Democratic Party!

It is evident that local radio-stations are quite popular, although a reliable investigation about it has not been made yet.

As concerning the press, the sperctre is much broader. Banja Luka printing works Glas srpski print different newspapers which address only specific geographic regions. In Bratunac it is the journal called Nasa rec, in Brcko Brcanki pregled, in Prnjavor Tvrdjava, in Derventa Derventski list, in Doboj Svitanja etc. The listed and many similar newspapers are directly controlled by the party in power and only occasionally it is possible to read some information about the local environment in them. Journalists and editors act as if they were entitled to pursue high politics. Therefore, most of the space in the journals is taken by commentaries, then obituaries, and then some news and information. Circulation of the described newspapers is nothing to be bragged about. Since the economy is facing total collapse, the circulation of the newspapers is in line with it. Three thousand printed copies is the maximum achieved only by the "best".

Banja Luka is the centre of local TV stations. At the moment there are a few of them. Although none of them can brag with high quality of its production, it is evident that opening of privately-owned tv stations is reducing the influence of the regime-controlled television.

That the influence of television is not over-estimated is illustrated by the fact that the appearance of prof. Miodrag Zivanovic and Milorad Dodik who were guests of Banja Luka Independent Television (NTV) was discussed the next day even in places which the signal of this tv station does not reach. Those who had watched the interview broadcast on NTV, told their friends in other towns by phone about it. That is how an apparently ordinary interview had an impact which was much broader than expected.

Journalists like to say that it is not at all "in" any more to critize Karadzic, Krajisnik or anybody else from the Serb leadership. In the times which are approaching, professionalism of journalists will be measured on the local level. The reputation of a local media will rise to the extent a local journalist in a local newspaper is critical about the local leadership.

Briefly, had there been no independent media, there would not have been any journalism in RS. Novi Prelom, Nezavisne novine, Panorama, Alternativa, Extra magazin, are journals which have set out to conquer the truth at the most difficult times.

Comparatively high printing expenses and interference in the distribution of alternative media by the authorities seriously shook up editorial staffs of alternative media. Had there been no help from the donors, majority of these journals would have been part of the past by now. Serious problems appeared at the very beginning. All those who are working in the listed newspapers were proclaimed "foreign mercenaries", "traitors", "anti-Serbs" and similar by regime-controlled media. Consequences of such labels are especially hard in small towns. A colporteur of independent journals and Alternativa, Veseljko Nikolcic, was physically assaulted several times already in Doboj. Last time this happened in the cafe called Monza, when he was attacked by Predrag Kujundzic, the local power-wielder and the owner of a pizza-parlour, who was the manager of Bosnaprevoz during the war, and a welder before the war. Except for a short information about it in Dnevne nezavisne novine, this case was not registered by anyone. Verbal threats are not even mentioned any more.

Political neutrality is still dangerous and causes suspicion. During last year's election campaign, some newspapers openly sided with the Alliance for Peace and Progress for the sake of its "support". Inclination towards the Socialist Party was so conspicuous and sycophantic on the pages of Alternativa that for a long time to come this journal will have to bear the consequences.

The assistance offered to development of independent media in RS by USAID and the SOROS Foundation is immesurable. Free journalism and professionalism in the media will probably for a long time be proportional to the quantity of money arriving from these donors.

Problems which independent media are facing and will continue to face are directly conditioned by weakening of the power of the current power-holders. The authorities are imposing their view of the freedom of speech by increasingly powerful mechanisms. Ban of use of jekavian dialect in the press and the electronic media is a glaring example of this. Court proceedings instigated against journalists and editors are also proof that the regime has not become complacent and that the struggle for the truth must continue.

CVJETKO UDOVICIC