STRIKE IN CHANNEL S

Temptations of a Party Television Station

AIM Banja Luka, 23 February, 1998

Friday, 13 February, brought bad luck to the manager of Channel S TV Station, Svjetlana Siljegovic. It almost resembled the other Friday 13th from the horror movie with the same title. Immediately after she had come to work that morning, the former minister of information was told that the new government of Republica Srpska had decided the evening before to take away the channel which, while she had been in charge, Siljegovic had allocated for "temporary use" to herself (that is to her newly founded enterprise).

Right after that, the same person was forced to face the ultimatum of the employees of Channel S that they would interrupt work if they were not immediately given their salaries. Indeed, the workers not only announced a strike but threatened to turn it into a "permanent situation", that is into resignations, in view of the fact that the Channel S was deprived of its channel and that they are mostly workers of the studio of Serb Radio-Television (SRT) in Pale, that is, the state television station which is awaiting to be linked into the united system and to return to the "good old" status.

Siljegovic and her closest associates (some of whom are her direct superiors) tried to appeal on the old trite issues, but in vain: "What about patriotism, what about interests of the nation, who shall we break through the information blockade with?"

To make things even worse, on that same day, member of the B&H Presidency Momcilo Krajisnik called Channel S and angrily asked why his "activity" at Sarajevo airport (participation in the work of the joint military commission) had not been covered and wondered what was happening with "our television". His interlocutors did not "know" how to explain the situation to any detail, but underlined his concern to their subordinates.

However, the announced strike began that day. Channel S broadcast only the program from the satellite. The next day, the situation somewhat improved, because apart from the editor-in-chief Marica Lalovic there was another person, something like a sub-editor, happened to be in the studio. That is how, along with the satellite program, films and tv serials "borrowed" from other tv stations, "flash-news" could also be broadcast. There was nobody to read the news, so they were broadcast in the form of video-text. Such a situation lasted until Monday, 16 February. In the meantime, "intense diplomatic activity" began, aimed at introducing order in Channel S. First, reconfirming his affinity to interfere in all possible and impossible problems, after his meeting with Elisabeth Rehn, Momcilo Krajisnik criticised the decision of the government to deprive Channel S of its channel, claiming that it was "stifling of freedom of the media". "It is a television station which offers objective information, and the people should not be deprived of objective information", said Krajisnik.

Perhaps one should be reminded that Channel S was founded exactly a month before it was faced with the strike, that is on the Orthodox New Year's eve. This station (at least that what was said to the public) was registered as a share-holding company, although nobody has managed to this day to learn who the share-holders of this television station are. What is known for sure is that it is the television station of the Serb Democratic Party (SDS), that the previous government had offered its financial and practical and political assistance to it, that for the working premises, equipment and cadres of state television were illegally used, that some leaders of the SDS own significant founding shares. It is also known that the workers of the Studio of Serb Radio-Television in Pale were threatened to sign a certain paper which made them share-holders of this enterprise!?

To what extent things in Channel S were set on sound foundations is illustrated, among other, by the fact that unwilling "share-holders" after just a month decided to go on strike and that they prefer working at their previous posts in the official television of Republica Srpska. Some of them are ready to give certain specific reasons for it: the editorial policy of Channel S is pursued by the people who have brought about the tragic several-month long excommunication of the Studio in Pale from the Serb Radio-Television, and the business and financial policy is pursued by those who had already been provided for (with a few luxurious limousines, business premises, and they say even significant sums of money in foreign currency) and distinguished themselves by despotic and underestimating attitude to the workers.

Since the developments in Pale still go along the line of patriotic discipline and not that of rational arguments, the story about the strike in Channel S continues (and ends) accordingly. Krajisnik summoned up the management of Channel S in order to determine the essence of the problem and, of course, in order to define the strategy of "finding the right path" of this private enterprise with "obvious" state interest (how else could anyone interpret the engagement of the member of B&H Presidency in this matter).

After that, a comprehensive action of "political decontamination of the employees" followed. National and state interests were mentioned again, guarding of the "Serb bulwark which prevents the Muslims from reaching the Drina", and the alleged telephone call from the Office of the High Representative in which one of the officials of the OHR convinced the management of Channel S that he would do his best to annul the decision of the government on taking away the channels allocated for temporary use. The key argument in the "process of persuading" the workers, though, were that the future was more certain and brighter on Channel S than on state television, in view of the fact that the new authorities, as it was explained had "neither interest nor wish" to reintegrate the studio in Pale into the united system of the Serb Radio Television, and that the famous salaries would be paid in the shortest possible time.

Driven into a corner by such "arguments" the workers gave in. The process of production in the "factory of objective information" continued on Monday, 16 February. The editorial team expresses its "objectivity" in the old, tested way - in the news program, the information about the session of the Serb Sarajevo city board of the SDS has priority over the information about the visit of the prime minister of RS to Washington D.C.

On Wednesday, 18 February, workers of Channel S received their salaries. Those who had previously refused to work on Channel S and the workers of the Serb Radio station who are broadcasting the program this whole time (although very reduced both in the sense of content and in the sense of range) were not paid. There would have been nothing questionable about it, if the salaries had not been paid by the still official management of SRT and if they had not threatened those who still believe in the "united system" by further reduction of income (from the use of vehicles to the restaurant of the SRT).

That is how everything seems to have gone back to normal in the "factory of objective information", but were stirred up again in the Pale part of the SRT. And as long as these two (?) houses continue to operate according to the principle of connected vessels, in other words, as long as somebody finally and practically does not distinguish what is what and who is who, the things in this segment of the information system of Republica Srpska will continue to develop according to the following proverb: while the grass grows, the horse starves.

Dragan Komljenovic