THE MEDIA CONFUSION
Serbian Resurrection of the Yugoslav Radio-Television
AIM BELGRADE, May 6, 1998
End of April 1998, in the FR Yugoslavia was marked by several "hot" and one "heated" media events. The historic "NO" to the foreign engagement in the condensed Kosovo events, the marking of the sixth anniversary of the adoption of the "Zabljak Constitution" whereby the Federation of Serbia and Montenegro was constituted, which Milo Djukanovic "the smaller of the two eyes in one head" did not attend, and finally, the unannounced beginning of the broadcasting of a television programme under the trade mark of "Radio Television Yugoslavia (RTJ)".
Exactly on April 27, the day of the anniversary of the Federation, just at the end of the official reception to which the President of Montenegro, Milo Djukanovic, and the President of the Montenegrin Parliament, Svetozar Marovic, were not invited, at precisely 20:00 hours Channel 2 of the Radio-Television Serbia started with the broadcasting of the RTJ programme. Before the TV cameras, Federal Information Secretary Goran Matic, explained how that beginning was actually the realization of an old idea on the Yugoslav Government having its own medium by means of which it would be able to authentically inform the population on its work and views, at the same time maintaining constant communications with the broader, European and global media space. There was no journalistic question and consequently no answers either to whether the existing television stations, primarily the "state" RTS and RTCG fell short of the Federal Government's expectations when it decided to start its own TV programme.
Two days later Bozidar Jaredic, Montenegrin Secretary of Information, stated that he failed to understand the purpose of "re-launching a new federal medium, and that Montenegro had no part in its preparation", adding that Montenegro was not ready to participate in its work, nor to take over its programmes. In its first weeks, the RTJ did not produce anything worth mentioning: rather badly-spoken federal officials were invited as guests to the studio, there were talk shows with young and successful artists, broadcasts of sport events were shown and two thematically opposite programmes which, it seems, were supposed to be based on a common "programme concept".
A FAMILIAR STORY
On the first day, the National Day of FRY, a rather long - it is still unclear whether a documentary, analytical or educational - but, suitable programme was shown about the FRY and, naturally, all the troubles this state had to endure. Several days later another suitable, but this time sports programme was broadcast dedicated to 33rd European Karate Championship which was being held in Belgrade from May 7 to 10. What binds these two broadcast together is the selective memory of their authors and, supposedly, editors and architects of the RTJ programme. The former showed how the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia successfully overcame all the obstacles in its attempt to accomplish the ideas of its architects, but it failed to mention what these ideas were, or the price the FRY citizens had to pay and are still paying. That price was called, nothing else but, the price of pride, of historic and similar aspirations of the "people". The authors of the sports programme similarly lost sight of the fact that exactly 20 years earlier Belgrade was the host of a European Karate Championship (held in the same hall in which this one was to be held), as well as that in 1998 we will mark the 35th anniversary of the establishment of first karate clubs in Yugoslavia (more precisely, in Belgrade and not in any of the now foreign, former Yugoslav Republics). In both cases what is regarded as a desirable past was reduced to someone's belief that history started yesterday and that all achievements, no matter what they may be, have been made recently.
In that sense, the start of the RTJ is completely in accord with the explanation offered by Mirjana Markovic, leader of the Yugoslav Left, who at the Novi Sad electoral conference on the eve of the forthcoming First Congress of the Yugoslav Left said: "The RTJ travels through Serbia and Montenegro reminding us of our recent past, explaining the present, taking care of the future". The JUL was not mentioned by chance since Dragan Becirovic, spokesman for the Montenegrin JUL section, described the refusal of the local media to broadcast RTJ programming for Montenegrin territory "not only as unobjective, destructive and vulgar move in conflict with the truth, morality and esthetics, but a move exclusively in the service of those favouring FRY's destabilization and disintegration", as well as a demonstration of Montenegrin separatism and isolation from Yugoslav media space. After that Bozidar Jaredic stated that the RTJ "included three members of the Yugoslav Left and another two from Mira Markovic's narrow circle", while Goran Rakocevic, General Manager of the Radio-Television Montenegro (RTV CG) assessed that "the new, so called Radio-Television Yugoslavia, which is but another name for 'the media Bastille' from No.10 Takovska Str., was set up at the initiative of Mira Markovic in order to help the election campaign of the Dedinje pet in Montenegro".
ACTING OFFICIALS:
Apart from strong words, one thing is certain for the time being - Jovan Ristic, the RTS Assistant General Manager is acting Editor-in-Chief of the Radio-Television Yugoslavia. On May 3, the Belgrade daily "Politika" featured an interview with the experienced Director and it turned out that the RTJ programme was experimental and to be broadcast in the next two months on the rented RTS Channel 2 and that "we expect in the near future to be allocated not only a frequency, but also certain channels that will be independent and broadcast programmes via satellite with supplementary transmitters on the ground". According to him, the RTJ was the result of an agreement among "TV stations" and has foundered because "the leadership of the TVCG complained about not being consulted concerning the inception and programme of this station". According to Jovan Ristic, the RTJ was supported by and promised the cooperation of "Art kanal", "Studio B", "TV Politika", "Pink", the Serbian Radio-Television, Independent TV Banjaluka, and naturally, the RTS. According to the "Politika", the project was launched by the FRY Government and the Federal Information Secretariat.
Vice-Prime Minister Vojin Djukanovic, contested the participation of the Federal and Montenegrin governments in the establishment of the new television. According to him, the JRT Shareholding Company was behind the project of Radio-Television Yugoslavia. Its head office is in Belgrade, at No.11 Trg Pasica Str. in the building of the former Museum of the Revolution (currently the Museum of Genocide) and many other institutions. The Director of the JRT Shareholding Co. - the legal successor of the firms "Telsat" and "Yutel" - is Spasoje Grdinic, and the Chairman of the Management Board is, allegedly, Ljubisa Ristic, founder of the KPGT theatre, a high-ranking official of the Yugoslav Left and the FRY Federal Assembly. For the time being, only one thing is evident - namely the link between the Federal Government and the RTJ is Information Secretary Goran Matic, who, according to Bozidar Jaredic, explained to the latter that the majority shareholder in RTJ, Grdinic's JRT Shareholding Co., had ceded part of its shares to the Federal Government. All this happened, probably by accident, ten days before the station started broadcasting. The general public in Belgrade, in addition to many other information also learned "from reliable sources" that 6 million dinars was approved by the Federal Government for the launch of the RTJ project.
The RTJ people,but a handful of them, claim that the investment was ten times lower - some 260 thousand dinars for the two initial months of experimental operation. Allegedly, Grdinic's role in the entire undertaking was only that of "Lord Chancellor"(guardian of the seal), but not the guardian of the equipment of the one-time Ante Markovic's YUTEL, i.e. former YPA which was the owner of mobile studios and communication equipment that was leased to YUTEL just before the break-up of the SFRY. The same "inside" source from the RTJ claimed that the equipment had been leased from two TV companies and one private enterprise; the broadcasting channel was, according to Jovan Ristic, given by the RTS; while the journalists and engineering team were made up of professionals from the TV stations that had supported the launch of the RTJ.
PUBLIC, PRIVATE AND "OURS":
Equally (un)reliable sources claimed that Radio-Television Yugoslavia, which was openly mentioned in the course of last year by Ljubisa Ristic and Goran Matic, has started now in order to "experimentally" influence the Yugoslav public opinion before parliamentary elections in Montenegro, whose President Milo Djukanovic and "his authorities", Zivko Sokolovacki, the JUL coordinator for Voivodina, together with the "Albanian terrorists" in Kosovo and autonomy-seekers in Voivodina, openly qualified as collaborators of those forces of the world community who seek to disintegrate Yugoslavia. The federal competition for the allocation of radio and television frequencies which is to be over in a week, was given as the other, obviously not well prepared reason for the start of the RTJ.
No matter whom it belonged to, the RTJ, together with the mentioned JRT and "YUTEL" can go into history as a "successor" of the 12th vhs channel, which in Yugoslavia of those times was a "military", i.e. reserve channel at the disposal of the SFRY, and temporarily given to "YUTEL". After that it went to the "Telekom" company of Karic brothers who, especially at the time of 1996 and 1997 elections, did not prove reliable enough from the point of view of the Serbian authorities. In this way another frequency for which dozens of local radio and TV stations in Yugoslavia have applied (most of them are organized in the ANEM - the Association of the Independent Electronic Media - with the Belgrade radio B-92 at its head), was declared off limits for higher,"state" reasons.
The fact that Dojcilo Radojevic is a member of the RTJ Management Board and Federal Minister of Communications, is undoubtedly a strong argument in favour of the mentioned interpretation of the RTJ's experimental function, but also, a strong reason for concern of independent electronic media. In any case, the RTJ's first stage will end with the opening of the World Football Championship, in order to continue its broadcasting in September, via satellite, cable and conventional ground transmitters. It is uncertain how the RTJ will be provided for in the federal budget; if not, it will remain just another private enterprise, irrespective of the party affiliation and position of its architects. Unless this is is in fact an organization which sees the state as its private property, and acts according to its own discretion.
Aleksandar Ciric
(AIM)