Attack on Independent Media

Seselj Threatens Again

AIM Belgrade, 4 October, 1998

Vojislav Seselj is threatening again: first the independent media, then the journalists who are working for foreign media such as Radio Free Europe, BBC, Deutsche Welle, Voice of America... As threats of NATO are intensifying, Seselj is extending the list of enemies to include personnel of embassies, NATO soldiers, non-governmental organizations... Contrary to the times of a few years back when as the head of one of the opposition parties he was making the list of unfit journalists "who should be arrested or lynched", the issue is by far more serious now. He who was until recently just "Serb duke" Vojislav seselj is nowadays the vice prime minister of Serbia who threatens independent media at an assembly session.

Classifying them in the "fifth column" along with the Helsinki Committee of Human Rights, Women in Black, Belgrade Circle, he promises that in case of bombing, the listed would be the first to be "grabbed" by patriots similar to himself. The whole affair could have been interpreted as Seselj's nervousness due to the apparent pacification of the situation in Kosovo (because he cannot live without war and conflicts), had anybody from the ruling parties reacted to his threats.

For quite some time, however, the authorities in Serbia have been announcing a serious war against the media they cannot control, reproaching them for the way they write about developments in Kosovo, accusing them of support to separatists, Liberation Army of Kosovo (OVK), but also of causing inflation, or for example of having contributed to the shortage of food in supermarkets.

This time, in compliance with the situation, the accusations are sharper and connoisseurs claim that they should not be underestimated. The authorities have great difficulties, and the people's attention should be diverted from the threatening bombs and the increasing poverty they are living in. In accusations of independent media, the current vice prime minister of Serbia was joined by prime minister Marjanovic and Zeljko Simic, an officials of the Socialist Party of Serbia who even claimed that "activities of the so-called independent media in general were equal to treason". In Ivanjica, Mira Markovic also spoke about media and traitors in similar terms. An attack followed from the information council of the ruling Socialist Party of Serbia members of which are very worried because of the "offensive against Serbia of foreigner media which have their branch offices in Serbia" which are unstabling the country and calling for the intervention"...

Well known campaigns of this kind have always resulted, if not in shutting down of indepenedent media, at least in causing financial problems of the already impoverished newspapers and radio stations. This time, in the general fear of possible bombing, the mentioned threats could also imply a more radical squaring accounts with political opponents, and independent media. The regime, after possible bombing, will have to accept a compromise as a solutrion for Kosovo, and it needs an absolutely stable political ground for that with no political opponents whatsoever.

Seselj is doing the dirty work for the ruling party again. Indeed, he seems to have slightly overdone it with the threats that he would "chase NATO soldiers all over the world", and that he would take foreign diplomats as hostages, because since he added the latter to the list of journalists, he has not appeared in public.

Except for the Independent Union of Journalists which appealed on the public to take vice prime minister's words quite seriously, Seselj's patriotic attacks on the media were condemned by the League of Social Democrats and Reformists of Voivodina, who demanded that operation of the Serb Radical Party be banned, while the Serb Revival Movement (SPO) required from the government to disassociate itself from the statement of its vice prime minister.

For the time being, the government is silent waiting for disentanglement of major issues. Not even the earthquake or the threat of bombing can prevent the regime from threatening the electronic media that it will take away their permits if they fail to pay very high taxes for temporary broadcasting. At the moment, the regime successfully prevented the long prepared international conference titled "Broadcasting for Democratic Europe" which should have been held in Belgrade a few days ago under auspices of the Council of Europe. Yugoslav authorities simply refused to issue visas to four participants from Europe, due to which Jorgos Papandreu, Greek minister of European issues and chairman of the Council of Europe, also refused to come to Belgrade.

The initiated campaign against independent media with the known formulation of "domestic traitors and mercenaries" for the time being is not dying down only in the central programs of state media. This, of course, is a sign that the authorities this time intend to bring Seselj's call for lynch to the very end.

Snezana Ristic

(AIM)