Army Against Montenegrin Independent Media

Introducing Unison in Public Opinion

Military authorities in Montenegro, as cat's paw of Slobodan Milosevic's regime, are attempting to subordinate the media system to a single will and truth in order to shaken civilian authorities and militarize Montenegrin public opinion

AIM Podgorica, 4 May, 1999

The founder and owner of Montenegrin weekly Monitor and Antena M radio station, university professor Dr Miodrad Perovic, and the editor-in-chief of Podgorica Free Montenegro radio station, Nebojsa Redzic, are since recently sought by military police which is tryings to summon them to military court. Military policemen, undisturbed by anyone, unexpextedly entered one afternoon the building of Monitor and Antena M. Had they by any chance found Mr. Perovic there they would have arrested him. The same would have happened to Nebojsa Redzic had the military policemen the opportunity to encounter him.

As military authorities have not stated what Perovic and Redzic have been accused of, and they are not willing to check it by showing up in courtrooms, it remained a secret what induced the military prosecutor to demand criminal prosecution. Although it would be interesting to reveal the secret, it does not screen the essence of the matter - military authorities intended to demonstrate on these two examples their stand towards independent media, but also towards efforts of Montenegrin authorities to avoid full militarization of the state and the public opinion.

"There are two main reasons for the attempt of military police to take me to court - articles I have published in the past few months in which I've tried to explain the phenomenon of Montenegro which for the first time in the long history of more than 400 wars has not joined Serbia in the struggle against NATO and - and the decision not to interrupt re-broadcasting programs of Radio Free Europe, Voice of America and BBC", Dr. Perovic guessed at the conference for local and foreign journalists.

Nebojsa Redzic linked the summons to court with the editorial policy of Radio Free Montenegro mentioning that from the first days of NATO attacks, this radio station has been the aim of army threats. "It began with telephone calls and warnings of colonel Simic that we must not publish certain information, and it ended with attampts to hand me summons to military court", says Redzic.

According to Redzic's opinion, the essence is in the attempt of the Army of Yugoslavia to "uniform the media space of Montenegro according to its preference, that is to test state administrationm of Montenegro concerning protection of independent journalists and media, because on the basis of Mr. Perovic's and my own case, rules for future cases will probably be established".

Association of professional Montenegrin journalists (UPN CG) qualified the summons to court as continuation of the campaign of Milosevic's regime against independent media in Montenegro. In its statement for the public, UPN CG assessed that the Army of Yugoslavia "was evidently engaged" in stifling freedom of the media and public speech, and that this was part of "a deliberate and continuous action the ultimate goal of which is stifling of democratic institutions and civil society in Montenegro". The intentions of the military authorities were similarly interpreted by certain other Montenegrin independent associations, majority of political parties and high Montenegrin officials.

Montenegrin authorities understood that with this assault on independent meria the Army was challenging them as well. Republican secretary of information Bozidar Jaredic reminded military authorities that civilian laws were still in force in Montenegro, and that if necessary relevant military authorities could "use services of the judiciary of Montenegro". "If they judge that some of the media, editors or journalists have violated provisions of the Law on public information, they should initiate and instigate proceedings in these Republican agencies", said Jaredic.

But, since the army is not willing to subject itself to civilian authorities in Podgorica (unless it is forced to), it was necessary to additionally convince the public and independent media themselves about resoluteness of the state to protect the proclaimed and law-guaranteed freedom. This resoluteness is demonstrated by installing armed policemen to guard premises of Monitor and Antena M. This is, of course, less the matter of actual protection and more of sending military authorities a clear signal which line will not be crossed.

On the eve of NATO intervention in FRY, the military authorities in Montenegro made it clear which and what kind of journalists and media they would rely on. A message in this sense was sent when a press conference was organised at the command of the Second Army only for the verified - correspondents of Belgrade regime media from Podgorica and journalists of Dan daily, the unofficial paper of the Socialist National Party of Momir Bulatovic. All the others were marked as belonging to someone else - an excess that would just cause problems to the military.

Military authorities which unquestionably obey orders from Belgrade and which because of that ignore the fact that official Podgorica has not recognized the decision on proclamation of the state of war nor war decrees of the illegitimate federal government, could not have been expected to tolerate variety of information existing in Montenegro. >From the strict formal point of view, the military authorioties are acting quite naturally and as they are expected to do - the state has been attacked and everything must be subjected to its defence, media inclusive. For military logic censorship both in state and independent media is only natural, just as it is normal to demand "urgent limitation of work of foreign reporters". If there is no censorship, there is no natural ambience for influencing the consciousness of the citizens and militarization of the public opinion, which causes nervousness among military commanders and their staff in charge with propaganda.

Since the conflict with the current Montenegrin president Milo Djukanovic, the regime of Slobodan Milosevic is constantly waging a media war against Montenegro and its authorities. The intervention of NATO forces and introduction of the state of war not only created a convenient opportunity to establish double rule in the smaller federal unit, but to try to impose the will of the Belgrade regime and the truth as it sees it as the official one in Montenegro. That is why the military authorities, being cat's paw of Slobodan Milosevic, are persistently trying to nullify all significant segments of civil society, to completely militarise the Montenegrins and mobilise them under one and only flag. For that, the regime and censored independent media from Belgrade simply are not sufficient, nor Dan daily and Elmag RTV from Podgorica. The attempts of the army to take over full or at least partial control of Montenegrin state media have failed. It is true that under its pressure and that of Milosevic's loyalists Montenegrin authorities have agreed to make a certain compromise, but not the one that would question their dominating influence on the public opinion and power of self-preservation.

Aware that Milosevic's regime is using the state of war as a convenient alibi for a political conflict, the Montenegrin coalition authorities more than ever before keep in mind how important it is to ptotect institutions of civil society as much as possible. It is in their interest to protect independent media as well, because without free and critical thought it becomes considerably more vulnerable. The army and its self-proclaimed commader-in-chief Slobodan Milosevic also know that, so a new measuring of swords should soon be expected.

Dragoljub VUKOVIC (AIM)