Local Media

Political Parties Taking Over Transmitters

AIM Banja Luka, 30 July, 1999

State Radio Doboj is the only local radio station in Republika Srpska (RS) which is guarded by policemen day and night. Members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs guard Doboj Radio ever since last year's dismissal of its director and the editor-in-chief, when by decision of the government of RS key men in sixteen local media were replaced. But, the presence of the police is not the only peculiarity linked to this media. Radio Doboj is probably the only radio station in Bosnia & Herzegovina whose director is an "inspector of railway carriages". That is exactly what is written in the worker's record of Marko Micic, the current director. Micic was appointed to this post as a government commissioner, directly from the Party of Independent Social Democrats...

"My impression is that some ministers in Dodik's government would rather we disappeared. As a government commissioner I received a salary of 1500 dinars and the woman who cleaned the premises earned more than I. However, I am more concerned about the fact that at this moment we have a 6.5 kilowatt transmitter which we cannot use although we completed its installation on Duga njiva antenna post. We are sued by Telekom enterprise which does not allow us to complete installation of the equipment. This is the doing of certain ministers, especially Rajko Vasic, minister of information who we practically cannot cooperate with", says Marko Micic, director of Radio Doboj.

Micic claims that a part of the money, and according to his words, the government of RS provided 30 thousand convertible marks for the radio, was used for "purchasing furniture and reconstruction of additional studios and premises". He says that there is no way to "force the journalists to go to the field and that somebody from the radio station itself yesterday stole a dictaphone from (his) open drawer"!

Since recently Doboj has got another radio station. It is a privately-owned radio station called KM; nobody has yet revealed what the abbreviation stands for. Not even the editor of this radio station, Dobrivoje SEslija, can explain how KM got its name. What is known for sure is the fact that KM broadcasts a comparatively liberal program. At least until recently it was a true blasphemy to carry programs of Radio Free Europe, Voice of America and Deutsche Wells, and this radio station did it all the time.

However, a blemish on this serious undertaking in the sphere of the media could be the curriculum vitae of the owner of the newly opened radio station. During the war Slobodan Karagoc was a zealous supporter of the policy of Serb Democratic Party, on account of which he spent most of the time at the post of the director of Doboj enterprise Zanatprom. Many dubious transactions of this enterprise while he was at its head remained unclarified. But, it is even more incriminating that he used to be a member of the paramilitary group called Mice which had literally terrorised Teslic during the war. It is also a mystery what the words "press centre of Doboj district" written on accreditation permits of journalists of this radio station stand for, when one knows that not even the district has been established yet, least of all its press centre.

But, the most complicated is the situation of the Doboj television station which has been the subject of various speculations for almost three years. Acting director of "Independent TV Doboj, share-holding company", is Mile Petricevic, one of the vice-presidents of Doboj Serb Democratic Party organisation. Most of the job was completed by Duga enterprise which belongs to SDS and which purchased the equipment and built the studio. A part of the money invested in this TV station has already been made public, so that Dobojputevi enterprise, for instance, already claims 160 thousand German marks this enterprise had invested based on a previous contract. Contracts were signed with local enterprises at the time when SDS was a sovereign ruler, and in all these papers it is stated that the paments were made for "future marketing services".

Modern television equipment is still in a safe deposit box of the Doboj Economic Bank, and the premises of the future television station have been constructed according to the highest modern standards and they are located in the administration building of Jahorina insurance company. Although a broadcasting permit has been requested, Independent Media Commission has not issued it yet. However, the main controversy is between Independent TV Doboj and the government of Republika Srpska. The current minister of information Rajko Vasic does not intend to register this media along with other public media and according to the present stand of the representative of the government, this television station can at best be an information technical centre of Serb Radio Television, that is, its correspondent. For as long as the controversy and haggling about Doboj television station continue, more than 60 spot lights and modern studio equipment and cameras will remain turned off.

Cvjetko Udovicic

(AIM)