Glas Javnosti

Glas Javnosti [Public Voice] is private daily launched in May 1998 following a rift in the Blic editorial team. It is similar to Blic and has a circulation of 70,000 to 120,000 (data from January 1999), with a high percentage of unsold copies (up to 30 per cent). Its publisher is the Glas d.o.o. limited liability company. Glas d.o.o. also publishes a weekly newspaper Glas Nedelje [Weekly Voice]. Glas Javnosti is the most recent victim of the Serbian regime's crusade against the independent media. This time, the regime has decided to target printing company ABC Grafika [ABC Graphics], affiliated with Glas Javnosti, which runs its own print works and prints, among other, Vreme, Danas, Srpska Rec, Glas Javnosti and other independent publications. The company also prints the bulletin of the Alliance for Changes Promene [Changes], which according to the Serbian Ministry for Information is actually a newspaper and must be properly registered with the authorities. Since it has not been registered, the Ministry is suing ABC Grafika for the printing of each of 26 issues printed so far. The trial is to be conducted according to the infamous Public Information Law, enacted in October 1998 and is likely to and with enormous fines amounting to several million dinars (or hundreds of thousands of dollars; average annual salary in FR Yugoslavia before the war was $1,500). ABC Grafika has already stated that it will not pay the fines. If the fines are imposed, the print works is likely to go bankrupt and its director Slavoljub Kacarevic is likely to be jailed. If that happens, that would be the end of independent printed media in Serbia.

On November 10, ABC Grafika, the print works run by the same company that publishes daily Glas Javnosti, was fined another 800,000 dinars for printing the bulletin of the Alliance for Changes, "Promene". So far, ABC Grafika has been fined by 3,039,000 dinars in this case [roughly $300,000; average salary in FR Yugoslavia before the war with NATO was $1,000 a year]. A day later, Vojislav Seselj, the Serbian deputy Prime Minister, accused Glas Javnosti and BETA of being "fascist media". On November 16, ABC Grafika received another fine, of 70,000 dinars, while on November 17, the Police took Slavoljub Kacarevic, the director of ABC Grafika, for a questioning. On the same day, the Police interrogated Ceda Jovanovic, editor of the bulletin "Promene" demanding to be given names the persons who had created and distributed the Alliance's bulletin.

On December 9, the authorities blocked the current account of Glas Javnosti, claiming that the paper owes more than 4,000,000 dinars for unspecified retroactively charged taxes and fines. With this fine the total punishment assessed to Glas Javnosti by the authorities amounts to 7,000,000 dinars [$700,000; roughly equivalent to $14,000,000 in the US, based on the comparison of average income levels in the USA and FR Yugoslavia] On December 13, the authorities halted the deliveries of newsprint paper to ABC Grafika, the printworks owned by Glas Javnosti. Since the account of the company had been blocked by the authorities, the printworks was unable to pay in time for the newsprint paper to Matroz company, the only, state-owned supplier of newsprint in FR Yugoslavia. On December 14, the authorities unblocked the current account of Glas Javnosti after supposedly discovering that the daily does not owe any taxes or fines. However, the authorities took 100,000 dinars of the account 'as an advance payment for future fines". A day later, the account was again blocked, while the authorities demanded a payment of another 150,000 dinars. On December 16, the officers of the Serbian Revenue Service once again confiscated the property of ABC Grafika printing shop valued at about two million dinars. On Saturday, December 11, the Serbian Revenue Service also seized the property of ABC Grafika printing shop as a part of enforced collection of 37 fines exceeding the value of three million dinars, imposed on the shop by the Belgrade magistrates for printing the Alliance for Changes bulletin "Promene" [Changes]. On December 28 the authorities initiated bankruptcy procedure against ABC Grafika, the publisher of Glas Javnosti.

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Last Update 11/26/2006