Monitor

Monitor is the best known Montenegrin independent weekly. Founded in October 1990, this magazine with "European orientation" is close to the Liberal alliance of Montenegro and supportive of its goals, the most prominent of which is probably the independence for Montenegro (presently one of the two republics which make up the so-called rump Yugoslavia). Their web pages offer selected articles from the latest issue (in Serbocroatian, i.e. Montenegrin). It has recently (May 1999) become active after being dormant for a long time (May 98-February 99). Monitor is the latest victim of the new Serbian Information Law. However, the case against the magazine introduced a few new twists in the current clamp-down on the independent media by the Serbian authorities. Monitor is a Montenegrin magazine and thus, legally, should not fall under the jurisdiction of a Serbian Law. Furthermore, the magazine was informed about the suit against it in the program of the state-sponsored short wave radio station Radio Yugoslavia! Since, to their own detriment, the journalists and editors of Monitor were not glued to their short wave radios and consequently missed the court summons, the staff, and the public, only became aware of the sentence against the paper once its complete run destined for the Serbian market and subscribers abroad was impounded by the Serbian police at the ("non-existent") border between Serbia and Montenegro. The magazine was fined with so far the largest fine issued: $280,000 (average yearly income in FR Yugoslavia is $1,500) for the inclusion of the clenched fist symbol of the student movement "Otpor"; the printing of the symbol is equivalent to a "call for the violent overthrow of the constitutional order", according to the authorities.

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Last Update 3/16/2007