by Dinko GRUHONJIC (BETA)
FRATUCAN: Perhaps I relaxed too much after October 5, but these threats seem to be more disgusting and more direct than before. There have been threatening calls to my phone at home as well as to the UrbaNS office, even to my mobile phone, and lately I've been threatened even in the street. The callers introduce themselves as refugees from different parts of Croatia and threaten to "pull out my hair", "throw a brick" at my head, "bomb [my] TV station", or say things like "watch out, you have a family," "Ustashe [Croat] whore", "fascist"...
NIN: Do you now feel you made a mistake by inviting Seselj to be a guest in the program? After October 5, the independent media have quietly abandoned their boycott of the Serb Radical Party, even though Seselj never apologized for his death threats to independent journalists?
I would never invite Seselj or any other representative of the Serb Radical Party to participate on the same terms with representatives of other political parties, to discuss the situation in the country, the Hague Tribunal, first hundred days of the new government and so on. But in this case, since our collocutors in the villages in Srem very specifically focused on Seselj as the main driver of the events in 1992, we decided to invite him. Unfortunately, he is still among us, instead of in prison, which is not our fault, but the fault of the new authorities, which are not able to break with the events from the past, and haven't even initiated anything regarding that particular incident. Some persons opined that we were giving legitimacy to the crimes and giving Seselj an opportunity to defend himself. But, we thought, if we draw attention to the story, perhaps it will occur to someone that he should not be among us but in jail. However, even if Seselj were not a guest in the program, I'm sure that the threats would still follow and that we would be condemned as "traitors of the Serb nation" and "Ustashe" for daring to raise that issue at all.
What has changed after October 5 in the media and above all in the public opinion as the consumer of the products of these media?
We're not chased by the Police anymore, UrbaNS does not have to move its equipment from one apartment to another hiding it from the Police, as we had to do the last few months before the fall of Slobodan Milosevic. But, the people who are now in the state-owned media only switched sides. I cannot view them as true professionals. There were no changes there. People who served Milosevic simply must go. Now, the situation is even worse. Before we knew who they were, what their views were, and now they say something totally different, which is totally slimy.
I must say that I find the BK TV the most disgusting of all. This station presents itself as a polished, civilized version that buys independent journalists and thus tries to buy itself protection from scrutiny for their past behavior. The RTV Serbia is totally insignificant, neither the authorities nor journalists know what to do with it.
We, journalists who decided to remain independent, we still fight and are trying to create some sort of democratic state with the rule of law, but that is very difficult and we haven't been very successful. We have been making small inroads because of our lack of financial support. The public opinion accepts the things we broadcast with difficulty. I even thing that the public opinion is more radical than before October 5, especially in Vojvodina. People simply do not want to accept that we must come clean with respect to the past, crimes we did, in order to go forward. I find all of that depressing, and I'm not sure how long we'll have to play that missionary role.
You mentioned financial problems...
We do not have anyone's support. It is not secret that we lived from donations from abroad and that those donations are becoming increasingly scarce. Governments of the countries in the West care about their interests, and in their opinion the overthrow of Milosevic was enough. They don't care whether we shall have a civic, civilized society here. I recently attended a meeting with donors, who demand from us to switch to market and commercial thinking. However, they forget that here the situation is not as nearly economically stable as in the West. They demand something impossible from us. But, we shall continue with our work and shall try to go forward.