Folk Information

by Ivana Jankovic and Ana Vuckovic

NIN, Belgrade, FR Yugoslavia, September 16 1999

Papers in Minorities' Languages, (Barely) Financed by the State, Cling Tightly to RTS. Exceptions Are Rare.

According to the official statistics, about hundred newspapers are published in Serbia in the languages of ethnic minorities. They include daily newspapers, weekly magazines, youth publications, educational, children, family, economic, entertainment, scientific, and religious publications. Following a rule inherited from the former Yugoslavia, which was teeming with ethnic minorities and ethnic groups, each one of them even today, according to the law, is free to develop its culture, science, religion (if it insists) and consequently issue publications in its language.

Out of an impressive number of papers in minorities' languages, most are published in Vojvodina. There are around 90 magazines, published in one, two or three languages. The Vojvodina Assembly is the founder of the biggest ethnic groups' (such as Hungarians, Slovaks, Romanians, Rusins [Ukrainians]) information and political papers. Similarly, the Serbian Parliament is the founder of three papers published in Bulgarian in Nis.(...)

This is supposed to demonstrate state's concern for minorities, but also the founder's right to direct them every now and then, to assert control, on the grounds of donations.

Comrade and Brother

However, excessive control is quite unnecessary since most papers deal in entertainment, family matters or, at most, literature and science. Some information and political papers mostly stick to local issues or run news items from the Serbian state-run media. Dependent as they are on the state budget, small in circulation and modest in their ambitions, these papers were operating fairly well while their regular donations were arriving on time...

"All publications in the language of ethnic minorities, founded by the state, have been published regularly, even in this difficult situation," says for NIN Radmila Veselinovic, adviser to the Serbian Minister for Information Aleksandar Vucic. The state financially supports only eleven of them: three each in Slovak, Romanian and Rusin languages and two in Hungarian.

We were told at the Vojvodina Provincial Assembly that salaries of the employees of the media published in the languages of minorities funded by the Assembly are four months in arrears.

Three papers published in Bulgarian language in Nis receive state funding. The informative-political weekly "Bratstvo" [Brotherhood], the children's magazine "Drugarce" [Little Friend] and the magazine for science, literature and social issues "Most" [Bridge] are all published by the publishing house "Bratstvo". It was founded by the Serbian Parliament and receives funding from the Ministries for Information, Culture, and the Rights of Ethnic Minorities. Editor-in-chief Darko Rangelov says for NIN that "Bratstvo" in normal circumstances is a weekly, while in abnormal circumstances, as during the war, it was published twice a week, because of the damage inflicted by the NATO bombs to the repeaters in Dimitrovgrad and Bosilegrad (!). Problems with financing are frequent, adds Rangelov, but "the print works usually shows understanding".

A problem was posed when some papers, in spite of the state's generous assistance and various modes of professing its "understanding", still wished to remain informative in character. Some were daring enough to set themselves on the road to "independence".

Founder's Rights

The Novi Sad Magyar Szo has been struggling for independence for a year now. Its staff is again on strike, demanding payment of wage arrears and the setting up of a separate bank account for the paper. The relations with "Forum" corporation, under whose auspices Magyar Szo is published, are made more difficult and the likelihood that the demands will be fulfilled diminished by the fact that the founder, the Vojvodina Provincial Assembly, which provides about 15 to 20 percent of funding, is reluctant to relinquish founder's rights. On the other hand, Magyar Szo does not even receive the full amount of the funds provided by the state, since the corporation "eats" most of them. In any case, they are prepared to give up state funding. The newspaper is selling well (the circulation of the daily edition stands at about 10,000 copies while that of the weekly edition is at about 20,000 copies) and would be able to finance itself.

The Magyar Szo's staff considers the issue political. The intention is, they claim, to close down the Vojvodina Hungarian paper with the greatest circulation and to make the Hungarian minority relinquish its right to information. They also warn that, while their struggle for independence has entered a second year, newspapers imported from Hungary are increasing their market share. Magyar Szo, its journalists say, refuses to be a party paper and is rebuked by the regime for being open to everyone.

Seemingly, the trouble is that while not wanting to be a party paper, Magyar Szo's reporting much resembles that of the Serbian independent media. Some people, to all appearances, would not want to see minorities involved in politics or their right to papers in their own language to be literally taken as the right to an independent editorial policy. Thus, Magyar Szo could easily end up like Het Nap. Margit Savovic was appointed editor-in-chief of this weekly in Hungarian language. After that many journalists resigned, circulation fell and today the magazine boils down to pictures of ethnic Hungarians singing and dancing in their national costumes.

Translated by the Media Center in Belgrade in September 1999