OMRI - Pursuing Balkan Peace

Pursuing Balkan Peace
October 29, 1996
© 1997. All Rights Reserved

HOW THE REPUBLIKA SRPSKA TAKES CARE OF ITS INDEPENDENT MEDIA. Still with the Bosnian Serbs, after the general elections of 14 September, and even more, since the first session of the new RS parliament convened in Banja Luka on 19 October, the RS authorities are feeling triumphant. "Victoriously strong" is the way that one top official in Pale characterized the mood for OMRI. "We got all we wanted," he declared. Not only are they flaunting it in the face of international organizations and the U.S. mediators, but armed with their endorsement at the ballot box they are also starting to go after their most outspoken and vulnerable opponents: times are definitely getting rougher for independent journalists and the independent media in the RS.

Most of the independent press used to be printed in the official printing house in Banja Luka, which is an offshoot of the daily of the governing Serbian Democratic Party (SDS),Glas Srpski. In mid-October, however, the print shop suddenly announced that "for technical reasons" it had to suspend production of certain publications. Not too surprisingly, all the titles they were no longer going to produce happened to be from the independent press. The list included: Nezavisne Novine, the only independent daily; Alternativa, a weekly from Doboj; and Novi Prelom, the oldest of all independent publications located in Banja Luka. Why the Glas Srpski decided on such a move at a time when its presses are not running at anything close to full capacity has not been answered directly. All that the printers said was that they are running a purely commercial operation and that the content of publications has no bearing on business decisions.

In any case, their decision to no longer produce the papers came at the moment that the independent press was providing some real competition for the Glas Srpski daily, gaining a significantly higher circulation than the official paper. The fact that the successful Nezavisne Novine changed from a weekly to a daily is widely seen as having led the producers of Glas Srpski to limit access to their presses.

Doboj's Alternativa, which managed to print a strong protest against the pending suspension in its 17 October issue, did receive something of an explanation from Glas Srpski's management. The official reason, its editors were told, was that it had earlier published a critical article headlined: "A Slap in the Face of Truth," protesting against the refusal to print Nezavisne Novine. Alternativa's editor-in-chief said: "Nice proof that the reasons are strictly technical."

In another indication of the RS leadership's intention to silence and squelch independent voices, local observers in Banja Luka pointed to the pressure that has been applied on Radio Krajina, which is run by the Bosnian Serb Army and is the most independent radio station in the RS. Its head, Maj. Col. Milutinovic, started to broadcast on 13 September 1995 without any government permission. "This was like an uprising against the government after they lost Krajina in such a strange way," Milutinovic told OMRI. "If we were not housed in [an army building] from the very beginning, we would have been probably bombed out ten times by now." The Army pays rent and utility bills, and supplies the Radio with its transmitter on Mt. Kozara. In January and March 1996, Milutinovic applied to register the station as a cooperative but was turned down on both occasions. "For the government we are traitors, and the SDS is mad at us and makes sure no one places any commercials here."

Since September, however, Radio Krajina has experienced transmitting difficulties. A new Radio Sveti Jovan -- registered under its private owner Sonja Karadzic, daughter of Radovan Karadzic, but financed by the SDS -- operates very close to Radio Krajina's frequency. With the help of the federal Yugoslav army, Milutinovic managed to get a stronger transmitter within 48 hours. But immediately afterward, the pop music station Radio Big -- with strong ties to the RS interior ministry -- encroached on their frequency.

The peak of the SDS' campaign against the more liberal voices in the RS is a libel case against Pavle Stanisic and Zivko Savkovic, both journalists with Doboj's Alternativa.. They have been sued by the minister for veterans' affairs, Vojo Radiskovic, and Doboj's post and telecom director, Dusan Panic. The journalists in one article had linked the two officials to SDS activists who blocked several opposition election meetings. The coverage of the trial in local media suggests a strong anti-Alternativa campaign is underway, and the defense minister has accused the defendants on Radio Doboj of "selling information to great-power spies."

While the RS opposition views this trial as a bad omen for things to come and as an intimidation of all independent media, the opposition has so far failed to attract the sort of international or even domestic attention it feels it needs to survive. -- Yvonne Badal in Sarajevo

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