BALKANS: Who Knows What Is News

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Feb 28 2008 (IPS) - In the face of continuing threats, Serbia&#39s B92 radio and television station has taken its logo off its equipment. Its offices now get police protection.

B92 is paying for refusing to join state media rhetoric against proclamation of independence by Kosovo.

B92 premises were besieged by angry protestors last week. A fantasy video posted on YouTube showed anchors shot dead by a sniper. Editors get anonymous calls daily over their "unpatriotic" reporting.

"We thought the days of harassment and violence against media were long gone by," editor-in-chief of B92 Veran Matic said in a statement. "Now we are told that our premises will be set on fire."

The threats prompted two Serbian journalists&#39 unions to condemn "the remnants of old style behaviour." New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) executive director Joel Simon said in a statement that the organisation was "appalled" by the campaign against B92.

"The problem is that we are viewed as &#39unpatriotic&#39 at a time when the government wants everyone to tell the same story – how the Western countries ripped off Kosovo from Serbia," said Ivana Konstantinovic, one of the editors of B92. "Balanced reporting is blamed for Serbia &#39losing&#39 Kosovo, in the eyes of nationalists and right-wing radicals who condemn Kosovo&#39s secession."

Official media describes the secession of Kosovo as the "illegal creation of a false state." The violent protestors who torched the U.S. embassy, but also looted downtown Belgrade last Thursday are routinely described as "protestors whose patriotic feelings were hurt."

The official language echoes that of the days of former president Slobodan Milosevic. International sanctions were then described by official media as "unjustified, imposed and provoked by nothing on the Serbian side."

Prior to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) bombing of Serbia in 1999, censorship was introduced and media were given instructions on how to report: &#39Our army is not retreating, but re-grouping' NATO are &#39aggressors similar to their fascist predecessors&#39, and so on.

Serbia is not the only country where media are targeted by official policy. A few months ago, almost 600 Slovenian journalists publicly denounced the government of Prime Minister Janez Jansa, which pressures media against any criticism of its work.

The government believes that Slovenia should be portrayed in rosy pictures, as it is the only nation of former Yugoslavia that has become a member of the EU. Besides, it currently holds the rotating EU presidency.

The government pressure on media came under the spotlight a month ago when the local newspaper Dnevnik printed minutes of a December meeting called by Slovenian diplomat Mitja Drobnic at the U.S. National Security Council. The minutes dealt with the tiny nation&#39s policies for the coming EU presidency for the first half of this year.

After the Belgrade daily Politika carried the same item, Igor Mekina, foreign editor of Dnevnik, was suspended, with pending loss of job.

In neighbouring Croatia the situation is somewhat different. The nation was recently taken aback by a media scandal involving Davor Butkovic, editor-in-chief of the popular daily Jutarnji List.

He thought an unsigned New Year greeting text message came from Prime Minister Ivo Sanader. He replied with a request for an interview and got a positive answer, with an e-mail address where to send the questions.

Butkovic sent the questions, and got answers. He published them Feb. 9. The same evening, the Prime Minister&#39s office denied that Sanader gave any interviews, and the paper apologised. Butkovic, a prominent political journalist, resigned.

It turned out that the message was sent by 23-year-old prankster Viktor Zahtila, who then also responded to the e-mailed questions. Zahtila told Croatian media "it was only a joke", and said he did not believe the interview would be printed. Now he risks a one-year jail sentence for impersonation as state official.