By Vesna Peric Zimonjic
BELGRADE, Sep 9 2009 (IPS)

A controversial new law on media came into force in Serbia Tuesday, raising fears that freedom of expression will now be restricted by censorship or self- censorship.

The law was passed hastily by the Serbian Parliament last week, without public debate. It provides for high fines running into hundreds of thousands of dollars against media outlets, editors and journalists considered to have circulated slander, false or libellous information.

The government said it wanted to “introduce order into the chaotic media scene, protect presumption of innocence, and protect unscrupulous exposure of identities of minors when they are involved in different kinds of incidents.”

The fine for publications would be calculated in accordance with circulation figures and advertising revenue – up to a week’s worth. Electronic media would have to pay a fine up to a day’s advertising revenue.

“It can come to 100 million dinars (1.5 million dollars) when, say, a journalist on TV Pink (the second most popular station) repeats the most vitriolic vocabulary some political opponents use against each other in Parliament, or up to 40 million dinars (615,000 dollars) if a paper writes that a minister provided a friend’s firm with hefty public works without a tender, and the minister was not sentenced by a court for it,” editor-in-chief of Politika daily Dragan Bujosevic told IPS. Politika is the oldest daily in Serbia.

Bujosevic remembers well the time he was editor of Dnevni Telegraf, a daily that opposed the regime of former leader Slobodan Milosevic in the 1990s. The owner of the daily, Slavko Curuvija, was assassinated in 1999, presumably on the orders of Milosevic’s close aides.

Censorship was introduced in March 1999, ahead of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) bombing campaign against Serbia carried out in the wake of Serb repression against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Media were forbidden to report on the mass expulsion of up to 800,000 ethnic Albanians from Kosovo. Censorship was lifted only when Milosevic fell from power in 2000.

Many professionals say the new law this week comes close to the one passed by Milosevic.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) head of mission in Belgrade Hans Ola Urstad warned Serbian authorities last week that the law “sets fines that are too high for a Serbian context, which could lead to self-censorship and the closure of media outlets.”

The two journalists associations in Serbia say the law has an anti-European, and anti-democratic character in a nation that aspires to join the European Union.

“We stand for no bans in media,” Nadezda Gace, head of the Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia told IPS. “However, media and journalists who are objective in their writing should have no fear, particularly of self- censorship as a consequence.”

Ljiljana Smajlovic, head of the Association of Journalists of Serbia, said “this law is a precedent in the media sphere, and it should be examined whether it is in accordance with the Constitution.” The Serbian Constitution calls for freedom of expression and freedom of media.

Belgrade attorney Dusan Stojkovic told IPS that the law imposes so many limitations that “everyday consultations with lawyers will be necessary.”

But many readers seem to welcome the law.

“I was fed up with tabloids and their screaming headlines that struck me in the face every time I went to the newsstand,” Ivana Djokovic told IPS at a news kiosk. “It was either ‘Thieves’ or even ‘Bastards’ for some ministers.

“Several of the papers made me sick, with front pages showing mutilated bodies of teens after fights between drunken groups of boys, or stories of incest from god-forsaken villages, with disgusting details about those families. If that was their battle for their share of market, it was high time it stopped.”

Across former Yugoslavia, fines in Serbia will be the most severe. In Croatia, the highest fine is about 130,000 dollars for media who violate the reputation and dignity of minors, or for media who do not register their ownership properly. Fines for slander do not exceed 15,000 dollars.

In the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the maximum fine is 6,000 dollars for slander by electronic broadcasters, and 2,600 dollars for publications.

Bosnia-Herzegovina has a law against slander that does not provide for punishment for media, editors or journalists, but requires compensation for slandered individuals, up to a maximum of 6,500 dollars.

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