🚀 go-pugleaf

**** ****** ****** **   **
 **  **     **      ** **
 **  *****  *****    ***           COMMUNIQUE # 4 - 33
 **  **     **      ** **            28 August 1995
**** **     ****** **   **
International Freedom of Expression eXchange Clearing House
_________________________________________________________________

FORMER YUGOSLAVIA: INDEPENDENT MEDIA SUFFERING UNDER EMBARGO

Independent media in the former Yugoslavia have suffered under
economic sanctions, says the Committee to Protect Journalists
(CPJ) in the summer issue of its "Dangerous Assignments
Quarterly". But CPJ Executive Director Bill Orme tries to sort
out the dilemma of whether or not media should be exempt from
embargoes. According to the CPJ, there are very few sources of
uncensored information about the Bosnian war and other thorny
political issues. The newsweekly "Vreme" and the daily "Nasa
Borba", and the news broadcasts of B-92, Belgrade's rock-and-roll
pirate radio station, are the only ones and none of them are
financially stable. State news organizations survive through
subsidies and commercial advertisers will not risk their
livelihood on the independent media for fear of the retaliation
of the government. CPJ says the embargo only adds to the problems
of the independent media because "prohibitions against the
importation of newsprint and equipment are making it almost
impossible for them to survive, they say, while government media
circumvent these barriers."

Naturally, the Belgrade media suffer under the embargo and they
have appealed to the CPJ to help them become exempt from it. But
Orme concludes that "economic sanctions almost by definition
punish innocent citizens for the sins of their rulers. Should
journalists, however independent, be uniquely spared? Whether the
target is an aggressor state, like Serbia or Iraq, or a country
with objectionable internal politics, such as South Africa under
apartheid, the logic is the same: to use the blunt instrument of
economic deprivation to force a regime's replacement or reform."

The World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC)
says that independent radio is struggling along in the former
Yugoslavia, perhaps surviving better than other media. In
Sarajevo, not only is it easier to broadcast radio than to
produce television programmes and newspapers, but it is also
easier for the public to gain access to radio. According to the
latest issue (Vol. 7, No. 1) of "InteRadio", AMARC's newsletter,
with newsprint and power shortages, TV and newspapers are scarce,
while radio continues to broadcast nearly 24 hours a day. "We
often have to find nontraditional sources of power and sometimes
stretch the limits of the law," Radio Zid station manager Rade
Jevtic told AMARC. At night, radio staff search for sources of
electricity in Sarajevo, often hitching their electrical cables
to government or United Nations transmission lines. In turn,
listeners hook their radios up to power or phone lines or to car
batteries, and boil their batteries in salt water to increase
their life. Necessity aside, operating illegally is the only way
for some stations to survive. Editor-in-Chief of Radio B-92 Veran
Matic says, "B-92 is an opposition force to the Milosevic
government. Officially, we continue to be an illegal station in
that government's eyes."
** ** **

The above is extracted from the IFEX "Communique".

The IFEX "Communique" is published weekly in English, French and
Spanish by the IFEX Clearing House, Toronto. The facility is
operated by the Canadian Committee to Protect Journalists in
partnership with the member organizations of the International
Freedom of Expression eXchange (IFEX). Editor: Kristina Stockwood.

Subscriptions are available free of charge by e-mail to all AMARC
members. The views expressed in the "Communique" are the
responsibility of the sources to which they are attributed.

______________________________________________________________
   Association mondiale des radiodiffuseurs communautaires
      World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters
          Asociacion mundial de radios comunitarias
3575 Blvd. St. Laurent, Suite 704     Email: amarc@web.apc.org
Montreal, Quebec                         Tel: (1-514) 982-0351
CANADA  H2X 2T7                          Fax: (1-514) 849-7129
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~