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IFEX - News from the international freedom of expression community
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ACTION ALERT - FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA (SERBIA)

03 September 1998

Independent Radio Index to be silenced

SOURCE: Reporters sans frontiËres (RSF), Paris

**For background, see IFEX alerts of 05 August, 23 July, 15 May and 16
February 1998**

(RSF/IFEX) - RSF is concerned about the upcoming closure of the
university station Radio Index in Belgrade. According to RSF, on 2
September 1998, the director general of Radio-Television Serbia (RTS),
Dragoljub Milanovic, gave the station's staff a one-month deadline by
which to stop using the RTS station in Belgrade to broadcast.

According to the terms of a contract signed with RTS in 1992, Radio Index
could use the RTS's relay station until Index was able to obtain its own
broadcast relay and frequency. Radio Index, which is a member of the
Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), requested the
allocation of a frequency from the Federal Minister of Telecommunications
earlier this year, but has yet to receive a response. Last May, during the
annual procedure of allocating or renewing broadcast frequencies for
electronic media in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, only one
independent radio station, out of the thirty-three members of ANEM,
received the right to broadcast.

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Send appeals to authorities:

-expressing concern at the imminent closure of Radio Index
-asking them to study the station's request for a broadcast frequency
remitted to the Communications Ministry.


APPEALS TO:

Goran Matic
Federal Ministry of Information
Belgrade
fax : 00 381 11 600 446

Please copy appeals to the source if possible.

For further information, contact Alexandre LÊvy or Ludovic Brun at RSF, 5,
rue Geoffroy Marie, Paris 75009, France, tel: +33 1 44 83 84 84, fax: +33
1 45 23 11 51, e-mail: europe@rsf.fr, Internet: http://www.rsf.fr

The information contained in this action alert is the sole responsibility
of RSF. In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please
credit RSF.
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