🚀 go-pugleaf

------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date sent:              Fri, 3 Jul 1998 10:48:57 +0200
To:                     CommUnARDS <communards@uia.ua.ac.be>
From:                   Philippe Delchambre/PhD <pdelcham@ulb.ac.be>
Subject:                ANEM press relase

>Date: Thu, 02 Jul 1998 18:58:28 +0200
>From: Veran Matic <matic@b92.opennet.org>
>Subject: ANEM press relase
>
>
>ANEM Press Release
>POLICE BANS A RADIO OF GOOD-WILL AND RECONCILIATION IN KOSOVO
>
>Belgrade-July 2, 1998
>
>       Association of Independent Electronic Media in Yugoslavia (ANEM)
>informs
>the public that on Wednesday, July 1, 1998 an inspector of the Yugoslav
>Telecommunications Ministry accompanied by fully armed policemen in four
>police vehicles effected the ban and physically disabled further
>broadcasts of Radio Kontakt in Pristina.  The inspector served the
>banning order, sealed Radio Kontakt's transmitter and seized the vital
>part of the transmitter (the exiter), to ensure that Radio Kontakt would
>not possibly resume its broadcasts of its own will. The justification was
>that the radio did not have a licence by the Yugoslav Telecommunications
>Ministry, was therefore operating illegally, and had to discontinue its
>broadcasts. The Radio Kontakt staff's protests to the inspector that
>Radio Kontakt had tendered in the Yugoslav Telecommunications Ministry's
>frequency competition, that the station had completed its documentation
>in the second round, and even received a note from the ministry
>confirming that its application documentation was now complete and that
>the licence would be issued in the shortest possible term, served to no
>avail.
>
>       On Thursday morning, the station's employees were banned from the
>radio's
>offices, regardless of the valid space-lease contract and the fact that
>the offices housed equipment, furniture and personal belongings of the
>employees. Contrary to all regulations in the contract, Radio Kontakt's
>staff was informed of this new ban by the Eksimkos company, the owner of
>the premises, and the ban was also backed by police.
>
>       Having started its broadcasts on June 28 1998, Radio Kontakt had
>plans to
>broadcast programs in Albanian and Serbian, as a radio of "good-will and
>reconciliation" whose distribution of information by several independent
>sources should have contributed to easing of the existing tensions and to
>the creation of a better understanding between the ethnic communities.
>The station aimed to assert itself as the first bilingual independent
>electronic medium in Kosovo whose reports would contribute to the
>appeasement of all forms of extremism, especially to the prevention of
>armed clashes of any kind and thus actively aid the political dialogue
>and peaceful resolution of the Kosovo crisis.
>
>       Radio Kontakt started its experimental broadcasts on June 19 to
>test its
>equipment. Its experimental, exclusively music programs were in no way
>hindered. However, it was closed the very day it started rebroadcasting
>Radio B92's programs (which are also rebroadcast via all radio affiliates
>within ANEM Radio Network) and some other foreign news services (the BBC
>and the VOA).
>
>Radio Kontakt has not officially become an official affiliate of ANEM's,
>but enjoys ANEM's principled support for its overall positive engagement
>in Kosovo. ANEM would therefore like to air its stern protest at such
>action by the Yugoslav Telecommunications Ministry, especially in a
>situation where the only reason why Radio Kontakt had not been issued the
>licence was the delay by the Yugoslav Telecommunications Ministry,
>because it had acknowledged the fact that Radio Kontakt's documentation
>was complete. What causes even graver concern is the attitude of the
>government, which dictates these measures of repression for obviously
>political reasons, demonstrates incomprehension, and persistently and
>systematically stifles this and similar independent media initiatives. A
>wise government would support all media initiatives aimed primarily at
>establishing conditions for a dialogue between the conflicting sides and
>at arrival at politically acceptable solutions in an atmosphere of
>tolerance and better mutual understanding and respect, for it is obvious
>that these goals cannot be achieved by either state media, which serve as
>the government's loudspeakers, or the purely Albanian media which act as
>the go to the other extreme and advocate Kosovo Albanians' radical
>political goals that do not have international community's support. Only
>independent, b-lingual and professional media as Radio Kontakt can
>achieve these goals.
>
>       ANEM hopes that Radio Kontakt will be allowed to resume its
>broadcasts for
>the benefit of Albanians, Serbs and all other Kosovo's inhabitants. ANEM
>will therefore do everything in its power to help Radio Kontakt to resume
>its broadcasts.
>
>
>
>Veran Matic,
>ANEM Chairman
>
>--
>Veran Matic, Editor in Chief                    tel: +381-11-322-9109
>Radio B92, Belgrade, Yugoslavia                         fax: +381-11-322-4378
>
>          Radio B92 Official Web Site --- http://www.opennet.org/
>