5,000 Yugoslavs protest TV station closures

Monday, 20 March 2000 ---http://www.azstarnet.com/public/dnews/080-6818.html

The Associated Press

© 2000 The New York Times
PODGORICA, Yugoslavia - Thousands of people took to the streets in Serbia over the weekend to protest the continued crackdown by Yugoslav authorities on local television stations, and another station was taken off the air.
At least 5,000 people marched in the town of Kraljevo in central Serbia Saturday and yesterday after the government dismantled the television station's transmitter outside the town, cutting off 800,000 viewers from the programs of locally run Radio Television Kraljevo.
Several hundred protesters also gathered in the town of Pirot last night, for the fourth night, after the government closed the local television station earlier in the week. Hundreds of demonstrators have turned out recently in at least two other towns as well, local media reports said.
RTV Kraljevo was the seventh local television station to be taken off the air in the last two weeks in Serbia. Independent journalists and opposition politicians say it is an attempt by authorities to stifle independent news with local elections coming up, and they vowed to fight the closings and to find ways to keep broadcasting.
``It is important to find other means to continue broadcasting,'' said Veran Matic, leader of the Association of Independent Electronic Media and chief editor of radio station B2-92, based in Belgrade, the Yugoslav capital. ``It is vital not to give in, but to fight.''
He added, ``It is hard work, and even dangerous, but it is surprising how resilient and persistent the Serbian media has been.''
His own radio station has been the frequent object of government attacks.
Matic said the latest crackdown on the news media appeared to follow a pattern of government pressure in recent years as it felt increasingly vulnerable to internal instability. In 1997, 78 news media organizations were closed in a sweeping crackdown. Last year, during the NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, 15 organizations were banned, although all of those are back up and running.
The opposition to the government of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic controls about 20 municipal authorities in Serbia and so has control of local television and radio stations. As the government gears up to fight for power in municipal elections this year, it appears to be trying to remove sources of local criticism.
The moves to close the stations have often taken place virtually in secret, with government officials and technicians dismantling and removing transmitters and equipment at night without warning, as they did in Kraljevo.
Government officials have justified the closings, nevertheless, saying that the television stations do not have necessary licenses to broadcast, or that they owe dues to the government. Broadcasters answer that they apply for licenses, but that the government rarely responds.

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