Yugoslav broadcast news media transformed
Analysis
By Katarina Subasic
Special to
The Freedom Forum Online
11.14.00
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Second of two parts. Part 1
concerned print news media.
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia — One of the first visible results of the
Oct. 5 popular uprising, which ended with the ouster of Slobodan Milosevic, was
an amazing metamorphosis of Serbia's electronic news media.
In just a few hours, listeners and viewers in Belgrade and the rest of
Serbia witnessed startling changes in the pro-regime media, starting with the
immediate disappearance of the regular programs of RTS — Radio-Television
Serbia — in the formats they had appeared in during Milosevic's rule.
Just as quickly, various independent electronic media, rarely or never
heard in Belgrade until the popular revolution, resumed their regular
broadcasts.
The most prominent station of all, Radio B92, was back on the air.
This station, for more than 10 years the fiercest critic of Milosevic and his
regime, had broadcast only over satellite and Internet since last May (as
"Radio B2-92"), when police raided its premises to shut it down, the
latest in a decade-long series of similar attempts.
Now back on the air with its original frequency of 92.5 FM, the
station immediately regained its tens of thousands of listeners with its
journalists' unbiased and professional reports. The radio remains the most
reliable source of information, with no serious competition.
In addition, the newly founded television station TV B92 also started
to broadcast on Oct. 5, becoming the first independent television station seen
in Belgrade in seven years.
B92 and RTS have been on opposite sides of the long battle for
broadcast media professionalism, with B92 leading the struggle of independent
electronic media against pro-regime radio and television stations.
Unlike B92, known worldwide as an example of professional journalism
despite suffering under government repression, RTS was considered one of
Milosevic's strongest pillars of support during his 13-year authoritarian
rule.
Having left all journalism standards behind, RTS was a perfect
exemplar of war propaganda and hate speech. Instead of reporting, its
journalists created a fictitious picture of life in Serbia that was anything
but the reality in which people of Serbia lived.
Starting to believe in their own false world, the RTS editors and
anchors broadcast their fiction until reality knocked on their door, when
hundreds of angry demonstrators broke into the RTS headquarters in central
Belgrade on Oct. 5, after a tractor smashed its entrance.
The stations went off the air and returned a few hours later as
"a new RTS" with a new-old team, composed of journalists who the
staff considered to be the least compromised in recent years.
However, the hope that the people of Serbia would finally get an
objective and professional state RTV network quickly fell apart.
The first interview with the new president, Vojislav Kostunica, made
it clear that RTS had merely changed its boss. Fawning over Kostunica, the
interviewer did not even notice how the president, a devoted democrat, showed
visible discomfort.
The following weeks showed that flattery has remained the rule for
RTS.
Leaders of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia, the winning coalition
in the September elections, appeared regularly on the "new RTS"
screens, while it was rare that a politician from the former regime was given a
chance to talk.
In the last 10 years, representatives the Milosevic regime had been
given "too much time on RTS, so we have to settle accounts," said
Nenad Ristic, the RTS acting director, in explaining the disproportionate
coverage.
"They are capable only of changing the side they work for, but by
no means can they change the way they work," said Veran Matic, president
of the Association of Independent Electronic Media.
That is why "independent media must keep their editorial policy
as it is," Matic said. "Nongovernment media have proved themselves a
public service unlike the state ones, which used to be a service of the ruling
party."
In a bid to pick up where they left off when Milosevic took over, RTS
employees called their former colleagues to join them and help restore the
company. Hundreds of prominent journalists were expelled from RTS in the early
'90s after refusing to comply with Milosevic's propaganda rules. Many of them
ended up working with the most prominent foreign agencies, radio and television
stations, while some joined the independent media.
"Once the new rules of the game are established, we will consider
going back," said Dusan Radulovic, formerly a prominent editor of Radio
Belgrade and now working as a Radio B92 editor.
"But the main problem remains and that is how to change a way of
thinking of those who have stayed in the RTS and were not compromised during
Milosevic's era," he said.
"It is almost impossible to start all over again with those
people ... so a solution might be to form a team of young modern journalists to
regain reputation of the company," Radulovic added.
Would he go back to Radio Belgrade after 10 years?
"I would rather not," he said. "I work (at B92) with a
young team that I consider the best in the world. If I was able to move that
team (to the state-owned radio) I would go back," Radulovic added.
In the first month of the post-Milosevic era, electronic news media
remain divided along the lines of professionalism.
Leading independent electronic media, such is also Radio Index and
Radio-Television Pancevo, that had for years bravely fought for freedom of the
press through unbiased and well-balanced reports, are keeping their editorial
policy, continuing to be critical of both the former regime and the new
authorities.
On the other hand, the once pro-Milosevic media, including RTV
Politika and BKTV, have tried to change, but have failed to achieve even the
most basic professional standards.
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11.30.00
