February 17 1992 Vreme News Digest Agency No 21

The obedient enemy

The demonstrations of last March in which two people were killed happened owing to the scandalous misinforming of the public and the desperate attempt of the regime to keep a tight reign on the media. The specialist war experts were entrusted with the task of keeping the public informed, the journalist ethic has been badly violated, the warmongering instincts reigned supreme.

Spreading hatred and disqualifying political opponents was the rule of day. Instead of serving the interests of the liberal minded public the public media became a powerful weapon which advocated unification, homogenization and repression.

After the events of March 9, a series of protests for abolishing the monopoly of the media ensued in September, but to no avail. The members of the Independent Trade Union of Journalists were harassed and publicly disgraced. Only the "faithful ones" kept their positions, despite their non-professional reporting.

One of the requests voiced by the Serbian Renewal Movement referred to the "liberation of the TV Bastille": the resignations of TV and radio editors from Belgrade and Novi Sad and the editors of "Politika", "Politika Ekspres" and "Novosti" were called for. The first reaction came from the editor in chief of "Politika", who called for Vuk Draskovic's resignation (the leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement), since that would be in the interest of his own party!