From: Serbian Information Initiative

Subject: Radio B92 Banned

Date: Tue, 03 Dec 1996 12:45:03 -0500

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At 14:00 Belgrade time, Radio B92 went off the air. Radio B92 has

now, effectively, been banned. Radio B92 Ceased Broadcasting

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The Letter Sent to the B92 by the Federal Ministry for Transport and

Communications

Federal Republic Yugoslavia

Federal Ministry for Transport and Communications

December 3, 1996

To: Radio B92, Makedonska 22/V, Belgrade

In reply to your request No. 180-1 dated Dec 2, 1996, a team of the

Control-Measurement Center of the Federal Ministry for Radio

Connections has carried out all necessary controls to monitor possible

interference with your broadcasting on the 92.5 frequency on Dec 3,

1996.

Control measures and monitoring of broadcasts carried out on the date

stated above concludes that no damaging interference whatsoever was

noted.

Thorough examination of our documents shows that your radio station,

B92 DOES NOT HAVE a working license, issued in the name of Radio B92.

The work of your station without a license is illegal.

Bearing in mind that your programs are broadcast on the frequency 92.5

MHZ, for which Radio Television Serbia has a license, it is necessary

that you submit a valid contract which has been signed with RTS.

If you do not have a valid contract with RTS, it is required that you

submit a request for a license, complete with accompanying technical

documentation, including a copy of the contract with RTS.

Otherwise your will continue to be illegal and by doing so you

would commit an offense under the Law on the Systems of

Connections (article 141), as well as a criminal act according to the

Criminal Law of the Republic of Serbia (article 219).

At the same time we hereby wish to inform you that we have requested

that the Control-Measurement Center appoint personnel to monitor

eventual occurrence of damaging interference in the broadcast of your

programs - the results of those controls will be submitted to you in

the near future.

Milan Topalovic

Manager

.............................

Dec 3, 1996 (originally in French).

Reporters sans frontieres (RSF), Paris

Press Release: RF Yugoslavia (Serbia)

Urgent Help for Independent Media

Having shown his contempt for the rights of the electorate,

Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic has now revealed his

hostility towards the freedom of the press. Official Serbian

media, its radio-television but also its print media such as the

daily Politika, are behaving exactly like propaganda tools in the

service of the head of state--to the point where 45 Politika

journalists protested (on Nov 27) against the coverage their

newspaper has so far given to the street protests in Belgrade.

The reach of the independent media, who have been opposing the

authorities in both Belgrade and other cities and towns in Serbia,

is now seriously curtailed by heavy pressures from above.

According to our information, Radio B92 and the UofB student radio

Index ceased broadcasting their programs at 14:30 today. B92

broadcasts have been jammed for the last several days. The

printing of the daily ``Blic'' is in a disarray; 5 radio stations

in Cacak (a town 100 miles west of Belgrade) have been closed

down; and in Montenegro, authorities have also put additional

pressure on Antenna M, which used to broadcast news programs

prepared by Radio B92.

Faced with such a situation, RSF has, as its first step, decided

to immediately send relief funds of 50,000 francs (US$9,550) to

the independent news agency Beta and to Radio B92. Material aid

alone cannot, however, stop the Serbian authorities from crushing

the independent media there. Only a full mobilization of the

European Union, the United States, and all other countries who

want to see a true peace established in the nations of former

Yugoslavia can prevent a total crackdown. RSF therefore urges

governments of all countries interested in seeing such a peace in

the Balkans to take quick and energetic steps as soon as possible

to ensure that the pressure on Serbian independent media is

lifted.

Prepared by: Aleksandra Scepanovic

Edited by: Vaska Andjelkovic (Tumir)

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ODRAZ B92, Belgrade Daily News Service

e-mail: beograd@siicom.com URL: http://www.siicom.com/odrazb/

odrazb92@b92.opennet.org http://www.siicom.com/b92/

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