From: LasiewiczN@aol.com

Date: Sun, 18 Oct 1998

Subject: Urgent regards from Veran Matic

I hope that this urgent message will be helpful or useful in anyway. This is from the Editor in Chief of Radio B92 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. It's a story that ought to be a center of attention and if this can help you pass along the message to someone who might be interested or helpful, so much the better.

Nalini

Lasiewicz Foundation

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October 18, 1998

Dear friends,

Both Serbian government and parliament have proposed a PRIVILEGED MOTION so as to pass a new bill on public information sector. According to the announcements made by the Black-Red coalition currently in power (radical left and radical right), this new law should incorporate key

elements from the Serbian government's DECREE on the basis of which "Nasa Borba" - the oldest independent daily newspaper in Yugoslavia, "Dnevni Telegraf" - one of the most popular daily newspapers as well as a pacifist daily named "Danas" have been banned. The aforementioned decree was also used to ban summarily Radio Index, Radio Senta, TV Pirot, Radio Kontakt and

Radio City.

The political intentions of the coalition in power which are to be realised by this new law can be deduced from the statements they have made so far as well as from conclusions of their parties' congresses:

- introduction of measures which comprise a ban of a public electronic or printed medium as such, without restricting punitive measures to seizure of printed copies of a specific issue under court orders, banning specific broadcasts etc. (consequently, what we have here is an outright legalisation of the state of emergency);

- imposing high taxation (as in the case of extremely high fees for frequencies);

- bans or restrictions on domestic donations and from abroad i.e. labelling the media which receive donations with a "yellow badge" so as to "render them equal" to monopolistic state media and those controlled by the authorities;

- bans or restrictions on rebroadcasting foreign programmes in Serbian which are expected to be legalised by means of the new law - those programmes have already been banned by the decree currently in effect;

- simultaneous imposing of obligation to rebroadcast information programme by Serbian Radio and Television (RTS - state-run radio and TV network) - according to a previously determined schedule;

- journalists' reporting is to be closely monitored by the authorities - their responsibilities are so loosely defined that this matter could be interpreted in such a manner which would lead to legal persecution of

journalists, thus, effectively imposing restrictions upon critical journalism;

- direct censorship (through instutionalising censoring boards).

In a similar manner the Law on University has been passed which has effectively deprived this institution of its autonomy and created a legal framework for expelling professors from the University. The first professor to undergo this ordeal, Vladimir Vodinelic from the Law School of the

University of Belgrade, is an expert who has conducted the work of a Belgrade Human Rights Centre research team and has drawn up a model of the law on public information sector which has incorporated all the legal documents and regulations aimed at protecting the freedom of speech and the

right to be freely informed from various sources (which is a prerequisite condition to be met by the state if it seeks integration into international community). The draft of this law which we are going to offer to the opposition MPs (members of parliament) so that they might propose it at the

parliament's session, and thus counteract the government's motion, is enclosed as an attachment.

We URGE you to do everything within your power and exert firm pressure on the authorities in Yugoslavia so as to prevent introduction and legalisation of dictatorship as well as to create environment which would preserve the independent media. The regime is taking the advantage of the

opportunity at this critical moment and is using vicious terminology to accuse independent media of high treason etc. What renders the resistance more difficult is the fact that the regime will define these actions as authorised by international community at the level of internal affairs, but when it comes to foreign relations the authorities will label these actions as a precondition to be satisfied so that peace agreements and signed contracts pertaining to Kosovo issue might be carried out.

Urgent regards from

Veran Matic

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Veran Matic, Editor in Chief

Radio B92, Belgrade, Yugoslavia