andersen-ottaway lecture

1997 Andersen Lecture
Sasa Mirkovic
Director, Radio B92, Belgrade

Fighting For Press Freedom In Serbia

For the sake of better understanding of our tonight’s topic, it is necessary to show certain data related to the country I am coming from. Average monthly salary in Serbia is about 200 dollars. About 45% of population have not finished elementary school, and about 70% of population have not completed high school. According to the research conducted by the Institute for the Social Science from Belgrade, only 3 to 5 % of adult population is capable of understanding social events, processes and trends, or to participate in them on regular or part time basis. About half a million of young people, mostly with high education, left the country in the past few years.

Several years of isolation made Serbia and Montenegro rather closed societies. The regime restricted a whole series of freedoms, and came to a position of controlling all aspects of society and more than 10 million of people.

When Slobodan Milosevic came to power some ten years ago, things had changed fundamentally in -- until then -- relatively peaceful Serbia, the largest republic in former Yugoslavia. First, Milosevic came to power and became popular because he had been the first to realize that Tito was actually dead, which gave the chance for re-definition of the very idea of Yugoslavia. Second, he also realized the real power of mass media and he has been demonstrating it ever since.

At the end of eighties, Milosevic initiated series of so called changes, with tragic consequences. He convinced Serbs that he was ready to do something in all that stale atmosphere at the time, and that Serbs as the most numerous nation in former Yugoslavia were endangered to such extent that they had to go to war, although it was well known that the only country in history where all Serbs lived in the same country was Tito’s Yugoslavia itself.

Can you imagine what at that moment of national euphoria, now a long time ago in 1989, the idea of establishment of the radio like B92 meant, having an editorial concept completely opposite to the major public opinion?

We liked to say that we were “the radio of minorities”- political - for we promoted the opposition political parties (it was the time of introduction of the multi-party system in our country), national (that were endangered by the rapid increase of nationalism), cultural, sexual, and all the others that were endangered at that time.

We based our program upon the promotion of the values established by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Our outstanding anti-war attitude was very important and it made us the station which, among other things, informed its listeners about the movements of the couriers who carried the summons for the mobilization and about going to the first front lines in Croatia, and later in Bosnia.

It was the time of mass media propaganda and one-sided views, which we opposed with the slogan “Trust Nobody, Not Even Us.” The slogan was created in the time when most of our listeners developed blind belief in us. The reason for such a belief was the fact that we were one of the rare sources of alternative and objective information. We wanted to avoid any manipulation with those who believed us and who had to keep necessary distance, so they did not fall in a trap of generalization, i.e. simplification.

Radio B92 was established as a particular “radio movement” which incorporated its listeners in its actions, which were organized in the Belgrade streets. One of the biggest of such events was the anti-war rock concert titled “Don’t Count On Us” in downtown Belgrade, when more than 50,000 young people gathered to show their opposition to the outbreak of war in Bosnia.

The restrictive policy of the regime concerning distribution of radio and TV frequencies can easily be seen from example of our Radio. Radio B92 had the license for experimental broadcasts during the first six months of its operation. Ever since the early 1990 until the end of last year, 1996, we have been functioning without a proper license for the frequency we use. In the meantime, the authorities distributed frequencies to the radio stations which had only entertainment or musical editorial concept, and acted as another channel for drawing people’s attention away from the cruel reality around us.

If the first stage of our work was marked by our public actions, then the beginning of the second stage was marked by the breakthrough of our activities in other kinds of media.

We started our publishing activities, and we have published more than 50 books so far. The edition of particular importance includes the translations of the books such as “Death of Yugoslavia” by Laura Silber and Alan Little, “Balkan Odyssey” by David Owen, a critical biography of President Milosevic which was the best selling book in our country this year. We thought that this publishing activity had to influence the public by books which would remain as historical documents about the time which must not be forgotten.

We are the publisher of two literary magazines “Word” and “Profemina”; and the publication “Right to Picture and Word” also bears the name of B92 - it is a bulletin which reports about the violation of human rights in the aspect of free media and freedom of speech.

Within its TV and film production, B92 produced a series of documentary films which were shown in numerous film festivals around the world. Many of our films won major awards in domestic festivals. Radio B92 also produced compact discs, video and audio cassettes.

Our cultural center - Cinema Rex - became one of the centers of cultural life in Belgrade. There are exhibitions, concerts, theater plays, panel discussions and presentations there. In the end I should mention that B92 was the first legal Internet provider in Serbia and Montenegro.

All this shows that our strategy in all these years was to be “an umbrella institution” which gathered many talented people, artists, professionals, institutions, initiatives and non-government organizations advocating the idea of civil and open society.

Of course, due to this editorial concept, we had a lot of problems with authorities who many times tried to obstruct our work. Therefore, they banned Radio B92 on two occasions. The first time, on March 9, 1991 -- after mass street demonstrations in Belgrade -- police broke into our premises and brutally interrupted the broadcast because we reported about the events in the streets. Our Radio disappeared from the air exactly one year ago, on December 3, 1996, right before the beginning of mass street demonstrations in many Serbian cities after the annulment of the results of local elections.

From the very beginning of demonstrations in mid-November, the signal of our Radio had been constantly jammed and only 20% of our usual number of listeners could hear us. It was a clear sign that the regime was preparing a complete ban of our radio work, and that is what eventually happened in early December.

Then our Internet strategy, which had been developed in a special way, became very important. The only similarity between B92 and other Internet providers was in the technical equipment necessary for Internet providing. Everything else -- experience, strategy, content and plans -- was as different from other providers as Radio B92 was different from other media in the country. Insufficient number of telephone lines and an unfavorable attitude of state institutions toward us created a whole series of problems and obstructions in our work. However, we achieved one thing from the very beginning - we prevented the state monopoly in the field of Internet. We imposed a different concept, although it was non-profit, but it remained in service of Internet popularization, help to the independent scene, non-government organizations and all others who wanted non-violent solutions for conflicts, democratization, necessary changes in society and integration of our country in modern world.

When all these things are considered, it is clear that from the beginning of the demonstrations in Serbia, B92 had outgrown its role as merely an independent source of information. We became an integral part of civil protest symbolizing the right to information as one of the fundamental principles which had been ignored ever since Milosevic came to power. While we were off the air, we started to broadcast our news and informative programs via Internet in “Real Audio” format. We strengthened our news-desk sector with several colleagues who speak English as native tongue, who translated and recorded news which we then distributed free of charge via Internet. The campaign of Radio’s self-defense was planned also through preparation of alternative ways of broadcasting. We made a plan to broadcast our programs non-stop via Internet, and Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and Detche Welle would take it over and re-broadcast it on their frequencies. Therefore Radio B92 actually had more listeners in the time while it was banned than in any other time! Dozens of thousands of people listened to us on Internet via Soundcard and computer loudspeakers, and our written news bulletins became an important source of information not only to “average” Internet users, but also to journalists, politicians and all those who were interested in events in Serbia.

Fifty-one hours after the shutdown, Radio B92 was back on the air. Learning that the world public was alarmed and hundreds of thousands of protesters in the streets made the regime withdraw. During those two days, a great number of announcements were released by many organizations such as Reporters Sans Frontiers, International Federation of Journalists, CPJ and others that deal with media and human rights in our region. Such pressure, and the fact that Mrs. Kati Marton from the Committee to Protect Journalist arrived in Belgrade and talked to President Milosevic, led to the first victory in the field of media during the demonstrations. That was a clear example of importance of such constant monitoring and presence in media issues. If our authoritarian government is afraid of something, it is certainly afraid of intervention by professional, branch organizations, which are always ready to react and draw great attention of foreign media, foreign politicians and public, who will subsequently be active in demanding free information and elementary human freedoms.

The regime made up a senseless explanation that B92 had been off the air because “heavy rains wetted coax cable inside our transmitter.” The same regime did not dare to admit that our strategy in using the Internet was of crucial importance for such a turn of events. On December 8 last year, The New York Times published an article titled “Internet Saves Protest in Serbia” which described the real situation in Serbia and the challenge to which Serbian authorities had no adequate response. It was a battle for which the authorities were not prepared, a duel which they were doomed to lose.

Still, when the street protests ended, and the opposition parties took over the local power in the cities, there had been very little change in the field of media freedom. We still have an authoritarian regime on the republic and federal level which uses all means to stop and hinder spreading of independent, particularly electronic media.

Authorities have many options and means for hindering independent media. First, it is enough for them not to respect the legal obligation of opening competition for distribution of free frequencies each year. In Serbia, there has not been such a competition in the past three years. A new draft Law on Information has been in the legal procedure for almost a year so far, and it is not adopted in parliament yet, which clearly shows the sensitivity of this segment of social and political life in Serbia today.

However, the government continually obstructs the work of radio and TV stations, through the actions of various Ministries, such as the Ministry for Traffic and Telecommunication which controls the spectrum of frequencies, the Ministry of Finances which can send inspectors to check your bookkeeping records and would always find out that you have violated the law, which is a reason strong enough for them to block your bank account for a while, and therefore the work of your station is blocked.

One of the important prerequisites for the beginning of work of a station is the programming, i.e. the proportion of music, entertainment and news programs. If you want to establish mostly news and informative programming, you can be sure that you will not obtain the necessary license. On the other hand, stations which have mostly entertainment programming or an editorial concept focused on music will get all working licenses, and their existence and number will be abused by authorities who would point it out as freedom of media in Serbia today. If you asked those politicians about how many stations had daily informative and news programs (weather forecasts do not count), they would be able to list very few stations.

Besides, ownership transformation of many media companies was a chance for authorities to prove overnight that government owned most of the shares, and it always led to a change in the editorial concept of the particular medium. There are very rare examples that someone was shut off the air for the reasons of national security, insult to the President etc. If am allowed to compare things, I would say that Serbian regime uses a different strategy from the one used by in Croatia, our neighbor country, where President Tudjman proved that he was ready to press legal charges in order to stop the work of independent professional media.

This automatically leads us to the current situation in the field of press in Serbia today.

At this moment, you can register and start the newspaper which would be very critical about the government and its policy. However, there are questions: how many readers your newspaper will reach? Will the newspaper be stopped due to lack of printing paper, while state-controlled pro-regime newspapers will always have plenty of printing paper? Will the distribution and sales of your newspaper work at all? If you manage to sell the newspaper in which you had invested your own money, will you be able to collect the money from the sales? If only one of these links is missing, you will be discouraged and you will certainly withdraw from the market. I think now it is more evident how important the electronic media are. Their programs reach people free of charge, while the copy of an independent newspaper has to be paid for. In a country where the economy is ruined and the standard of living is low. This is an extremely important element which defines the behavior of audience.

This is why we established a network of independent local radio stations throughout Serbia and Montenegro. At this moment, 28 stations relay four hours of news and information programs daily, produced by Radio B92. Our audio signal is transported to London via telephone line, and then it is distributed to the local stations via satellite.

Of course, the opportunities given by Internet were not avoided here, too. For the time being, audio signal of our Radio on Internet serves as possible alternative for transport of the signal out of the country. We expect it to become the basic form of transportation of our signal in the future. With this way of distribution of our programs, we made the authorities completely powerless, faced with spreading of independent network. The whole business is legal and there is no valid legal reason for the authorities to stop the spreading of radio B92’s audio signal. The regime has reason for worry: according to a recent opinion poll, the monopoly of the state Radio is endangered for the first time in its history, because many fewer listeners believe the state radio than the local stations and their independent editorial policy and package of programs they receive daily from Belgrade. Connections of local radio stations with our Radio are much stronger than the mere exchange of programs. With their membership in our Association, these stations have the opportunity to educate their journalists and managers free of cost, to get good equipment for broadcasting, to get technical and legal aid and advice, as well as contacts with potential donors which have much better and more direct communication with the stations since the Association was established.

All these elements are of utmost importance for further strengthening of the Association which achieves to prevent absolute monopoly of the state-controlled electronic media in the field of information. Through this Association, many radio stations relay programs of Voice of America, BBC or Radio Free Europe. It is much better, because the information comes from the local medium which is trustworthy due to its previous work. We intend to use similar strategy during the establishment of satellite network of local TV stations with which we already exchange video materials. We intend to include 15 TV stations and we count on 350,000 private satellite dishes that exist in Serbia. All local stations have problems with lack of money, lack of quality staff and lack of quality programs. Those problems could be solved by daily broadcasts of several hours of programs, which would include objective and unbiased news, quality entertainment and educational programs, and all that would damage the existing monopoly of the state-controlled TV.

The editorial concept of the TV network would be based on professional and objective information, promotion of values defined in U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, conflict resolution, promotion of unity in the region, and the fight against kitsch by quality programs. Satellite broadcasts are most important for the territory of Kosovo, a province where more than 2 millions of ethnic Albanians live and where there are no independent or professional radio or TV stations. Lot of people there watch the programs of Albanian TV from Tirana, so it is necessary to establish a production studio in Kosovo which would turn into the local TV station in the future. It would be one of the most significant steps toward the establishment of better climate for co-existence and strengthening of trust between Serbs and Albanians in the province.

Satellite is the weapon which would defeat the ancient complex of state borders, the complex which many people in the region suffer from. Satellite would make all national and ethnic borders senseless and it would re-define issues of national and state sovereignty. This technology would lessen differences between cities and villages in the provincial areas, concerning the availability of information. In this way, the possibility of a regime’s repression would be restricted to the least possible extent. Of course, we are aware that the use of satellite technology is very expensive. That is why we suggest that military organizations and alliances (NATO, why not?) give their satellite and ground frequencies inherited from the cold war to the international organizations which deal with global security. Therefore the basic prerequisites for the effective work of whole series of independent electronic media, peace organizations and non-government organizations which work in conflict-prone regions would be created. Thus the necessary prevention of conflicts would be carried out, and the way for overcoming of cultural differences would be found more easily, and the process of democratization speeded up.

That is why investments in Serbian media must continue. It is still much cheaper than potential conflicts, wars or presence of foreign troops in the region. It is quite certain that independent media cannot create security, but prevention programs would be much easier to make with independent media around, and the resolution of existing conflicts would be much less difficult.

Therefore new technologies are opening new, unmeasurable possibilities. Soon we will try to connect all local radio and TV stations via Internet, and we will create very strong base for the development of future projects. We will try to overcome the problems of many young people who in the past few years had no chance to be informed objectively about what was happening in the country, about current affairs and about the things which are important for the continuation of the fight for free and open society, and freedom of information.

In those terms, Radio B92 will do all it can. We have often been told that it was impossible to carry out what we planned. We tried the impossible and we always managed to overcome all obstacles which stood in our way. There is no reason for us to doubt that it would be so in the future, too.