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From
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"nath" <nath@samizdat.net>
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Date
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Wed, 22 Mar 2000 12:31:30 +0100
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Subject
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globe_l: Serbie :interview de gordana susa (en anglais...)
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Gordana Susa, president of the Independent Journalistsí Association of Serbia
"The ongoing repression cannot suddenly come to an end"
Gordana Susa
Gordana Susa was born in Belgrade on February 2, 1946. She graduated from
the ´ Peta gimnazija ª high school in Belgrade and from the School of
Political Sciences, University of Belgrade. Even as a student, she worked for
the Radio Belgrade in the show called ´ Ko se duri u kulturi ª that was about
culture. She became a member of the editorial staff of the Radio Belgrade news
program in 1971 and a member of the editorial staff of the TV Belgrade news
program in 1978. She was widely known for covering the work of the federal
administration making it more comprehensible for ordinary people. When the
violent breakup of Yugoslavia started, she was still working for the TV Belgrade
. On the 20th anniversary of her work for the Radio-Television Belgrade, in May
1991, she handed in her resignation and joined the Yutel where she worked as
the TV host and the editor. The Yutel program was the last attempt of preserving
the news program of all Yugoslav republics unified. When it stopped broadcasting,
she did not work for the next six months. Then she started working for the Borba
daily paper, but after the newspaper was nationalized, she joined the Nasa
borba newspaper. She was the editor of the weekly edition and the politics
commentator until 1998 when the owner of Nasa borba decided to stop
publishing the newspaper. In 1993, she started the first independent TV
production company VIN which has been broadcasting its program on many
local TV station in Serbia. In December 1999, she was elected the president
of the Independent Journalistsí Association of Serbia.
FS: About three months ago you were elected the president of the Independent
Journalistsí Association of Serbia (IJAS) when the organization was in a serious
situation. What primary goals you will pursue during the presidential term?
An urgent plan, demanded by members of the organization, was adopted on
the organizationís electoral assembly. The majority of issues in the agreed
plan have been implemented. Of course, our primary goal is the campaign
against the repressive and inquisitorial Information Law. The campaign has
been going on on a regular basis. Soon we will publicize the ´ Dossier M ª
- the file on media and repression. There are several methods or patterns
of the repression. You are acquainted with the most recent case of the
Studio B (independent TV station in Belgrade) which combines all three
patterns. The first method is the financial attrition of media,
the second is the annulment of the ownership and shares - which the regime
has recently done to the Vecernje novosti newspaper, and the third method is
the worst - the violence. All these methods are based on the Information Law. I
would like to stress that the Information Law is unconstitutional and inquisitorial
because it is based on the presumption of guilt of media. It means you are guilty
by default i.e. if you do not prove otherwise. Just like it was during the Inquisition
- the media are witches and they have to be incinerated.
A part of the campaign is aimed at convincing judges not to judge by such law.
I have to admit that more and more judges refuse to judge by this Information Law
, risking losing even their positions. Why we insist on this part of the campaign?
We insist on that because we think that no one can be granted amnesty to for his
or her responsibility. No one can hide behind the regime, behind the wrong policy
that has been conducted and think that it will not eventually come out. For that
purpose every last Monday in the month we hold discussions on the judges who
deserved to be pilloried for judging by the unconstitutional Information Law. So
far judges have passed more than 50 sentences against the media in the total
amount exceeding 1,000,000 DEM ($500,000). The worst thing is that judging the
media by the Information Law, imposing fines on the media and ripping its managing
editors off does not satisfy the regime. Criminal charges have been brought against
the editors and the media for the same acts they have already been sentenced
according to the Information Law.
FS: Do you see an end to the repression? Mr. Seselj (vice-president of the
Serbian government) even threatened with the elimination of journalistsÖ
I do not know whether you have seen the main RTS (national TV station)
show recently broadcasted in prime time, at 8 p.m. with the Serbian Minister
of Information and his counterpart in this non-existent federal state. Milorad
Komrakov, who is the editor in chief of the RTS news program and the president
of the pro-government association of journalists, was also the guest in the show
with the subject ´ The Media and New World Order ª.
You could hear all the accusations of how we work for foreign countries, stories
about how we lie and how they fight for the truth, how the journalism in general is
deeply divided between the liars and the truthful ones. I would agree only on the
division of journalists, but in my opinion they are divided in professionals and the
ones in the service of the regime and not in the service of the truth.
According to what they have said on the show, they stir up the public against anybody
working for the independent media. At the moment, electronic media have their
special attention. Closing down of the local TV and radio stations is to be expected.
The regime is especially focused on the ANEM (Association of Independent
Electronic Media) because it is their pain in the neck.
The ongoing repression cannot suddenly come to an end. It can be stopped
once the government is changed and I hope the citizens will be given the opportunity
to do that in the election.
FS: The IJAS organizes monthly protests against the Information Law. One could
easily get an impression that the journalists do not offer sufficient resistance to
the repression.
It depends on the point of view. The IJAS is at the moment compelled to cooperate
with NGOs, independent trade unions and political parties i.e. with all relevant parts
of this society that are in favor of changes. It is not our job to organize protest with
five or ten thousand demonstrators. Our idea is to urge our colleagues to make
some time during working days - but not during our working hours because
newspapers have to be published, radio and TV stations have to broadcast -
to draw public attention on what is going on.
You have noticed that the press has covered these protests very extensively.
It was not accidentally that Mr. Govedarica reacted to the first of these protests.
Even president Milosevic reacted to our words that ´ no one should judge by this
Law ª by saying that they should. It means that these protests are a pain in
their necks.
FS: You are the editor of VIN, the show that was kept from being broadcasted
on the Studio B by local authorities in Belgrade. To what extent is the opposition
in Serbia truthful in its support for the freedom of the press?
I hope we will discover that very soon. The IJAS has been preparing a new I
nformation Law and the opposition will be invited on the debate about this
legislative proposal. I would like to mention that the opposition was the one
who stressed the role of the IJAS in this issue. And then we will see how they
look on the policies of public (i.e. state-supported) as well as on the policies
of private companies. In any case, I hope they will not be able to repeat the
mistakes made so far. In fact, some of the political parties in opposition have to
establish clear policies on these very issues and to state them precisely for all
journalists so we could know whether we really are on the same side or not. This
is obvious in the case of the Studio B which had its ups and downs in the past but
which became open for all just recently.
FS: Citizens are quite dissatisfied with the regime as well as with the opposition
i.e. they are unhappy with the political system in general. What is the responsibility
of the independent media for such an opposition - an opposition that is corrupt...
You said it. First of all, we have an agreement now. Because we all live under
a repressive regime, we are bound to one bloc, to the same side and that is
the reason why you should bear the agreement on nonaggression (i.e. on not
initiating accusations) in mind. About the things before the agreement, I can
say that the independent media bear some responsibility for the situation
because we coddled the opposition a little. Maybe we hushed up some things
in the course of supporting the opponents of the regime and the idea of the
opposition in general and the pluralism as a principle of civilization. But there were
also the ones who made scandals out of mere trifles.
For the moment, letís not occupy ourselves with the past. Since we all are
that civil bloc working in favor of changes, I think it would be much more
effective if we think what the future holds and contemplate on the means of
achieving our goals together. You see that much has changed in a short period
of time. Until now, the opposition has never considered the NUNS as a partner.
Until now, NGOs have never been mentioned at the partiesí meetings. The
Croatian experience shows in the best way what are the benefits of the
cooperation of all these parts of a society - the change of government in
Croatia came as a consequence of the high electoral turnout (almost 80%).
The importance of trade unions goes without saying. At the moment, when
professors are at strike, students are not working, when 75% of the countryís
business is out of work, trade unions are very important. In order for changes to
take place, trade unions have to cooperate with NGOs, political parties, and with
the students from student movement ´ Otpor! ª (´ Resistance! ª) as well as
with the Student Union of Serbia.
I am hopeful. During my whole life I have been in favor of peaceful solutions.
Since our president said that they decide by reasoning and that the policy of
reason have won, I just hope he will be persistent and that they will schedule
a general election.
FS: Have you ever been in a situation to think over publicizing information that
would discredit an opponent of Milosevic and what have you done in these situations?
Oh, no. I have never done that. I want to make myself perfectly clear on this.
I was lucky for working in the first independent newspaper Nasa borba which,
unfortunately, has not been published since October 1998. But the newspaper
did not go bankrupt. Over 70 people have been left at sea, but the inspectorate
is obviously not interested in the case. Apparently, the owner of the newspaper
has a good cooperation with the authorities since such a conduct has not raised
any attention. Set aside the willingness of the owner of the Nasa borba
newspaper for the cooperation with the authorities, he had one good characteristic
- he did not interfere with the editorial policy of the newspaper.
I have to say that we have never suppressed the truth. Absolutely never.
Since the newspaper also published commentaries and analytical articles
it was possible that it printed some articles which gave greater significance
to a political party than the party in reality deserved. But the idea of falsifying
the truth is alien to me, especially to me personally.
FS: Are the media more open in Belgrade than in the provinces?
No. Since the protests of ë96/97 when the opposition won the local election
in Serbia, the media outside Belgrade have been more open and free than
the media inside Belgrade. The Studio B has been under the control of one
political party and no one can hide that fact.
One should not forget that the leader of the party was a Minister in the
Milosevicís government and that he cooperated with the regime. Consequently,
an important medium was closed for other political parties in opposition.
Some information was more accessible to the people abroad since they were
able to verify them. The verification of information is the basic rule of journalism i.e.
when you cite five independent sources and all the sources confirm the
information. And not when you lecture the listeners, viewers or readers.
They are of legal age and are able to form an opinion of what is true upon
being informed by several sources.
But without Belgrade essential changes are unlikely, especially now when the
Studio B, which by the way broadcasts also the program of Index and B2-92
radio stations, is again open. After all, you have to remember that one-fourth
of the population of Serbia lives in Belgrade. Belgrade is very important -
it is not accidentally that the regime lately attacks solely the Studio B and that
the election battle for Belgrade is well under way.
FS: In the Dnevnik and the Yutel you worked together with Goran Milic who
was once the most popular TV announcer and host in the TV Beograd. He
ended up working for the national TV station in Zagreb and you are a bitter
opponent of the national TV station in Serbia. Are you still in touch with him?
No, I am not. We have not been in touch since the breakdown of the Yutel.
We were in conflict with each other even while we were working together
because we had different editorial policies. I am not happy about that
. Once I accepted to be a guest of an independent TV production company
in Croatia because I believed Goran would come too, but he did not show up.
I was always for dialog. At the time he had been talking about the need of
overcoming political disagreements which would have been appropriate for
a civilized country. Long ago, some 15-20 years ago, he said: ´ Well, we
will forget all this once we are retired and sitting on a park bench.
ª Unfortunately, things went the other way. He did not appear for the show.
As far as I know, he had been giving a lot of unpleasant statements to the Croatian
press about me. I have some press clippings about that. The difference between
the two of us is only in the fact that he was in Milosevicís public relations team,
and then he was in Izetbegovicís PR team and afterwards joined Tudjmanís PR team. I
would not be surprised if he now joined even Racanís or Mesicís team. I am a
completely different type of person.
Boris Milicevic
©Free Serbia
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