Thursday, May 25, 2000

Ofelija Backovic

Ofelija Backovic, general manager and editor in chief of RTV Pancevo

Belgrade is in a Blackout

Ofelija Backovic was born in 1951 in Pancevo. She graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences in 1977 and majored in Journalism. She has been working in Radio Pancevo since it was founded in 1980 and was editor from 1991 to 1992, when there was a change in the balance of power on the local political scene.
The Socialists then took the majority in Town Hall and sacked her together with the editor in chief. She then worked in Radio B92 for a year and a half and was general secretary of the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia until 1997. She returned to Pancevo after Zajedno coalition won local elections. RTV Pancevo received the awards Jug Grizelj in 1998 and from the International Institute of Journalism in 1999 for wartime reporting. In the same year, Pancevo Town Hall granted RTV Pancevo the October Award.

FS: The takeover of Studio B has overshadowed the Radio Pancevo case in which their main transmitter covering the territory of Belgrade, Kovin and Smederevo has been disabled. What happened?

The chain of events were certainly not a coincidence. When Studio B, Radio B2-92 and Radio Index were closed down, the silence of Radio Pancevo went by almost completely unnoticed. Belgrade and Serbia were in chaos after the crackdown of the largest opposition medium. We noticed that our signal was not transmitted from our main transmitter on Milica Hill at 21:30, when our technical supervisor came up against uniformed personnel who denied him access to the building. As soon as we heard the news we put our back-up transmitter into operation, but its range is much lower. We went to Milica Hill the next day with a delegation from Pancevo Town Hall, but the guards said they were not authorised to let anyone inside the building with our technical equipment. We were told to go to the police department in Palilula district in Belgrade, since the transmitter is located on the territory under their supervision. There we were directed to the Republic Ministry of Internal Affairs. No one there cared to receive us or our Town Hall President, Srdjan Mikovic.

The transmitter was in a police-owned building since 1990. Obviously it has been removed from the building, since we noticed that the door which led to the equipment was open. We do not know its current location, although we have been regularly settling our financial obligations. If the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs had any objections to our presence in their building, there were a lot of ways to settle the matter. However, the background of this robbery is very clear. Music programmes are now using our frequency and there is no way we can broadcast our signal in Belgrade with the back-up equipment.

FS: Although our judiciary system is predominantly controlled by the regime, you tried to protect your rights at appropriate institutions. What did you do?

We did the only thing possible. Although we do not live in a state of law, we brought charges against the Ministry of Internal Affairs in court for denying us access to our property. The lawsuit should be concluded shortly, but we'll see what course of action will be taken by the court. If it does not react, there are more legal methods available. We shall continue to sue them. Sooner or later we will be able to determine who ordered the removal of the transmitter.

FS: Serbia is in growing media darkness. Belgrade is in a blackout. Can local electronic media compete with the violent measures taken by state administration?

I hope the media and all free-minded people will succeed in resisting the violence. It is high time for such action since it is a matter of survival now. If we don't, we can either organise collective emigration or suicide. The present situation is unacceptable. The destiny of local media, which are extremely important at this time, will depend on the citizens' readiness to defend them. Ten thousand people demonstrated in Kraljevo until their transmitter was returned to its place. Nis Daily was protected in a similar way. If people realise they need adequate and honest information, a lot can be done. As a matter of fact, local media are still operational and cover most of Serbia's territory. Belgrade is in darkness at the moment and this makes it possible for the most terrible things to happen. Belgrade will be the final battlefield, which is why this town is cut off from information. All independent newspapers in Belgrade are sold by 10 AM. TV Pancevo is visible in the parts of Belgrade that lie along the Danube river, but this is not enough. Belgrade citizens were also in a media blackout during the 1996/97 protests. People who lived a block from where the demonstrations took place were not aware of what was going on. This must not happen again.

We are living in a state of emergency for a long time now, only this has not been formally confirmed by some Government decree. The regime has divided the population into patriots and traitors after Slobodan Milosevic's speech at the SPS Congress. From then on we practically live under Martial Law. More ugly events will surely take place here, but this does not mean we should give up on our fight to live like the rest of the civilised world.

Edvard Jukic

Keep up the will! Human Rights