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March 17, 2000 Gordana Susa, president of the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia The ongoing repression cannot suddenly come to an end
Gordana Susa was born in Belgrade on February 2, 1946. She graduated from the "Peta gimnazija" 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" 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 Journalists' Association of Serbia. FS: About three months ago you were elected the president of the Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia (IJAS) when the organization was in a serious situation. What primary goals you will pursue during the presidential term?
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 journalists…
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.
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" 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 Information 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...
For the moment, let's 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 parties' 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 country's 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!" ("Resistance!") 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?
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?
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?
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 Milosevic's public relations team, and then he was in Izetbegovic's PR team and afterwards joined Tudjman's PR team. I would not be surprised if he now joined even Racan's or Mesic's team. I am a completely different type of person. Boris Milicevic
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An urgent plan, demanded by members of the organization, was adopted on the organization's 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" - 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.
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". 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.
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 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.
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.
No. Since the protests of '96/97 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 Milosevic's government and that he cooperated with the regime. Consequently, an important medium was closed for other political parties in opposition.
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." Unfortunately, things went the other way. He did not appear for the show.
