From: pshane@andromeda.rutgers.edu (Ana M. Shane)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia,soc.culture.bosna-herzgvna
Subject: Propaganda
Date: 14 Oct 92 05:05:24 GMT
Followup-To: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.


from PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, Tuesday, October 13, 1992
without permission
for fair use
 
 ------------------beginning of article-------------------------

 
SERB SECRET WEAPON MIGHT BE TELEVISION
 
by Trudy Rubin
 
BELGRADE -    There is one weapon that can stop the brutal fighting
in  the  former  Yugoslavia  from  spilling  over  into the rest of
Europe. And it isn't a plane or a missile.
 
     It is a TV transmitter, one  capable  of broadcasting the real
picture  of  the  fighting  in  Bosnia  throughout  the republic of
Serbia.  Most  of  the  information the  Serbs  get now is from the
rabidly nationalist, state-controlled television.
 
     Serbian TV  brainwashes  the  population  into  believing that
there is no alternative to continuing the fighting.
 
     Without  an  alternative to the state propaganda network, Serb
opposition parties which want to stop the fighting will have little
chance to win elections later this year.  They will lose their best
chance to peacefully  oust Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic the
communist-turned-hard-line-nationalist,  whose  drive  to  create a
greater Serbia has caused much of Yugoslavia's suffering.
 
     "The  opposition  can't  win elections so long as the media is
under  the  control  of  the  government" Milan Panic told me in an
interview  here  in  the  Serbian  capital.  Panic  is  the Serbian
American  who  was named prime minister of rump Yugoslavia (made up
of the republics of Serbia and Montenegro) several months ago.
 
     Television,  Panic stresses,  is  "the key" to the solution of
the Yugoslav problem.
 
     "Perhaps  the  United States can send me a TV transmitter as a
present" he adds, only half  in jest.  In fact such a gift might be
the  cheapest  way  for  the  Western  allies  to  end the Yugoslav
fighting before it spreads across the Balkans.
 
     In Serbia, television exerts  overwhelming power. In Belgrade,
alternative sources of information to state TV exist, including one
independent radio and  television  station - studio B - whose range
covers only the Belgrade  area.  This helps explain why Milosevic's
popularity in the capital is waning.
 
     But in the countryside,  the  base of his support, most people
get  all  their  news   from  state  television,   which  is  under
Milosevic's  thumb.  With  sanctions  causing income to drop, rural
Serbs don't have money to buy newspapers. "They listen only to TV",
says Panic, "and TV can manipulate minds."
 
     Frequently,  television  commentators  attack  Panic,  who  is
leading the effort to oust Milosevic peacefully, through elections.
Although Panic has vastly improved Serbia's international standing,
TV editorials blame him, not Milosevic, for the U.N.'s decision not
to let  Belgrade  government  retain  the former Yugoslavia's seat.
Moreover, state television downplays his achievements.  "They blame
me for sanctions, for everything," Panic says.
 
     Opposition  leaders  say  state  TV  pays Serbian Americans to
come to  Belgrade  and  denounce  Panic on air, while also blasting
American criticism of Milosevic.
 
     "These Serbian  Americans  bring documents claiming Panic is a
CIA spy, even  that  Panic  is  a  Muslim,  not  a  Serb," says Vuk
Draskovic, the  bearded  charismatic  writer  who  is Serbia's best
known opposition leader.
 
     "Compared  to  Milosevic,"  he  says,  "[Hitler  aide]  Joseph
Goebbels was a child."
 
     In fact, Milosevic uses TV to convince  Serbs that he is their
only alternative.  Watching  state  television  news, it is easy to
understand why Serbs  believe  the  entire world has turned against
them unjustly.
 
     On one evening newscast, the chief Bosnian Serb militia leader
vehemently denied U.N. charges that  his forces had massacred 3,000
Muslims. Then the image cut to  a  village  where 28 Serbs had been
killed by Muslims.  Weeping  relatives  were  interviewed,  funeral
services shown. Subsequent segments ballyhooed threats by Croatians
to  renew  fighting  and  alleged  that  Germany  permitted  Muslim
fundamentalists  to  train   fighters  in   Munich  who  were  then
transported to Bosnia.
 
     The  impact  of  such  broadcasts  can be seen when one drives
through  southern  Serbia,  the  heartland   of  ultra-nationalism.
"Please, watch TV every night and you will see  what the Muslims do
to Serbs",  implored  52-year-old  Zdravkovic  Ljubisa,  a friendly
businessman, over coffee at a small cafe in the town of Prokuplje.
 
     "Last  night  [the Muslims] were cutting off [Serb's] fingers.
My wife was crying.  It  is  the  international  community who send
arms,  instead  of  food,  to  Bosnia, under the eyes of the United
Nations. I know it also from TV."
 
     What  those  watching state television aren't told, of course,
is that  the  United  Nations  is enforcing an arms boycott against
Bosnian  Muslims,  while  Bosnian  Serbs get heavy weapons from the
Belgrade-based ex-Yugoslav army.  But  facts  don't  count  in this
brutal propaganda war.
 
    Which is why the opposition is so desperate for independent TV.
 
     One  hope  was  that  Prime  Minister  Panic  might be able to
liberate the main state channel from  Milosevic's  control,  or get
access for the opposition to a second channel, now  used mainly for
cultural programs. So far, that hasn't worked.
 
     Another alternative,  which  Panic seems to favor, is to bring
a new,  more  powerful,  transmitter  for  the  already independent
studio B,  giving  it  the  potential to broadcast all over Serbia.
This would take outside  financial  aid, estimated at $12 million -
$14 million.
 
     According  to  producers  at  the tiny Studio B, it would also
require  immense  political  muscle to get Milosevic to permit them
to  broadcast  throughout  Serbia.  It's  hard to imagine Milosevic
giving the enemy his most powerful weapon without a struggle.
 
     But  unless  they  have  open  access  to  nationwide TV, Serb
opposition leaders say they may not go to elections at all.
 
     "Milosevic  would  lose  elections  if  we have free TV," says
Draskovic,  "but  without  it,  it  is  impossible  to win." So the
opposition is hoping that  Panic  can  find a way to bring in a new
transmitter and overcome the political barriers to setting it up.
 
     For  his  part,  Panic  insists  that  the greatest barrier to
liberating the airwaves is lack of money for the transmitter.
 
     It would be over for them [Milosevic's  party] if Studio B had
a transmitter," says Prime Minister Panic.
 
     He's clearly soliciting help from the west.

---------------------end of article --------------------------

  With hopes for peace

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Ana M. Shane                              voice: (215)-843-2909
334 Winona St.
Philadelphia, PA 19144      e-mail: pshane@andromeda.rutgers.edu