B4-1305/95

Resolution on the media in the former Yugoslavia

The European Parliament,

- having regard to its past resolutions on the conflict in the former Yugoslavia and in particular the belief it has frequently expressed that the media have a key role in that conflict,

- having regard to the award of the Sakharov Prize by the European Parliament to the daily newspaper Oslobodjenje (Sarajevo) in 1993,

A. whereas media influence plays a decisive role in forming public opinion, whether by whipping up xenophobia or creating a climate for coexistence,

B. convinced that the media in the former Yugoslavia and within the Union can play a large role in maintaining or restoring links and interchange between Europeans in the Balkans and in the other regions of Europe,

C. having regard to the past use of EU funds to encourage moves towards democracy in the former Yugoslavia,

1. Calls for support for independent and democratic media in all the successor states to the former Yugoslavia to be given high priority in the Union's efforts to bring a solution to the conflict and reconciliation in the area, and for adequate funds which may not be diverted to other ends to be made available for that purpose on a substantially greater scale than hitherto;

2. Recognizes that such independent and democratic media exist in all the republics of the former Yugoslavia and that the funds should therefore be deployed principally to give them direct support, rather than for external media projects;

3. Calls on the Commission to lend direct support to press, radio and television, and computer networks in the form of equipment, paper, links to agencies and telecommunications networks and hence to assist them overcome some of their current difficulties; also calls on the Commission to facilitate meetings and exchanges between journalists from all parts of former Yugoslavia and their colleagues from elsewhere in Europe;

4. Considers that similar assistance should also be granted to media outside the regions affected concerning themselves with refugees and immigrants from all parts of former Yugoslavia, and that the publication of books for these population groups should be supported;

5. Calls for a special additional criterion for EU aid designed to encourage the media to let the other republics and the other ethnic groups be heard;

6. Calls on the Commission, in cooperation with the European Parliament (in particular with its Committees on Culture and on Foreign Affairs), to adopt a systematic and special programme for the support of independent and democratic media in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, 'Yugoslavia' (Serbia and Montenegro) including Kosovo and Voivodina and in the FYROM, with a view to ensuring the survival and strengthening of independent, critical and therefore threatened radio and television broadcasters and newspapers as well as the establishment of new media of this kind;

7. Calls for linguistic variety to be taken into account in the process, and for particular attention to be paid to media using Albanian (Kosovo and FYROM), Hungarian (Voivodina) and the other minority languages;

8. Calls on the media within the EU to promote the exchange of information with this region of Europe and interchange between our societies by establishing direct relations with media from the former Yugoslavia (in each case if possible with several republics jointly);

9. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission and the Council.