H. E. Slobodan Milosevic
President
Belgrade
Republic of Serbia

Vienna 20 February 1996

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI),a global network of editors and media executives from newspapers, magazines, broadcasting organisations and news agencies in 85 countries, strongly condemns the decision made by Serbian authorities to cancel Studio-B’s status as a private company.

On 15 February 1996 Serbian authorities cancelled Studio B’s status as a private company, thereby effectively silencing the only politically independent TV channel in the Republic of Serbia.

IPI believes the motive for this obstruction to be purely political, as the Belgrade station has been a frequent target of governmental harassment in the past. Your Excellency’s government is thus rejecting the internationally recognised requirements for the development of the free media and independent broadcasting.

In this connection, IPI would like to refer to its Vienna Declaration on Public Broadcasting (September 1993), which calls for “the abolition of monopolies and of all forms of discrimination in broadcasting and frequency allocation, as well as the abolition of all barriers to launching of new private media outlets.”

We therefore urge Your Excellency to ensure that the latest decision taken against Studio-B is revoked and that the station is allowed to operate without further political harassment.

We thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director