H. E. Slobodan Milosevic
President
Belgrade
Republic of Serbia

Vienna, 21 July 1997

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI), is most concerned about reports that Serbian authorities have closed down six small private radio stations and a television channel in the town of Kraljevo.

We understand that inspectors of the federal Telecommunications Ministry, accompanied by the police, began the process of confiscating the broadcasters’ equipment on Friday, 18 July, and finished on Sunday, 20 July. We further understand that the inspectors banned all stations in Kraljevo apart from M-radio, which supports the ruling Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS).

The southern Serbian town of Kraljevo is ruled by the Serbian opposition, but control of the media falls under (Socialist-ruled) republican jurisdiction. This control is deemed vital to the Socialists ahead of Serbian presidential and parliamentary elections due to be held this autumn.

IPI, the global network of editors and media executives from newspapers, magazines, broadcasting organisations and news agencies in over 100 countries, regards the closing of the stations to be a grave violation of everyone’s right to “seek, receive and impart information through any media and regardless of frontiers,” as guaranteed by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We therefore urge Your Excellency to ensure that the stations are immediately allowed to resume broadcasting and that the country’s independent media is free to operate without further harassment.

We thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director