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Date: 1998-11-01
Zensur in YU: Telekom/minister gebuegelt-.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- updating 98.10.11/1 Zensur in YU: Telekom/minister gebuegelt Offene Worte sind in der vom Marketing/wahnsinn durchtränkten Medienwelt des Westens selten geworden. Sie fallen dort, wo die Tyrannis noch unverschämt mit Mitteln der direkten Repression agiert. Wir geben dieses Dokument der Wut aus dem mittleren Osten Europas im Volltext wieder, weil es durch seine berührende & von allem taktischen Kalkül freie Direktheit die Verhältnisse zwischen unabhängigen Medien & diktatorischem Regime aufs grauslichste illustriert. Der offene Brief stammt von Milos Vasic, dem Vorsitzenden der Assoziation unabhängiger Journalisten Serbiens. -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- OPEN LETTER TO MINISTER VUCIC Belgrade, October 28, 1998 To Information Minister Aleksandar Vucic RESIGN! Minister Vucic: Enough is enough! Serbia needs not an information minister apt to lie twice a week. So far, liars have spread the truth about Serbia. And that’s why we have what we have. Minister Vucic, you are a layman in lies: you simply don't know how to do it and you have no talent. That is encouraging as there still is a chance for your salvation. There still is a hope for you and that is why I am writing. In a magazine I work for, I have already called you a liar. I did it because on that unfortunate night - when your officials were anti-constitutionally, illegally and arbitrarily closing down two dailies – you claimed you "haven’t the faintest idea" about it. As an information minister, you lied to reporters. Your next lie was a much more serious one. Late on October 22, when asked in an interview why there had been no public debate on the draft information law, you replied: "What’s a public debate? That was characteristic of the socialist system." However, the front page of the draft information law submitted to the parliamentary deputies bears an explanation saying that the draft has been made following a comprehensive public debate in Serbia. Who did you lie to and when? Did you lie to parliamentary deputies by your written explanation or did you lie in the quoted interview? Well, let me tell you. You lied to the People's Assembly in your ministerial capacity, since there could have been no public debate on the draft law, hidden away as a top secret (out of shame, I suppose). Then, on October 23, you told a press conference in cold blood that the People's Assembly of Serbia has "unanimously adopted" the law. It seems, Minister Vucic, that you are learning your lessons in advance. The Assembly would "unanimously" adopt such scandalous and anti- constitutional laws only if you and your accomplices managed to turn Serbia into a one-party, totalitarian dictatorship. As I can see, you are going all out to make that deal. At the same press conference, you argued that "the public prosecutor starts a legal procedure." As a graduate student of law, you should have known that in this system there is no public prosecutor to start any legal procedure. Perhaps he might in some future system of yours. Just don't tell me, Minister Vucic, that you didn't know that at the same point your press conference took place the city magistrate for petty offenses has already had his hands full with acting in line with charges made by a group of people that calls itself "the Patriotic Alliance of Belgrade." You did know. Is your ministry due - as a supervisory body cited by the law - to start a procedure with a relevant court or is it a duty - for God knows what reason - of a public prosecutor? Are your going to denounce the measures taken against the Evropljanin magazine on the grounds of false identification by the accusers? Who's in charge of starting a procedure, Minister? The public prosecutor or your ministry? Who's in charge of "warning" journalists, as stipulated by the law? The public prosecutor or your ministry? Your haven't read, Minister, your own law! So, Minister Vucic, do resign since enough is enough! You haven't even read the law that you had yourself proposed and explained before parliamentary deputies. This is an insult to the People's Assembly and to the common sense. Your behavior has already inflicted irreparable moral and political damage to the Republic of Serbia, to its judiciary and legislature, to its reputation and dignity, but also to your own. The anti-constitutional, illegal and scandalous trial has also inflicted – again in an anti-constitutional and illegal way - irreparable damage to and violated basic constitutional and civil rights of a publishing house and three innocent people, sentenced to the confiscation of their property. If you don’t put an end to that scandal and if their property is robbed, your name, reputation and honor will be marred forever. But that's your funeral! However, the name, reputation and honor of the Republic of Serbia are my funeral, too. If you want to save your face and be a human being - simply resign. Though, all things considered, there is an alternative. Just submit to the Serbian parliament another law, similar to this one or - preferably - the one that you have replaced by this legal monster. Give it a thought! Your law is a premature infant in terms of law, politics and ethic, it's more like an unsuccessful than a successful abortion. Your law is a monster, Mr. Minister, while its application - or, to put it better, its whipping up - contrary to precise provisions even of such a monster law, points out to your objective: to abolish free press in Serbia and introduce censorship. How else can one interpret your statement at the same press conference: "The punishments are not proscribed because someone wants them to be applied, but to act preventively." Preventively means, Mr. Minister, that the Serbian press and radio stations are supposed to predict what may be thoughts or feelings by some sorts of "patriotic alliances", public prosecutors, you, your associates, etc., as it is unclear who's in charge of starting a procedure. The true censorship is much better. Therefore, Mr. Minister, why not change the law, introduce censors and delegate them to editorial offices so that they can preventively scrutinize articles, photographs, radio and TV programs? Thus we could at least be able to work normally and play up to the clear, though enforced rules. Even that is better than this violence of legality, constitution, ethics and human decency. Why didn't your ministry respect the information law by sending a prior warning to the Evropljanin magazine? Is it because you were ashamed to issue a written order on how the Serbian press should be made and thus acknowledge that the censorship had been installed? And wasn't it? Be brave, be a man and start issuing notices so that we know our places and know what we are not to write about. Be consistent and brave: just tell us openly that you have introduced a preventive censorship, so that we can respect you for your sincerity if we already despise you for choking free press that is unprecedented in Serbia for over 150 years. Minister Vucic, the proposal, the adoption and the application of what you call a law on public information has implied a number of crimes that will sooner or later bring offenders to justice. I am urged by my sense of civil duty, patriotism and justice to make charges against you and your accomplices. That's what I will do when I deem it appropriate. I will charge you with the attack against the constitutional order, the misuse of your office, the damage to the Republic of Serbia's reputation, the violation of equal rights for all, the prevention to print and distribute the printed matter, the negligence of your duties, the sabotage, the illegal influence on the state bodies, the illegal seizure of other persons' movables, the transgression of private property, etc. These deeds have resulted in a considerable material damage and an unmeasurable political one. We shall, therefore, demand that you, being a recidivist, be taken into custody. I refuse to believe that the public prosecutor might rule out my charges. The worst crimes quoted herein are not subject to the statute of limitations. Neither will your immunity nor your string of luck last forever, Minister Vucic. Think of future and try not to be taken over by your accomplices' actual panic. Should you fail to do anything, Minister Vucic, be aware (as you probably are) that the further application of this brutal and muddy law paves the way to a totalitarian dictatorship in Serbia and thus to a possible civil war. If you want to share the responsibility of a possible bloodshed, say it straight away. I don’t want to and, hopefully, neither do you. But take care, Minister, because politics stands for an exact science. If you suppress free press as the highest democratic standard and the basic rule in a democratic state, can you guarantee that your accomplices' ruling coalition will not want to close the deal by imposing a totalitarian regime? Will your accomplices be able to resist the sweet temptations of a dictatorship and total political, moral and criminal unliability? You know them, Minister Vucic, better than I do. Are you ready to share the responsibility for Serbia's ill fortune? Say if you are. This law and its muddy application are gradually imposing a dictatorship. You are the one who challenges. But are you sure that you will win the conflict that threatens us all? The hour has come, Minister Vucic. Stop lying and say openly what is it you want. Stop dodging and disgracing yourself by contradictory statements. Read that unfortunate law of yours and apply it at least as it proscribes. In God's name, at least put it in concert with the law on petty offenses if you are not ready to respect the Serbian and the Yugoslav constitutions and other existing laws. It is your patriotic duty to as soon as possible replace this monster law with a normal regulation. It is your moral obligation to resign if you refuse of dare not do the above. Enough’s enough! Milos Vasic, President of the Independent Journalists Association of Serbia source http://www.mc.org.yu http://www.mediacenter.opennet.org relayed via nettime-l@Desk.nl -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- - -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- edited by published on: 1998-11-01 comments to office@quintessenz.at subscribe Newsletter - -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- 
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