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Media in Serbia: Two Statements From the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights
Statement by Professor Vojin Dimitrijevic, Director of the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights, at the press conference at the Media Centre in Belgrade on 24 October 1998, following the trial and sentencing of the publishers and editors of the magazine "Evropljanin" After the temporary ban and the sealing of premises of three Belgrade independent dailies (Danas, Nasa borba and Dnevni telegraf) and several radio stations, followed by the scandalous trial of the publishers and editors of the weekly magazine "Evropljanin", all speakers at this Conference have with great justification expressed their concern about the alarming situation of the freedom of expression in Serbia following the hasty adoption, on 21 October 1998, of the new Public Information Act. Recent developments have a deeper and more ominous significance. Besides limiting the freedom of opinion and expression, the new Act, as well as the Government Decree which preceded it, represents an immediate danger to the very bases for the enjoyment of human rights by all persons under the jurisdiction of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). Even a cursory perusal of these provisions, which pretend to be legal, shows that they violate the very principle of legality (nullum crimen sine lege). Actions declared by them to be punishable offences are described vaguely by using expressions that are not defined in the Decree or the Act, or for that matter anywhere in existing Yugoslav law. Good examples are the notions of "defeatism", "panic" and "acting contrary to the interests of the State and the resolutions of the National Assembly of Serbia". Let us not be confused by the fact that such offences are euphemistically called "misdemeanours" and that their alleged perpetrators are to be tried by magistrates, normally dealing with petty offences. As we saw from the decision handed this morning to the publishers and editors of "Evropljanin", magistrates can impose exorbitant fines - in fact, in this first test of the new Act the magistrate imposed maximum penalties to all four persons accused, totalling to more than a quarter million US dollars (2,400.000 dinars), which is a huge sum in our country, able to ruin the existence of a publishing firm and its responsible managers. In a further attack on the principle of legality, which provides that no one can be punished for an offence which was not provided by law at the time when it was committed, the Magistrate applied the Act retroactively: the incriminated issue of "Evropljanin" appeared on 19 October and the Act came into force two days later. A magistrate, appointed by the government and part of the executive branch, is definitely not "an independent and impartial tribunal" in the sense of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to a hearing before which "everyone is entitled" (Art. 10). If this initial step is followed by the organs of the State with the same brutal energy, we can reasonably expect that our criminal legislation will start resembling the famous Article 58 of Stalin's RSFSR Criminal Code and the penal legislation of Nazi times. Under the Soviet Act, analogy was permitted in criminal law, and people were liable to be severely punished for anything that did not please the Government and its agencies, in the same way we are now liable to be drastically fined for expression that the Ministry of Information finds objectionable. The next step, that of the Nazi dictum that everything is a crime that "violates the genuine call of German blood", is then not far away. That we are formally punished for misdemeanours, and not crimes, will be a small consolation indeed. The Government and its propaganda apparatus count on the assumption that the freedom of expression is a "luxurious" human right, coveted only by intellectuals eager to communicate their opinions to the public and to have access to full information. If this is tacitly accepted by limiting the protest only to those connected to the independent media and their readers, the true danger for all others, including those reading now only sport magazines and listening only to popular music, will not be appreciated and averted.. Another worrying aspect of the situation is the emergence of vigilante groups and private security agencies acting instead of the police. The proceedings against "Evropljanin" were initiated by a phantom organisation, called "The Patriotic Alliance of Belgrade", without proper registration papers and with an uncertain address. Their communication to the magistrate was unsubstantiated, referring sometimes to "a series of untruths" allegedly published by the magazine, without mentioning specifically any of them. However, the magistrate shifted the burden of proof from the denouncing "patriots" to the accused and gave the latter only a couple of hours to refute blanket accusations in the submission. He also refused to hear any witnesses proposed by the defence, including government officials who had on various occasions made statements admitting the deterioration of the economic situation in Serbia, analysed in some incriminated pieces published in the magazine. This means that any group of citizens and crazies can from now on bring others before a magistrate and ruin any medium and individual in the country because of statements contrary to their taste. Private security firms, that appeared on the scene during the 1996-1997 demonstrations, "voluntarily" and "spontaneously" beating citizens assembled in peaceful demonstrations, re-emerged as custodians of the sealed premises of Belgrade journals. That state authority has been gradually delegated to privately hired thugs has also become obvious at the University of Belgrade, where persons in leather jackets have been removing professors from lecture rooms at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, on the behest of the new Dean, appointed by the Serbian Government on the basis of the similarly nefarious new University Act. I have referred only to some deeds we all denounce as violations of the constitutions of FR Yugoslavia and Serbia. They are also violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, binding on FRY. Now, when China (according to our government's propaganda, our faithful ally), decided, after long hesitation, to sign the Covenant, would it not be honest for the Government of FRY to announce to the United Nations and the whole world that it is unable and unwilling to implement the Covenant and other human rights treaties, to denounce them, to cease speaking about the re- integration of FRY into the international community and follow blithely its course of isolation and despair.
10 Nov 1998
VIOLATIONS OF ACADEMIC FREEDOMS IN SERBIA Nikola Vasiljevic (19), Dragana Milinkovic (22), Marina Glisic (22), and Teodora Tabacki (22), students at various faculties of the Belgrade University, were sentenced to 10 days imprisonment on 4 November. Writing slogans against the University Act and Serbian Law on Public Information, they, in a magistrate‚s opinion, "expressed civil resistance to the government - and by insolent and delinquent conduct jeopardised the peace and quiet of citizens and the public peace and order". For the time being, the police is not arresting other students at the faculties of Electrical Engineering, Philology and Law in Belgrade, but para-police forces, brought in by the government-appointed deans, prohibit them to use the faculty premises and threaten them with physical violence. Armed thugs at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering do not allow 11 professors who have not signed the employment contract (called "the declaration of loyalty to the ruling party") to enter the building. Eight of them have been punished with drastic salary reduction, their average salary being 1.500 dinars or about 200 German marks, which is less than the earnings of a driver of the Belgrade public transport. They were punished for the protest encounters which, together with students, they have held in the Faculty building, since thus "they have obstructed work," as Dean Vlada Teodosic, whose resignation is requested by students, puts it. The Dean has threatened the students who refuse to attend lectures of "suitable" substitute lecturers hastily brought from provincial universities, with six month suspension of student status and deprivation of the student card "due to political activities". The Dean of the Faculty of Philology, Radmilo Marojevic, does not give any consideration to students‚ request for the re-establishment of the Department of World Literature, which ceased to function due to the eviction of disobeying professors, or to the professors‚ remark that he destroyed the oldest department ˆ the Department of the Serbian Language and Literature. Instead of that he is accusing professors of being "hirelings of the new world order", who "are creating chaos in order to use the last chance for the realisation of their political goals". One of the substitutes, a writer from Niksic, Montenegro, invited by the Dean to replace the professor of Theory of Literature, locked the door of the classroom from the inside to prevent students from leaving. This culminated on 10 November by the dismissal of professors Vladeta Jankovic, former Head of the Department of World Literature, Djordje Trifunovic (Yugoslav Literature), Zoran Milutinovi} (Comparative Literature), Aleksandar Ilic, (World Literature), Slobodan Vukobrat (English Language and Literature) and Branislava Niksic (Hebraic Language). The Serbian Commissioner for Refugees and an high official of the ruling Yugoslav Left, Bratislava Morina, joined the attempt of the destruction of the Belgrade University. In the name of the phantom "Association of Women of Yugoslavia", Morina accused the daily "Dnevni Telegraf" of publishing the advertisement under the title "Resistance is the Answer" of a new Belgrade student organisation - "Resistance". "Resistance", comprising students of seven Belgrade faculties, published the announcement including the following text: "Resistance is the answer! There is no other way. It will be too late when someone close to you starves to death, When they start killing people on streets, When they turn off all the lights, and poison the last spring. It will be too late. This is not a system. This is a disease. Bite the system! GET HOLD OF YOURSELF, LIVE THE RESISTANCE." Morina based her accusation on Article 67 of the new Serbian Information Act, which treats every criticism of the regime as an attempt of undermining the constitutional order and envisages drastic fines. In summery proceedings a Belgrade magistrate fined the owner and editor-in-chief with 1.200.000 dinars (about 110,000 US dollars). And while students of three Belgrade faculties request the replacement of deans, protest and boycott lectures, the deans transfer unsuitable professors to work at faculty institutes, without basic conditions for work, such as tables - for instance, at the Institute of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering there is neither water, nor electricity. Private police appeared at the Faculty of Law as well, where it prevented two suspended professors, Kosta Cavoski and Jovica Trkulja, from holding a seminar on the persecution of the Faculty of Law professors in the past. Some two hundred students walked in protest along the corridors and temporarily occupied two other classrooms. The Dean, Oliver Antic, qualified the gathering as "political" and initiated disciplinary proceedings against Draga Rudic, the student who is suspected of having organised the seminar. Since then, the Faculty of Law building can be entered only by those who show the student card of that faculty, which is checked by private security agents. On 10 November several hundred students of law protested in front of the Faculty building demanding the return of fired and suspended teachers, cancellation of disciplinary proceedings against Ms. Rudic and removal of guards at the entrance. However, according to the pro-government papers everything is fine at the Faculty of Law. In an interview to "Politika" of 7 November 1998 Prof. Vesna Besarevic, the new director of the European Studies at that Faculty, the new management of the Faculty has concluded a agreement with the European Inter-University Centre in Nancy, France, for a joint program in European law, which will lead to a diploma recognised in France and Europe. She announced the arrival of Professor Charpentier from Nancy and the beginning of this remarkable Yugoslav - French joint project for 17 November 1998.
For more information, write: Professor Vojin Dimitrijevic, Belgrade Centre for Human Rights, at <bgcentar@EUnet.yu>
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