Arrested Development

On Tuesday, March 18, the Serbian PTT telephone-telegraph traffic department sent BK a short fax message saying it can no longer provide a relay link through its Avala and Jastrebac transmitters "due to the needs of the PTT system". That means the private station can no longer be seen south of Mt. Avala in Nis, Kragujevac, Leskovac, Jagodina, Aleksinac, Paracin and Cuprija. BK TV has bee limited to Belgrade and Novi Sad. For now.

"Our contract with the PTT public company states that we are going to jointly build a modern, digital radio relay system," BK’s technical director, engineer Velimir Zugic told VREME. "Until that system is built we agreed to use their old equipment which dates back to 1961. We secured the spare parts, repaired the equipment and things were fine until they sent a message saying they were canceling the contract within 24 hours. We called them, invoked the contract and explained the extent of the damage the decision will inflict on us and our viewers. Right now (Wednesday, March 19 in the morning) the link still hasn’t been cut but we’ll se what happens."

The attack on BK TV was announced two weeks ago when the Serbian state TV (RTS) suddenly canceled a contract on BK’s use of RTS transmitters, giving the station 15 days instead of the contractual obligation of six months to evict those premises. Someone thought even that was too long and a quicker solution was found through the PTT, leaving the RTS on the sidelines for the moment.

BK TV, owned by the Karic Brothers corporation, covered some 60% of the population but will now be cut down to 20-25% just as the new law proscribes. Also, the attack can be viewed in the context of the cordon being tightened around the BK business empire. The moment BK TV opened its eyes to events in Serbia over the past few months and especially after Bogoljub Karic’s interview with VREME, when he failed to deny that he would run for president and clearly stated his opposition to the regime, the Karic Brothers came under attack. BK TV lost some of its frequencies, there are rumors of attempts to snatch BK Telekom’s share of the mobile phone system, and former RTS director Dusan Mitevic, known for his close ties with the Karic’s and the Milosevic family, stated publicly that there have been efforts to move Bogoljub Karic out of his home in Belgrade’s Dedinje suburb where the Serbian president lives.