Room 313

On Wednesday, April 15, I presented myself before a judge.  As I enter the courtroom, out comes Ilija Rapajic, editor-in-chief of Duga.  In passing he says: “So long as it’s still an offense, everything is O.K.”  Before his case and after mine, hearings were held for other editors-in-chief whom the Ministry for Information of the Republic of Serbia charged with  breaching the so-called “elections silence.”  My case is somewhat special because I had two hearings scheduled in the same courtroom (Room 313) on Masarikova St., with the same judge who willingly held both hearings at the same time, only having to write one report for both.  I was spared having to appear in court twice, once at 11:05 and for the second time at 12:35.

The charge had been filed against the editor-in-chief and the weekly magazine, as is cited in one of the court documents, “because on December 5, 1997, at the time of elections silence, he had printed and disseminated the weekly VREME (even though the date of that issue as indicated on the front page is December 4) when propaganda through public media was forbidden...”

On this occasion, the Editorial Office of VREME had stated that for already five years the weekly has been “printed and disseminated” on Thursday morning, nearly 24 hours before the start of the scheduled elections silence.  Not permitting any weekly the possibility to write about the elections during the week in which they are held would be denying them the right to freedom of expression and would represent an attack on their economic well-being.  In this particular case, it is true that VREME appeared in circulation on Thursday, December 4, but the fact that someone might have purchased it only on Friday cannot possibly represent grounds for being charged.

Thus I defended myself in court as best I could.  Therefore, I admitted the obvious--namely that we did print the incriminating articles, but I also insisted on another obvious fact: that VREME is “printed and disseminated” before the so-called “elections silence”.  The court injunction is quite straightforward: within eight days we must submit documents, black on white, which will prove that VREME goes to press on Wednesday evening and into circulation on Thursday morning.  After that phones began ringing all day in the Editorial Office, everyone asking me to comment on the whole case.  Of course, such things are always expected to be interpreted as pressure exerted on the press.  I would be more prone to say that what is at issue is a mix-up and would say that it is high time to apply legal pressures in introducing more order into our hysterical media where there is so much lying and fabrication, so much production of bad blood, and even worse—propaganda. Where newspapers which refuse to lie are called “serious newspapers” only because of that.

With pleasure I will relate an anecdote about one serious newspaper, namely Nasa borba, which several months ago introduced one of its top stories in the following manner: the subheading read “News which was later refuted”, while the title of the “news” read “Bulatovic at VMA”.  It concerned Momir at the time of those heated sessions of the Head Committee of the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro.  Around noon the news had leaked through Belgrade’s press circles.  Those, however, who wished to check its credibility had already learned by two o’clock that Bulatovic was in his cabinet--at work.  Someone at Nasa borba assessed quite correctly what would occur the next day.  The majority of Belgrade’s newspapers carried the story that Bulatovic was at VMA, calculating ahead of time that they will increase circulation that day, and that they will print a retraction the following day.  Therefore, nothing happened, but there were two news items: first he’s there, then he isn’t.  Since someone at Nasa borba did not want to pass up on the chance to make sales, the news was published with a qualifier which deserves to enter the anthology of journalistic gems as proof of the schizophrenic times we live in.  The newspaper man was obviously torn between the sensational news and the evident fact that this news did not exist, and as he has moral scruples and standards, he thought up something which does not exist — a news item which is refuted.

But our problem is journalists who have no second thoughts about such matters.  For the purposes of circulation, Bulatovic will be receiving medical treatment at VMA, come what may.  The following day he won’t, again come what may.  I must admit feeling very ill at ease when in such polluted media surroundings. In the name of VREME, I must play a part in some shady collective which is called a free, independent, “so-called independent” or whatever kind of press.  It would be more natural to make a division between those who do their job professionally and those others, independent or dependent, who mold facts according to market or political demands.  Putting everything into the same basket is bad practice.  For instance, havoc was raised over the fact that the prosecutor decided that certain newspapers through their writing about the market caused a kind of economic and political upheaval.  This has acquired the character of a collective defense of the supposedly innocent press from the supposedly serious legal state.  In all this clamor, certain important details were passed by.  One of them, for instance, is that Dnevni telegraf was not charged because it wrote that the street value of the German mark is five dinars, but because it published the news that the National Bank printed two billion dinars without coverage.  In serious countries, this news item (which was later refuted) would cause a panic of significant proportions, because there people really live from money, so that I am likely to believe that judgment would be passed over such a newspaper by a public which would stop buying that newspaper.  Here, prosecution for such news items is considered an attack on the freedom of the press.  But, if you think that with this example I am “on the side” of the so-called legal state, then you are way off.  The sate, embodied in the government, simply does not have any interest in remedying the situation.  Our government is like fish in water in all the negligence which has arisen in the media here.  The crazed people suspect that there is interest on both sides: both by the press in producing fabrications and by the government which is aware that fabrications exist because this prevents the possibility of optimal recognition of the real public interest.  Certainly, there is never enough of freedom, but the freedom from responsibility for public news leads to total absence of freedom.  In a society in which no one believes anyone (the people don’t believe the media, the media doesn’t believe the government, the government does not believe the one or the other ) the smallest punishment is for all of us to appear in Room 313.