City Government has to to Protect Studio B

Press Release

Belgrade, November 14, 2006

The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia calls upon the Belgrade government and the Democratic Party /DS/ to take urgent steps to protect media freedoms and put an end to the pressure on the TV Studio B and its director, Dragana Milicevic. The Democratic Party should not yield to the Democratic Party of Serbia\'s /DSS/ demands to have "the question of the city broadcaster's programming opened" because it is "dissatisfied with it." Succumbing to the DSS' blackmail would make the DS an accomplice in gross violation of media freedoms and the right to free expression in Serbia.

As Serbia's ruling party, the DSS has access to all media outlets, including the TV Studio B. On the other hand, the TV Studio B is a broadcaster that opens the air for the people advocating alternative views and confronting nationalism and the "values" set at the time of Slobodan Milosevic's rule, all of which makes it different from most broadcast media. As it seems, the DSS wants more than having its stands dominate almost all national televisions - it wants to subjugate a city television and thus plunge Serbia in media darkness.

The Helsinki Committee is deeply concerned with the fact that latest developments coincide with the election campaign and fear they might serve as a model for chocking other media outlets as well. Deposal of the Studio B Director, under the DSS' pressure, would overtly breach the right to free expression and could take Serbia before the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg.