Yugoslav TV Network in Uphill Battle

Yugoslavia’s newest television station wants to be the only nationwide network but five of the country’s six republics have refused to air its programing.

“We have some cameras, some resources, a location and a lot of good will,” said the station’s editor-in-chief, Goran Milic, a popular newscaster. “We are being seen only in Bosnia, but we are optimistic.”

The station, known as Yutel, went on the air in October promising to give objective news coverage in a country where each republic runs its own television and where media bias is common.

It broadcasts for an hour each day from Sarajevo, capital of the central republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Milic hopes it will eventually broadcast eight hours a day of news, sports, films and foreign series.

Communist and opposition politicians, accustomed to one-sided media, fear Yutel because it is the brainchild of Prime Minister Ante Markovic and was launched with government money just weeks before key elections in four republics.

Under communist rule, which began in 1945, the nation’s media for years was little more than the party’s mouthpiece.

Newspapers and television have enjoyed more freedom since the death in 1980 of Josip Broz Tito after 35 years of rigid rule, but many Yugoslavs say the media that once promoted communism now fan nationalism.

Programs made by one or several republics can be seen nationwide via syndication but Yutel wants to become the only channel regularly broadcasting its own programs to the whole country.

“Yutel is no government station, nor is it the extended hand of any political party,” Yutel director Nebojsa Tomasevic said.

Its staff of 16, plus 45 part-time workers, offers 30 minutes of Yugoslav and foreign news and 30 minutes of interviews and commentary--all interlaced with commercial breaks from which it hopes to make money.

Yutel was launched with a $300,000 loan from the government, Milic said, but eventually should become an independent joint stock company with government and foreign investment.

In one recent program it let 15 political leaders from parties of all shades state their views on property ownership--a key election issue.

“Monopolies are a thing of the past, but it is natural that people don’t give up acquired positions easily,” Tomasevic said.

People have accused Yutel of bias, and rivalries among the six republics further threaten Yutel’s chance of success as Yugoslavia edges toward democracy.

Splits have widened since Croatia and Slovenia, two northern republics, dumped communism in free elections last spring. Tensions are rising in the period before elections in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro, which are ruled by communists.

Each republic has its own reasons for not showing Yutel.

Belgrade television said it infringed on Serbia’s sovereignty, while Skopje television in Macedonia cited technical problems.

Milic said the other republics fear that the station will promote Markovic’s party, the Alliance of Reform Forces, in the elections.

“Are we interfering in the elections? Objectively, yes. If you have independent, balanced information you give voters a real chance to choose. Yes, we are a concrete development in the elections,” he said.

Bosnia-Herzegovina’s communists have accused Markovic’s party, set up this summer, of using Yutel to promote itself. They say Sarajevo television should take it off the air.

Milic scoffs at such charges, although one commercial it broadcast did promote Markovic’s party.

The immediate future looks difficult for Yutel. Milic said the government loan would run out in this month but that 15 local businessmen had offered to help.

He hoped the other republics would stop the boycott of Yutel after their elections.