Independent Media in Yugoslavia Muzzled

The largest of Belgrade’s independent news media were abruptly stopped Thursday from reporting on massive protests against Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic as the regime appeared to be clamping down.

Despite the blow to opposition forces, tens of thousands of demonstrators filled downtown streets for the 11th day, demanding the removal of Milosevic and sustaining the most significant challenge to his authoritarian rule in five years.

Crowds seemed smaller than in previous days, and opposition leaders urged their followers to refrain from the violence that left scores of government building windows shattered Wednesday. Hundreds of police in riot gear staked out the demonstrators’ usual parade route, but no clashes were reported.

Two of Yugoslavia’s handful of independent news outlets were unable to report on the latest events.

The staff of the independent daily newspaper Blic, the capital’s largest, resigned en masse when they were ordered by their publisher to ignore the demonstrations.

And popular B-92 Radio, a principal source of anti-government news, was repeatedly jammed Thursday--usually during news shows and when opposition politicians took to the airwaves.

In this country, most newspapers, radio stations and television broadcasts are controlled by the Milosevic regime. By limiting mention of the protests, Milosevic apparently hopes to defuse and isolate the opposition, diplomats and Serbian analysts say.

“He wants to establish an Orwellian type of reality that only exists on state-controlled TV,” said Zoran Djindjic, head of the opposition Democratic Party, one of three parties that form the Zajedno (Together) coalition spearheading the protests.

Now dubbed the “yellow revolution” because of the use of eggs to splatter government targets, the demonstrations have been escalating since Milosevic canceled victories by opposition parties in Nov. 17 municipal elections.

The opposition maintains that it won in 15 of Serbia’s 18 principal cities--including Belgrade.

Milosevic was once an international pariah because of his role in financing and inspiring brutal ethnic warfare in neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina. But more recently, his influence over the Bosnian Serbs made Milosevic the key to the West’s efforts to end that war with the U.S.-brokered Dayton, Ohio, peace accords.

Now Washington and European capitals are faced with the dilemma of having to condemn his tinkering with the democratic process without jeopardizing the regional stability that Milosevic is seen to guarantee, analysts said.

Clamping down on news media is a tried-and-true Milosevic technique. In February, he took over the only independent television station, Studio-B, placing Socialist Party censors in strategic positions.

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Protesters in the last week have targeted state-run media--offices of the Politika newspaper and Radio Television of Serbia, pillars of Milosevic’s power--and not parliament or federal office buildings.

Among newspapers, the tabloid Blic had emerged as a popular source for thousands of Yugoslavs.

Until Thursday, Blic had published thorough daily reports on the demonstrations.

But on Thursday, an editorial signed by co-owner Petar Koelbel announced that the paper would no longer assist the opposition in “damaging the reputation” of Yugoslavia in the world.

“Those who call to violence must be punished, and those who do not take part in elections have no further say in political discussion,” the editorial said.

Opposition parties boycotted Milosevic’s attempt on Wednesday to rerun the municipal elections.

The shift at Blic is significant because it was the single largest source of printed information.

Only 2 months old, its daily circulation of more than 200,000 already exceeded the largest state-run papers.

Not above featuring photographs of naked women and the occasional sensationalist crime story, it also offered candid political coverage by some of Yugoslavia’s best journalists. And it cost one dinar--about 20 cents--a third of the price of the only other independent newspaper, Nasa Borba.

Cvijetin Milivojevic, the deputy editor in chief at Blic, said he was instructed not to cover the demonstrations and to reduce political coverage from four pages to one.

“Our circulation, and the fact our readers are not just intellectuals, makes us dangerous for the regime,” he said.

In response to the new editorial position, Milivojevic and 41 editors and reporters quit.

“He [Koelbel] talked with us and told us he did not want an opposition newspaper,” said Ljubinka Milicic, an editor and one of the staffers who walked out. “He said we were igniting an uprising, and that this [the opposition movement] was not democracy but a fistful of people creating a mess.”

Diplomats and opposition leaders, as well as the journalists themselves, said Blic owners were clearly responding to political pressure.

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Earlier in the week, Blic had been forced to cut the number of copies it printed by two-thirds because of restrictions imposed at the state-run printing press.

“It is outrageous,” said a Western diplomat observing Thursday night’s demonstrations. The government “can just turn off the source of information. Even when they’re not stuffing the ballot box, they’re cheating and lying to the public.”

Meanwhile, at Radio B-92, the main electronic source for independent news, editors said their transmission signal has been jammed periodically for two days. Editor in Chief Veran Matic said his technicians have been barred from inspecting the station’s transmitter to detect any problems. The transmitter is under government custody.

Two other radio stations broadcasting with the same transmitter have reported no technical difficulties, Matic said.

“This is Milosevic’s way,” he said. “He would never ban us directly but would instead block us.”

State television has virtually ignored the demonstrations and the international outcry over Milosevic’s cancellation of opposition victories.

On Wednesday night, after protests turned violent, state television’s nightly broadcast reported “street vandalism” but focused on what it said was Yugoslavia’s successful pursuit to “rejoin” Europe.

In fact, the European Union and Washington have told Milosevic that his efforts to bring Yugoslavia back into the lucrative Western fold are frozen for now.

Politika on Thursday printed photographs of broken windows and a demand that the state prosecutor bring criminal charges against those responsible for damage that it estimated at more than a quarter of a million dollars.

Times special correspondent Laura Silber contributed to this report.