6 April 1999
AMARC LEADS JOINT ACTION TO PROTEST CLOSURE OF RADIO B92 IN BELGRADE
The World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) has asked other members of the international freedom of expression community to come together with a joint action on 6 April to condemn the closure of Radio B92 and the increasing crackdown on independent media in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Early on 2 April, Yugoslav police officers sealed the offices of Radio B92 and ordered all staff to cease work on the premises immediately. A court official who accompanied the police told station manager Sasa Mirkovic that he had been dismissed and replaced by Aleksandar Nikacevic, a member of President Slobodan Milosevic's ruling Socialist Party of Serbia, "thus bringing Radio B92 under effective government control," says the statement. The move comes a little more than a week after the start of bombing in Serbia and Kosovo by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). "Radio B92, the leading independent radio station in the region, has been the main source of alternative information in and from Serbia since the beginning of NATO air strikes," says the statement.
Apart from Radio B92, many other members of the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM), a network of 35 radio and 18 television stations, have been closed, as have many independent publications. On 24 March, Radio B92's transmissions were banned and essential transmission equipment confiscated and editor-in-chief Veran Matic was detained by police overnight. Despite the ban, Radio B92 continued to broadcast news and information via satellite and the Internet. News is still available on-line at
http://helpB92.xs4all.nl, and news was still posted on B92's own website at
http://www.b92.net as of 2 April when the closure occurred.
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