21. 08. 2002

Broadcast never existed

PIROT, 21.8 2002 – Following accusations from Velimir Ilic’s election headquarters that TV Pirot director Srdjan Stojanovic “interrupted the screening of a regularly announced broadcast hosting Ilic which had already begun,” the managing board of the Sloboda media group which TV Pirot is a part of issued a statement saying that “an interruption of the broadcast on TV Pirot cannot be talked about as the New Serbia municipal chapter cancelled Mr Ilic’s appearance because of the high cost of the broadcast time.” The statement was signed by Nebojsa Ilic, deputy president of the Sloboda managing board. “The truth is that the broadcast never began, and therefore could not have been interrupted,” said TV Pirot Editor-in-Chief Dragica Pavlov Krstic. After the controversy, the New Serbia Pirot municipal chapter organized a press conference, with party spokesman Zoran Todorovic announcing that “the municipal chapter has decided to break-off all cooperation with TV Pirot.” Following the announcement, Todorovic requested that the TV Pirot team leave the press conference. In a show of solidarity, journalists from Radio Pirot and the Sloboda weekly also left.