26. 09. 2007

NOVI PAZAR STRUGGLES WITH MEDIA BLACKOUT

BELGRADE, NOVI PAZAR, 26 September 2007 (B92, FoNet) - Journalists in Novi Pazar continue to have difficulty in trying to report on the work of the local administration.

It is already known that there are “black” and “white” lists of newspapers and journalists in Novi Pazar. The municipal information service, with the help of security personnel, chooses the journalists it will talk with.

For over a year now, since new elections and the consolidation of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS)-New Serbia (NS) coalition, the media has not followed the work of the local parliament.

Regional television is the only media outlet with access, and it reports the news to other such companies.

European Commission Ambassador Josep Lloveras visited Novi Pazar yesterday and journalists from the FoNet agency were prohibited from attending his press conference.

Even though the European Commission requested that the journalist, a freelancer for daily Blic, be allowed to attend the press conference, municipal authorities would not allow it.

European Commission officials were told that there was a list of media companies that were allowed to attend press conferences, but they insisted that all journalists be given permission to attend, which the municipality refused.

Therefore, the scheduled conference with Lloveras and Municipal President Sulejman Ugljanin did not take place.

Lloveras gave a statement regarding the incident to TV Jedinstvo. The tape then disappeared and a request was made by the municipal information service that the statement not be made public.

Lloveras said that he did not attend the news conference because some journalists had been prohibited from taking part.

“I believe that free press is very important and that under such conditions, we had no reason to attend the press conference,” Lloveras said.