11. 12. 2005

URGED CHANGES IN RTS BUREAU IN VRANJE

VRANJE, December 11, 2005 – President of the Vranje Municipal Council Miroljub Stojcic expressed his discontent yesterday with the work of the RTS’ reporter bureau in this Southern Serbian town and demanded TV Belgrade director to initiate some changes in management. President of the Vranje Municipal Council demanded the dismissal of the chief editor of the corresponding office, Miljana Okiljevic-Nikolic. “Journalists from the RTS reporter bureau in Vranje marginalize all positive events and make sensations out of less important occurrences”, said in the letter of the president to the director of the Television Belgrade. Stojcic also demanded the changes in staff within 30 days and warned that, if this was not accepted, the municipality would deny RTS the right to use the equipment and facilities in Vranje. Chief of the reporter bureau Milos Tanaskovic noted that the demands of the president of the Vranje Municipal Council were “unacceptable interference” in the editorial policy of RTS and denied all accusations of sensational reporting. “Are we the sensationalists because we must cover all events of the state interest to finally and definitely obtain something called territorial integrity in this country on such shaky grounds such as the south of Serbia?”, Tanaskovic stated in his reply. Independent journalists and correspondents of the Belgrade media from Vranje called the press conference for Monday, to present the state of affairs and pressures of the local authorities on the media. This is not the first time the president of the Vranje Municipal Council had objections to the reporting of the private media outlets “Vranjske” newspapers and “OK Radio”.