Synthetic report - EURAC

killings of clergy during the wars were atrocities that symbolized the destruction of
a certain ethnic group. 144
4.6. Media
The media are the most important instrument in building public opinion. After the
democratization of the former Yugoslav republics, however, the democratization of
the media failed in Serbia and Croatia. The state media were completely in line
with the new regimes. In Serbia the daily Politika helped consolidate Milošević’s
regime, the television and print media were used to spread propaganda to scare
the population of the Ustasha and the fanatic Muslims. 145
In Croatia, “Slobodni Tjednik” directed chauvinistic hate speeches mostly
against the Serbian minority. 146 Croatia’s fascist past was rewritten with an
attempt to “correct” the image of the NDH regime. 147 Employees belonging to
minorities, mainly Serbs, lost their jobs at the public Croatian TV and Radio. Two
of the rare regime-critical media outlets, the Feral Tribune and Radio 101, were
subjugated to repressive measures, including the attempts to close them down. 148
The instrumentalization of the media in the two republics had enormous
effects on BiH. The propaganda of hatred was broadcast from Croatia and Serbia
and was readily accessible to the Croat and Serb populations respectively, while
broadcasting from Sarajevo had difficulties reaching all parts of Bosnia and
Herzegovina clearly. 149 Furthermore, from the Bosnian report it can be concluded
that the concept of nation, national state, the principles of natural and historical
rights, historical injustices or current threats, that could have been used for
propaganda, were lacking amongst the Bosniak population, 150 whereas it
constituted a credo for the Serbs and Croats. The Bosnian population was
concentrated on the preservation of BiH as a whole.
In Kosovo the media were brought in line with Milošević’s politics, while the
two main Albanian official media outlets RTVP and the daily Rilindja were banned
and the Albanian employees dismissed. 151
In Macedonia the media were not eager to adopt an “objective” view. 152
However, as the political landscape is reflected in the media it might be concluded
that in Macedonia a wider scale of political opinions was represented in comparison
to Serbia and Croatia.
144
Petricusic, 10, cited after: Milan Vukomanović, The Religious Dimension of the Yugoslav
Conflicts (University of Belgrade, at http://kotornetwork.info/papers/easr2004/dimension.mv.htm).
145
Pešić, a13, 16, 17.
146
Petricusic, 21.
147
Petricusic, 21.
148
Petricusic, 21, 22.
149
Ćurak, Seizović, Šačić, Turčalo, 35.
150
Ćurak, Seizović, Šačić, Turčalo, 35.
151
MIRICO Work Package 2 country specific report on Kosovo (forthcoming).
152 Ilievski, 20.
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