26. 06. 2003

Ambassador William Montgomery visits NIN

William Montgomery has confirmed claims by NIN that Vladimir “Beba” Popovic was behind TV Pink’s attacks on Veran Matic and that he was removed from his position in the Serbian Government’s Communications Bureau. The US ambassador to Belgrade, William Montgomery, visited NIN’s offices on Tuesday, and spoke to journalists and editors of our magazine about the media situation in Serbia, particularly about the recent phenomenon of state officials suing media. The ambassador was especially interested in the proceedings which Communications Bureau chief Vladimir “Beba” Popovic launched in Belgrade’s First Municipal Court against NIN under the new Public Information Act. By coincidence, the dispute between NIN and Vladimir Popovic has its own special “American angle”. Our journalist Marijana Milosavljevic, in an article published in April this year under the headline “Refreshed Marathon Man”, which was the subject of a suit by Vladimir Popovic, mentioned in broad terms the circumstances under which Popovic was removed from the Bureau for a period last year. She presented a hypothesis that his departure was the result of US pressure arising over Popovic’s responsibility for a media campaign against B92 and Veran Matic. Montgomery gave a statement to NIN journalists and editors which will assist us to prove in court that NIN wrote truthfully and correctly about Vladimir Popovic and his role on the Serbian media scene. “When the attacks started on B92 and Veran Matic, we watched with interest and concern. And at one point, after there had been a series of attacks in Publika and Pink Television, there appeared in Belgrade these posters showing Veran Matic with something like "Wanted" written over. I was concerned enough about that, and the implications it might have for Veran Matic’s safety, that at my next conversation with Zoran Djindjic I raised my concern and asked him about it. “He said, without any hesitation whatsoever, that Beba Popovic was behind these attacks. I was surprised and said: Tell me more about it. He said that Beba had called Zeljko Mitrovic constantly to ask for more and more attacks on B92 and that he had done all that without the prime minister’s knowledge at all. And that Zoran Djindjic had subsequently called Zeljko Mitrovic who confirmed that calls had come from Beba and that he had assumed Zoran Djindjic knew about it. Zoran told him that he knew nothing about it at all and that these attacks should stop. The prime minister said that Beba had gone off, he’s not in his job. He did not say he’d resigned, he just said he was not in his job.”