04. 12. 2007

PROTESTORS DISRUPT B92 RADIO PROGRAM

ARANĐELOVAC, 4 December 2007 (B92) - Several dozen New Serbia and Radical supporters forcibly broke up a promotion of Peščanik at Aranđelovac’s House of Culture.

Opponents of the promotion of the B92 radio program entered the hall, where several hundred citizens had gathered to wait for the start of the debate.

In spite of a strong police presence in front of the House of Culture, where around 200 New Serbia and Serb Radical Party (SRS) supporters gathered in front of the building, nothing could be done to stop physical clashes and a barrage of insults breaking out inside the hall.

Peščanik co-producer Svetlana Lukić said that she had been aware of the risks of holding the debate, having already had to postpone the show onlz two weeks ago, though she had been stunned when she had seen the size of the police contingent.

“We were led through the cordon to a side entrance to the hall where the promotion was due to take place. However, there were already a number of people in the hall, the majority wearing New Serbia badges,“ she said.

“I tried to speak to Topola Municipal President Dragan Jovanović, a New Serbia member. However, they achieved their aim – they took over the microphone, and got up on the stage, We managed to leave the hall at the last moment, as ’gatecrashers’ were still flooding in, chiefly Radical and New Serbia supporters,“ Lukić recalled.

“Sadly, as far as I am aware, a group of Aranđelovac citizens who had wanted to listen to the debate got a bit of a ’kick-in’. I also fear for the organizers who were left alone in the town,“ she said

She said that it was clear that a big organized group had come down from Topola, and that members of the Naši (Ours) NGO from Aranđelovac had also been present.

“The police took us to the hall safely, and brought us back. I can’t begin to imagine what would have happened if that whole mass of people had come pouring into the hall, as Mirko Đorđević, Teofil Pančić and Vesna Rakić Vodinelić were the targets of abuse initially,“ explained Lukić.

Pančić, a journalist, said that the incident was deliberately started. “It was supposed to be just a normal debate like hundreds of others organized throughout our country, but it all turned into a fascistoid orgy,“ he said.

Professor of Law Vesna Rakić Vodinelić claimed that obstructing freedom of speech was a serious problem in society.

“If you can’t talk about a crisis, regardless of the ideas you put forward, that shows a serious sign of pathology among certain people,“ she said.

Peščanik had been postponed two weeks earlier. The previous day, on Šumadija TV, representatives from the Naši and Naša Šumadija (Our Šumadija) had appeared as guests and spoken in the most derogatory terms of the upcoming Peščanik promotion, calling on citizens to gather in front of the House of Culture for a protest.

The local municipality in Aranđelovac is run by the SRS, who are in a coalition with the Socialist Party of Serbia and the Movement of Serbian Strength (PSS).

The Peščanik program, broadcast on Fridays at 9.30 a.m., has been running for several years now and is a critique of the current political situation. In recent times, it has acquired something of a cult status, and the program has been particularly scathng of members of the former Slobodan Milošević regime, the SRS, Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica, as well as Infrastructure Minister and New Serbia leader Velimir Ilić.