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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: George Papadopoulos who wrote (10308)	5/28/1999 5:36:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 17770

Freedom of information...The wording is exact (absolut one to one) to Soviet ban on Radio Free Europe Eutelsat confirms suspension of Serb broadcasts 03:29 p.m May 27, 1999 Eastern PARIS, May 27 (Reuters) - The European satellite consortium Eutelsat, under intense presure from NATO, confirmed on Thursday that it had suspended its transmissions of Serbian radio and television broadcasts. The move meant Serbian TV programmes could no longer be seen in Europe, much of the rest of the world and in parts of Serbia, which is federal Yugoslavia's main republic. ''Following a vote of our board, the broadcasts were suspended as of 1800 GMT on Wednesday,'' a Eutelsat spokeswoman told Reuters. The board approved the suspension at a meeting held on Wednesday at an undisclosed location, she added. However she declined to give any other details of the decision, including how long the suspension would last. Representatives of 31 of the 47 countries had voted to recommend suspension at a meeting in Cardiff, Wales, on Friday. Russia, Belarus and Armenia voted to continue the broadcasts while the Vatican, Ukraine and Greece abstained, the Washington Post reported last week. The media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RsF) said it deplored the Eutelsat suspension although it described the Serbian broadcasts as a propaganda instrument and a weapon of President Sloboban Milosevic. ''This measure is an attack on the free flow of information which we can only condemn,'' it said in a statement. Among the consortium's shareholders, in addition to Serbian state television (RTS) itself, are phone companies in many of the major NATO partners including British Telecommunications Plc (BT.L), Telecom Italia (TIT.MI), France Telecom (FTE.PA) and Deutsche Telekom (DTEG.F). Eutelsat's role in disseminating Serbian radio and television broadcasts had embarrassed consortium members who are also part of NATO, which has been bombing Serbia for nearly two months in pursuit of autonomy for Kosovo province. Serbian broadcasting facilities, regarded by NATO as part of Milosevic's propaganda apparatus, have been a priority target in the bombing campaign. Serbian radio reported on Wednesday evening that RTS had been disconnected from the Eutelsat service at 1800 GMT. RTS said in a report rebroadcast on Belgrade radio frequencies that the move was ''another attempt to prevent the dissemination of truth on developments'' in Yugoslavia. Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.