Serbian TV apologises for 1990s propaganda
Tue, 24 May 2011 18:18 GMT
* Station was Milosevic propaganda tool
* Serbia working to win EU candidate status
BELGRADE, May 24 (Reuters) - The Serbian state-run television station RTS apologised on Tuesday for propaganda that helped to foment the Balkan wars of the 1990s and supported Slobodan Milosevic's autocratic rule for more than a decade.
Serbia is working hard to win EU candidate status this year and is under pressure to show that it is moving on from the nationalist impulses that drove those wars.
During the late 1980s, the state broadcaster was a pillar of Milosevic's regime, and he appointed his most trusted allies as its top managers and editors.
"We apologise to the people of Serbia and in neighbouring countries who were exposed to insults, slander and hate speech," the company's board said in a statement posted on its website.
"We remain committed to promoting the rule of law, social justice, human and minority rights and freedoms, in line with European values."
The broadcaster, previously known as Radio Televizija Beograd (RTB), said it had been misused by Milosevic's regime.
"We have repeatedly hurt the feelings, integrity and dignity of the people, intellectuals, opposition, independent journalists and national and religious minorities," it said.
The Serbian Independent Association of Journalists, ostracised by RTB in the 1990s, welcomed the move.
"We believe, however, that RTS should have been more explicit in renouncing its warmongering role," it said in a statement.
Serbian prosecutors initiated investigations in 2009 against several journalists and editors from pro-Milosevic media for inflammatory reporting during the 1990s.
RTS headquarters in downtown Belgrade was bombed by NATO in 1999 during the 78-day air war over Kosovo, when 16 of its employees were killed. It was also set ablaze by protesters in October 2000 during the popular unrest that toppled Milosevic.
Milosevic died in detention in 2006 while on trial for war crimes before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. (Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Daria Sito-Sucic and Kevin Liffey)
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