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Bosnian Serb infighting becomes media war
August 23, 1997
Web posted at: 4:40 p.m. EDT (2040 GMT)BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (CNN) -- Television staff and journalists in President Biljana Plavsic's stronghold of Banja Luka rebelled Saturday, threatening a mutiny because of censorship by hard-liners close to Plavsic rival and indicted war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic.
Employees at the state television studio in Banja Luka sent a letter to general manager and chief editor Miroslav Toholj, a Karadzic loyalist.
"You have told too many lies and we do not believe you anymore," the letter said.
At a meeting, the journalists called for the resignation of Toholj and Bosnian Serb Information Minister Svetlana Siljegovic.
On Friday, Toholj sacked his deputy and two editors when 18 journalists called a strike because television in Pale -- Karadzic's power base -- refused to let the Banja Luka crew run their own news program.
The Banja Luka team criticized the result as "primitive propaganda."
On Thursday and Friday, a Pale TV video clip showed footage of NATO-led peacekeepers, interspersed with historical footage of Nazi troops. Pale citizens interviewed in the clip called the SFOR peace-force presence an "occupation."
The dispute marks the latest stage in a power struggle between Plavsic and Karadzic, who has officially stepped down from active politics, but is widely believed to work behind the scenes in an attempt to oust Plavsic.
The international community's high representative for Bosnia, Carlos Westendorp, has formally protested the Serb propaganda, saying it must stop immediately.
The rift in the Bosnian Serb leadership deepened last weekend when SFOR peacekeeping troops helped Plavsic's security forces gain control over police stations previously loyal to Karadzic.
SFOR discovered large stores of paramilitary weapons, which they believe belonged to special police forces loyal to Karadzic.
With roughly half of the police in the Bosnian Serb territory now loyal to her, Plavsic appears to have set her sights on breaking the hard-liners' control over state media.
Correspondent Richard Blystone and Reuters contributed to this report.
Related stories:
- Bosnian Serb military threatens Plavsic - August 22, 1997
- U.S., German officials: Attacks in Bosnia must stop - July 27, 1997
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