MEDIA WAR 23.04.1999. Radio Television of Serbia Central Building, in the centre of Belgrade, was bombed tonight. According to initial reports, many people have been injured and some have been killed. NATO's interpretation of the term "media war" has finally been defined. There is real war going on against the media. The level of brutality and animosity of this attack had shocked everyone. It was well known that people (journalists as well as technical and support staff) were always present inside offices and studios, due to 24hr-day broadcasting schedules.
 

Western media as well as NATO military campaign against media in Serbia have been going on for days. TV transmitters were being hit and some stations were unable to go on air. Information within Serbia is slowly fading into darkness. Every night fresh news, containing reports of another transmitter destroyed and another channel shut, are arriving. As the NATO HQ speaks, these actions are performed in order to diminish the coverage of RTS broadcast area, because RTS is claimed to be "Too narrow and is not reporting in the appropriate manner." 

However, destroyed transmitters, were not RTS owned but are property of the state. They have been used for many different links from public to government. Many private and non-Government media have been taken off air. By ranking the action against "media dictatorship" very high on its priority chart, NATO brutally slammed its own principles. It simply made one point of view disappear. By crushing transmitters and links, many goals of human rights movement were also crushed, yet they were proclaimed to be high on NATO's priority list during press briefs. 

It makes no difference if NATO agreed with RTS's policies, it should not have allowed itself to stop the broadcast by destroying the RTS network. This is a violent, barbaric act, because one side in conflict is denied the chance to speak for itself.

There are periodical broadcasts of NATO's channel happening on many channels in Serbia. It has been noted that most of the transmitters that could obstruct the NATO broadcast were targeted. It is reported that NATO program for the time being could be seen on 21st UHF channel throughout the northern Serbia and Belgrade area while occasionally radio broadcasts were captured on 92.5, 102.2, 106.4 FM and 1003 AM. Radio and TV stations that used these frequencies were housed in Business Centre USCE, destroyed on April 22nd.

Human victims and blood curdling pictures from tonight's missile attack on Serbian Radio-Television headquarters have opened a new, sickening, dimension in media relations. Targeting a TV centre is a barbaric act world has never seen before. Does this mean that Serbs are free to destroy CNN or BBC centres? What would the world media say if we followed NATO's example? Or how would foreign journalists, presently reporting from Yugoslavia, feel about meeting the same destiny as their Yugoslav colleagues from downtown Belgrade? After all, this is a WAR?!

There is only one other News channel left in Belgrade that is covering the war - TV Studio B. It is located at the top of the Belgrade Tower, the highest building in Belgrade. This building is always full of people. Will they meet the same fate as RTS? The only remaining voice of "the other side in this war" is coming over the Internet. Is world`s only toll-free media going to be censored by cutting Yugoslav links from the rest of the world? Are the people of the world going to loose the opportunity to see both sides of the story and to make educated conclusions? The question that remains is ""Are we, the Internet media, now NATO's targets?

Welcome to media darkness, world.