Socialists Urge Opposition Walkout

Socialists Urge Opposition Walkout
Beta - May 22, 2003

BELGRADE -- Thursday – The Socialist Party of Serbia announced today that it would call on all opposition parties to walk out of the Serbian and federal parliaments in protest at the dropping of live broadcasts of sittings.

Party chairman Ivica Dacic told media that if Radio Television Serbia refused to work in the public interest of Serb citizens, it should not be given frequencies free of charge.

“We shall call on the public not to pay subscriptions for public broadcasting when these are introduced,” said Dacic.

The party also plans to complain to the OSCE and the Council of Europe.

Dacic claimed that the same politicians who had led demonstrations for live broadcasts of the parliament when they were in opposition were now ordering the state media to invent a technical reason for dropping the coverage.