Serbia Today, 97-06-04

Serbia Today Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: Yugoslavia <http://www.yugoslavia.com>

Serbia Today

CONTENTS

[01] MINISTER TODOROVIC HAS TALKS WITH PRESIDENT OF TRADE UNIONS OF BELGRADE UNIVERSITY

[02] INTERVIEW OF THE MINISTER IN THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA, RATOMIR VICO, FOR "POLITIKA EKSPRES"

[03] CONSULTATIONS ON INCREASE OF PRODUCTIVITY

[01] MINISTER TODOROVIC HAS TALKS WITH PRESIDENT OF TRADE UNIONS OF BELGRADE UNIVERSITY

Serbia Today, 1997-06-04

Republican Minister of Education, Jovo Todorovic, and president of the Trade Unions of the employed in the universities of Serbia, agreed yesterday that the negotiations about the material status of the Belgrade University and dynamics of payment of salaries will be continued on June 9, 1997.

At the scheduled meeting there will be a discussion of all the measures which are being undertaken and which shall be undertaken by the republican Government for purpose of improving the material position of the Belgrade University and persons employed in its faculties. It was also yesterday "jointly agreed upon and requested from the faculties to mandatorily adhere to and apply all the signed special collective agreements, because there are cases that in some of the faculties there is a random interpretation of the special collective agreements", reads the communique of the Ministry of Information of Serbia, and today's press reports.

[02] INTERVIEW OF THE MINISTER IN THE GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA, RATOMIR VICO, FOR "POLITIKA EKSPRES"

Serbia Today, 1997-06-04

Member of the Executive Board of the Main Committee of the Socialist Party of Serbia and Minister in the Government of Serbia, Ratomir Vico, stated for today's daily "Politika ekspres" (and reports "Politika" of June 4, 1997) that in our country there is a pluralism of media, press, radio and television programs, which is an expression of democratization of our society.

"On the other hand", said Vico, "when you follow the media, you could conclude that the situation is frightening, because the responsibility for the publicly spoken words is below every civilizational level".

According to Minister Vico, in the forefront of such behavior are the media managed by or under the decisive influence of the opposition, or more precisely of the coalition "Zajedno" ("Together"), or even more precisely of the leaders of the parties which were the members of that coalition.

Vico is of the view that it is necessary to have a consensus on the media, because "the freedom of the public word is one of the cornerstones of democracy, and conflicts about the fundamental values of society are not a good basis for democracy".

When asked why the political parties are for such a long time and so fiercely confronting each other when media are in question, Minister Vico said: "Our opposition has from the very beginning of transition into a multi-party system had a stand that in this field also the thing must be played according to the Rumanian or at least the Polish or a Czech model. They could not accept the fact that the transition into a multi-party system here was made under the leadership of socialists".

According to him, the opposition could not and did not want to see and know what the entire world has known and accepted, and that is that the situation in our case can not be compared with the situation in the countries in which transitions into the system of multi-party democracy took place from the Soviet model of a single-party real-socialist dictatorships. "Socialists of western Europe have socialized democracy. Socialists in Serbia have democratized socialism", said Vico.

He recalled that in the request for a media de-blocking the most loud are the ones who always and only have in mind the Radio-Television Serbia (RTS).

"It is well known that today the largest part of Serbia is covered with the local radio and television channels, as well as with televisions which are of a much broader range from the local one, and which are under the direct control and influence of the opposition", explained Minister Vico.

In his opinion, these media are characteristic for an extremely great bias, subjectivity and aggression, and in the board of directors of these channels there is literally not one single representative of the leftist coalition.

Vico underlined that there is a legal obligation of objectivity, which pertains to all the radio and television programs, regardless of their ownership - either the state, mixed or private.

"In Europe and in the world", Minister Vico emphasized, "even when a television channel is privately owned, it is an activity of the public interest, and is subject to all forms of public control prescribed by law".

[03] CONSULTATIONS ON INCREASE OF PRODUCTIVITY

Serbia Today, 1997-06-04

"Politika" daily announces today the consultative meeting on productivity which will be held in Novi Sad on June 11 and 12, 1997, and among others, says that the Yugoslav economy is in the phase of transformation, but the first thing that should be done is a better organization of work and utilization of the existing resources - from the human resources up to industrial capacities. How is this being done in the world and what should be done in our case - will be presented at the consultative meeting entitled "Quality and Productivity Determine Our Future". At the press conference yesterday it was announced that the main speaker will be Mr. Klaus Helmrich, one of the most distinguished world experts on production management.

Further in its text "Politika" newspaper quotes Mr. Oskar Fodor, president of the Novi Sad company "Pobeda", who says that "the modern forms of organization of work, such as the ones applied in Sweden, and whose author is Mr. Helmrich, are the main part of changes which are necessary for our economy".

Serbia Today Directory - Previous Article - Next Article