DIRECTOR OF BELGRADE TV STATION BANS BROADCAST WITH INTERVIEW WITH PUKANIC

BELGRADE, Dec 26 (Hina) - The director of the Belgrade-based TV station Studio-B, Slobodan Arezina, said on Wednesday the reasons for his banning a broadcast with an interview with the owner of the Zagreb weekly "Nacional", Ivo Pukanic, on a tobacco smuggling scandal in Montenegro and Serbia were purely professional. Arezina said he banned the show after failing to reach agreement with the author of the broadcast about leaving out from the interview some "juicy details" about the private life of some senior Montenegrin officials. In the interview, which was shot in Zagreb, Pukanic speaks about the involvement of the Serbian and Montenegrin authorities in tobacco smuggling. The show was to be aired during prime time, at 8 pm on Tuesday. Commenting on Arezina's decision, the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), led by Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, said on Wednesday that "the ban came from top Belgrade and Serbian authorities" and was an act of "direct interference of political factors in the making of the news programme of media companies." Arezina told the news agency Beta today Pukanic did not connect Serbian Premier Zoran Djindjic or any other senior Serbian official with tobacco smuggling but only "commented on the political situation in Serbia." Arezina said the largest part of the interview was dedicated to Pukanic's stories about "the mistresses and marriage-breaking affairs of some politicians from the Montenegrin state leadership." The DSS has for months been accusing Premier Djindjic and members of his government, which DSS ministers have left, of being involved in tobacco smuggling and linked to criminal circles in and outside the country. The dispute has in the meantime grown into a general political conflict between the DSS and other parties of the ruling coalition on all levels. (hina) rml