BOSNIAN SERB TELEVISION STATION NOT ALLOWED TO BROADCAST PROGRAM

SARAJEVO, April 15 (Hina) - The independent media commission in Bosnia-Herzegovina (IMC) ordered to the television station "Kanal S", based in the Serb-populated Pale, outside Sarajevo, to discontinue broadcasting programme, the IMC headquarters in the Bosnian capital said on Thursday. According to the IMC statement, the decision of the commission ensued after the "Kanal S" had been continually and flagrantly breaching rules set by the IMC for the electronic media in Bosnia. This Bosnian Serb television station also ignored warnings forwarded by the IMC before the commission brought the decision to ban this TV programme. The breaches of rules were especially evident when "Kanal S" broadcast information about the situation in Kosovo. IMC experts described the Kanal S reports on Kosovo as inflammatory and systematically incorrect. Since the outbreak of the Kosovo war, this television station has only rebroadcast programmes and reports of the Belgrade state media. On Wednesday evening the Kanal S editors told their TV audience they would not respect the IMC decision and would continue broadcasting the programme. They added that in case there was no longer their programme it might happen only if someone made it physically impossible. The Kanal S is formally a joint stock company, established after the reorganisation of the Serb Radio and Television (SRT) and its relocation from Pale to Banja Luka. The leadership and journalists of the Kanal S are former SRT employees who were directly influenced by Serb Democratic Party (SDS) hard-liners, headed by notorious Radovan Karadzic and the late Nikola Koljevic. (hina) ms