LOCAL SERB TV STATION IN E. CROATIA LACKS FUNDS TO WORK

VUKOVAR, Nov 11 (Hina) - "The decision to stop broadcasting programmes of Television Dunav isn't the result of any political pressure or influence, but was reached due to lack of funds for salaries and technical maintenance," TV Dunav director Boro Rkman said on Wednesday. A Vukovar-based local Serb TV station, TV Dunav stopped broadcasting on November 5 due to financial difficulties. With 75 percent share holdings, the staff are the majority owner of the TV station, while the remaining 25 percent are owned by the Joint Council of Serb majority eastern Croatian municipalities, also in an unenviable financial situation. The TV station's minimal needs, which envisage the payout of minimal salaries and the most basic technical maintenance of equipment, are some DEM 10,000 a month, said Rkman. In current business conditions only 40 percent of that amount can be ensured. "The (TV station's) marketing has also (achieved) very poor results, as both Croatian and Serb companies in (eastern Croatia) and elsewhere shrink from it. Croatian companies shrink from advertising on a Serb media to avoid revolt on the Croatian market, and Serb (companies) aren't attracted by the television of the Serb national minority either," Rkman said. The 17 employees in TV Dunav's two studios, in Beli Manastir and Vukovar, sees a means of salvation in assistance from the Croatian government's Office for National Minorities and its DEM 54,000- worth eastern Croatian media consolidation programme. Television Dunav should be granted DEM 32,000 which, according to Rkman, could partially solve the problem. (hina) ha/sp jn