Serb radio stations drop party line

Protests mount on the streets of Belgrade

State-run local radio stations in Serbia are refusing to broadcast government-sanctioned programmes in favour of their own reporting of the crisis over the Yugoslav presidential election.

Some have said that they support the opposition's campaign of civil disobedience, which is aimed at making Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic step aside in favour of opposition candidate Vojislav Kostunica.

The stations that have defected from the ruling Socialist Party line are in Obrenovac, Smederevo, Novi Becej, Zajecar, Lazarevac, Mladenovac and Sremcica.

They contacted the Democratic Opposition on Sunday and called on fellow journalists to expose what they called the official electoral commission's "blatant rigging" of the vote.

Strike call

A group of staff members at state-run Novi Sad television in the Vojvodina province went on strike in support of the opposition.

We refuse to serve the regime and the crime of spreading false information.

Journalists' appeal

They issued a call on Sunday for all state television and radio staff to join them in refusing to "serve the regime and the crime of spreading false information". They were sacked on Friday.

Staff at state-run Cacak TV adopted a work-to-rule in protest at the electoral commission, and are only broadcasting hourly news bulletins.

A group of staff members on Serbian radio's arts third programme called for all political views to be given access to the state air waves, and called for international mediation in the election crisis, but fell short of calling a strike.

Back from the dead

A former independent trade union at state radio and TV in Belgrade announced on Saturday that it was active again, seven years after it was suspended.

It called on "all remaining honourable people in radio and television" to join up.

Calls to join strike

State-run radio in the town of Kragujevac, long thought sympathetic to the opposition, came off the fence and said they would only broadcast programmes of the independent B2-92 radio until "Kostunica's victory is recognized".

In the southern Serbian town of Nis the Socialists are trying to make a media comeback. They started up a new radio station - Radio S - before the elections, and are now reported to be launching S Television.

The editor is a local journalist from state radio.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.