not (and if yes, how and to w hat extent). In a num ber of issues the authorities even openly violated both the Constitution and law s. Already in 1990 Albanians w orking at Radio & TV Prishtina w ere forced to leave the broadcaster. The closure of the publishing house Rilindija follow ed. Together w ith the Kosovo Albanians, Albanians in southern Serbia w ere also left in a m edia blackout. Their prim ary source of inform ation becam e the satellite program m e of the Radio & TV of Albania. Due to the fact that the print m edia field w as perceived by the regim e as a m inor challenge to its pow er, a group of intellectuals in Bujanovac m anaged to establish the Albanian-language local m agazine Jehona in 1994. Its distribution w as banned several tim es and a court procedure against the editor-in-chief w as carried out. In spite of that, Jehona m anaged to continue publishing, w ith interruptions, but for financial reasons w as forced to cease operations in the sum m er of 2002.6 In Vojvodin a, quite a differen t policy w as pursued. Th e program m es on RTV N S in th e lan guages of differen t eth n ic groups or local m un icipality station s w ere n ot abolish ed, n or w ere th eir publish in g h ouses closed dow n . How ever, state fun din g w as far too in sufficien t to m ain tain th e rich m edia production th at h ad existed in th e previous period. Added to this econom ic exhauster, all m edia professionals, irrespective of eth n ic backgroun d, w h o refused to fulfil requests for propagan distic an d w arm on gerin g reportin g w ere dism issed. As a con sequen ce, th e staff th at rem ain ed w ere n ot able to m eet th e basic requirem en ts of profession al coverage, let alon e fulfil h igh criteria in providin g quality program m es. O n th e con trary, by spreadin g in toleran ce tow ards th e “oth er�, xenophobia and hate speech, these m edia contributed to kindlin g eth n ic h atred an d violen ce. By doin g so th ey en dan 106
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