The television centre in Belgrade had been used to transmit news reports by international as well as local media, Mr Scharf noted. =ECWe do not see how the suppression of news sources can serve any useful purpose.

The Geneva-based EBU groups 68 national broadcasters in 49 countries both in and around Europe. Its activities include the transmission of television and radio news via the Eurovision and Euroradio networks. Since bombing in Yugoslavia started last month, the Eurovision network has provided temporary production and transmission facilities for broadcasters at ten different sites in the region. Traffic on the network, which also has links beyond Europe, has more than doubled to more than 13,000 individual transmissions over the past month, not counting nearly 3,000 separate news items carried to all EBU members on the regular news exchanges. Many unilateral transmissions from journalists in Yugoslavia have been channelled through Serbian state television in Belgrade.
Mr Scharf said the EBU had lost contact with Serbian state television for a few hours following the bombings, but this had now been restored and reception of unilateral transmissions seemed likely to resume soon. At a meeting in Geneva on 9 April, the EBU Presidency welcomed the fact that the humanitarian reaction to the Kosovo crisis had received substantial attention in the news bulletins and programmes of its members, many of which had also helped to alleviate the suffering of refugees. It committed the EBU to working with its members to find ways to enhance the role that public broadcasters can play in relieving the plight of those suffering from the present conflict.

For further information, please contact :

David Lewis, Press Attach=C8, EBU Geneva
Tel: (+41 22) 717 2032=86; e-mail=86: lewis@ebu.ch