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SEEMO PROTEST: INTERNET SERBIA

Ms. Natasa Micic
Acting President of Serbia and
President of the Serbian Parliament
Republic of Serbia
Fax: +381 11 682 850

Mr. Zoran Djindjic
Prime Minister of Serbia
Republic of Serbia
Fax: + 381 11 361 76 09

Mr. Drasko Petrovic
General Director
Telekom Serbia
Fax: +381 11 334 16 35

Vienna, 7 March 2003

Your Excellency,

The Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), a
network of editors, media executives and leading journalists in South
East Europe and an affiliate of the International Press Institute
(IPI), is deeply concerned about the position of private Internet
service providers in Serbia, which has been jeopardized by the
state-owned Telekom Serbia.

According to information before SEEMO, Telekom Serbia has been
applying so-called "limitations" on leased lines for months, thereby
reducing their speed to 9600 bps and limiting communication. On 11
February, at 10 a.m., Vecernje novosti, one of the country's largest
newspapers, lost its 1 Mbps Internet connection with its Internet
provider Memodata. After checking with the Telekom Serbia support
service, Memodata found out that the line itself was not cut, although
the high-speed modems were not functioning. Further investigation
revealed that disabled coils had caused the interruption of the
high-speed Internet connections. High-speed Internet connections are
important for Vecernje novosti, not only for e-mail correspondence and
Internet research, but because the newspaper has a European edition
printed in Frankfurt.

After Vecernje novosti protested on 15 February, Telekom Serbia
technical support teams solved the problem by connecting Vecernje
novosti to Telekom Serbia's Internet service provider. Consequently,
Memodata lost its client to Telekom Serbia. In the following days
other leased lines of the provider Memodata were disrupted in the same
manner, and on 25 February Memodata lost all of its leased lines. Also
affected were private Internet providers in Nis and Novi Pazar, which
were using Memodata Internet services. Memodata is the first privately
owned Internet provider to be completely disconnected. Its business
has now come to a standstill, affecting thousands of residential and
business Internet users.

In SEEMO's opinion, the behaviour of Telekom Serbia towards its
customers and competitors is irresponsible and unfair. Inevitably,
SEEMO is led to the conclusion that state-owned Telekom Serbia is
preparing itself for deregulation by eliminating any and all
competition in the field of Internet services. Indeed, Telekom Serbia
is taking over the more lucrative accounts from the private Internet
providers, starving them financially and using financial strengths
derived from its present monopoly to the disadvantage of its
competitors. It is in the interests of the Republic of Serbia to have
a full liberalization of the market according to democratic standards,
and also in the interest of the Serbian public to be able to freely
choose their Internet service provider.

Therefore, SEEMO urges the discontinuation of Telekom Serbia's
"limitation" policy toward its competitors, which clearly hinders the
further development of Internet communications and freedom of speech
in Serbia.

Yours sincerely,

Oliver Vujovic,
SEEMO Secretary General

**********
SEEMO - IPI, Spiegelgasse 2/29, 1010 Vienna, Austria,
Tel (SEEMO+HELP LINE): +43 1 513 39 40, Tel (IPI): +43 1 512 90 11,
Fax: +43 1 512 90 15,
E-mail: seemo@journalist.com
http://www.freemedia.at/seemo