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May 1993

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Subject:
From:
Steve Carr <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 12 May 1993 08:29:15 CST
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------------------------------
From: Hank Roth <[log in to unmask]>
Tue, 11 May 93 16:24:15 PDT
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: INSIGHT FEATURES  December 1992
 
/* Written  8:43 pm  Dec 20, 1992 by [log in to unmask] in igc:nfd.ifeatures */
/* ---------- "INSIGHT FEATURES  December 1992" ---------- */
News Article / 520 Words
 
The `Post TV News' Syndrome
Women Suffer
on All Sides
of Balkan War
 
By Vesna Bozic
Insight Features
 
   BELGRADE--Americans who have heard about the horrible rape and
violence against the women of Bosnia by Serbian men under arms
have found the reports nearly incredible.
 
   Now, trying to make sense of the war in former in Yugoslavia
is getting even more difficult, as a new kind of violence is
tearing families apart in Serbia itself.  Something like this
scene is a
normal one for many families here:
 
   It's half past eight in the evening.  Dinner is on the table.
The children are snickering, and picking at their food.  The
evening TV news brings the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina into their
homes. Dead, mutilated bodies fill the screen, while the reporter
explains how "Utase," Croatian, or "Muhajadin-Islamic fanatics"
want to kill the Serbian people.
 
   In some homes women are lucky if they get through the news
unharmed.  Those who aren't so lucky have become victims of what
is now being called "Post TV Syndrome."
 
   To put it bluntly, Serbian women are being verbally abused,
beaten or even raped by the men in their homes after the evening
news.
 
   The syndrome has been identified by women volunteers at the
local SOS Hotline here in Belgrade, which was organized to help
abused women even before the war in Bosnia.
 
    The number of calls SOS receives has tripled in the last
year, SOS volunteers say. Before, they would get three to four
calls a day.  Now it's up to around 12 a day.  In most cases, the
woman says she was never abused before, and adds that her partner
became violent after watching the evening news.
 
   The problem is not different nationalities between husband and
wife. "The family doesn't have to be mixed ethnically," said Lepa
Mladinovic, a hotline volunteer. "It's simply the propaganda on
the news makes the husband want to hurt someone.  That someone is
usually the first less powerful person around, his wife."
 
   Verbal death threats to wives and children have also increased
a hundred percent, according to Hotline figures.
 
   "The `Post-TV syndrome' is a new kind of violence for us,"
said Gordana Sevo, a social worker and Hotline volunteer.  "The
men coming back from the war are violent, and those who watch the
war on the evening news are often just as violent."
 
   Before the war in Bosnia broke out, the local police in
Belgrade were eager to respond to calls forwarded to them by the
Hotline. But today, the volunteers have to send letters of appeal
to the chief of police in the city, urging him to order the local
stations to respond to the calls forwarded to them.
 
   The police chief says he is still eager to cooperate, but
explains that the local sergeants aren't as interested.  "When
you see how our soldiers have been tortured in the war, it is
difficult to get excited about domestic violence," said Sgt.
Sinisa Rankovic. "There is nothing we can do for them in their
homes."
 
                            -- 30 --
 
   Vesna Bozic, an associate editor of Insight Features, is a
Chicago journalist now based in Belgrade.
 
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      Steve Carr                         [log in to unmask]
      Dept. of Radio-TV-Film             512/471-4071
      20903                              fax: 512/471-4077
      University of Texas at Austin
      Austin TX  78712

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