The commissions will monitor the airwaves and censor information if necessary, although the officials in charge say they have no plans to be heavy-handed. The intent is sincere - a free press is both the cornerstone of democracy and an effective insurance policy against government corruption, and the U.S. would love nothing better than to plant it, water it and leave it alone. But Yugoslavia, says Dowell, may not be fertile yet for this kind of crop. "This could be a little nave on the U.S.s part," he says. In a place where youve got two sides that are deadly enemies, the Wests idea of a journalist isnt necessarily going to work. How do you decide for the locals what gets said and what doesnt? And how do you react when someone youve trained gets killed for digging up the wrong story? "The framers of this mean well," says Dowell, "but I dont think they have an idea of the dangers involved."
In Yugoslavia, the U.S. Presses for a Free Press
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The Clinton administration is convinced that the truth will set Yugoslavia free. But even the truth, apparently, needs training wheels. The U.S. and its allies are busily setting up watchdog organizations with names like "Media Regulatory Commission" and "Media Monitoring Division," hoping to nurture a news media in the area that is free, unfettered, independent - and firmly opposed to Slobodan Milosevic. "This is something the U.S. has already been spending lots of money on in Macedonia and Serbia: funding news outlets that speak out against Slobodan," says TIME U.N. correspondent William Dowell. "The problem is that when the U.S. trains and supports a journalist there, its hard for him not to have an agenda. And in the Balkans, that can be very dangerous."