TV staff sacked for "sabotage" during Putin visit

The Radio-Television of Vojvodina (RTV) has fired one and suspended several other employees over a controversial blunder in a report about the Putin visit. The intended word "friendship" ("prijateljstvo") was replaced with "hostility" ("neprijateljstvo"), so the caption accompanying the report on Wednesday about President Boris Tadic's meeting with Russian PM Vladimir Putin read, "confirmation of hostility". TV staff sacked for "sabotage" during Putin visit The mistake happened during a news bulleting that the province's public TV outlet broadcasts nation-wide. The decision to sack and suspend workers was signed by RTV General Director Blazo Popovic. Popovic said that he had met with the program collegium where it was concluded that the error was "an attack on RTV and an attempt to undermine and jeopardize the traditional friendship between Serb and Russian peoples". He also stated that this was also an attempt to "jeopardize and disqualify everything achieved in the past two years in order to modernize the station and once again catch up with the standards set by modern public services in Europe". Popovic said procedures were now in place to determine the responsibility of all participants who "manufactured the mistake". He added: "The meeting of the RTV Executive Board adopted a whole series of measures that will be taken as 'a confirmation of hostility' toward all workshy saboteurs." Putin and Tadic in Belgrade (FoNet)

TV staff sacked for "sabotage" during Putin visit

The mistake happened during a news bulleting that the province's public TV outlet broadcasts nation-wide.

The decision to sack and suspend workers was signed by RTV General Director Blažo Popović.

Popović said that he had met with the program collegium where it was concluded that the error was "an attack on RTV and an attempt to undermine and jeopardize the traditional friendship between Serb and Russian peoples".

He also stated that this was also an attempt to "jeopardize and disqualify everything achieved in the past two years in order to modernize the station and once again catch up with the standards set by modern public services in Europe".

Popović said procedures were now in place to determine the responsibility of all participants who "manufactured the mistake".

He added: "The meeting of the RTV Executive Board adopted a whole series of measures that will be taken as 'a confirmation of hostility' toward all workshy saboteurs."