| Talk about television as opiate of the masses.
Diplomats who keep an eye on the former Yugoslavia are concerned that there might be more
unrest between Serb factions if a Venezuelan telenovela doesn’t get back on the air
soon. Kassandra, a telenovela distributed by
Miami-based Coral Pictures, is at the beast; of political intrigue in the embattled
region.
Try to follow along: Coral Pictures sold the Spanish-language
soap opera Kassandra to a TV station based in the Serbian capital of Belgrade.
The dubbed show caught on - so much so that a TV station
across the border in Bosnia’s Serb enclave of Banja Luka pirated the show and
illegally broadcast it during prime time.
Antonio Paez, executive vice president and general manager of
Coral Pictures, said the pirating of Kassandra went unnoticed by the distributor until
late last month. |
That’s when the
purloined telenovela was somehow cut off from Bosnian viewers in Banja Luka. It
doesn’t help matters that while both stations are Serb-controlled, the staffs support
different political factions.
Conspiracy theories abound, and diplomats want the show back
on the air, most telenovela addicts blame the other faction for scotching their favourite
show.
 The New York Times ran
a story about the nap late last month, and U.S. State Department
official Bertram Braun wrote a letter to the Venezuelan embassy
in Washington, D.C. Brown’s letter said airing the TV
show could help to calm tensions.
Venezuelan press attache Jose Emilio Castellanos read us the
letter, but he wouldn’t send it to us. Castellanos said it appears that the show soon
will be back on the air.
Coral Pictures is a subsidiary of RCTV of Caracas, where
Kassandra was produced.
"In developing countries, television is always a very
strong influence," Paez said. "Were trying to get the show back on the air as
soon as possible." |
