Deal Set on Control of Local Media Outlet

Serbian opposition leaders struck a deal with allies of President Slobodan Milosevic in a dispute over control of a radio and television station in a central Serbian city. The quarrel over control of the station, which is capable of broadcasting across Serbia and into nearby countries, erupted into violence Thursday when police clubbed protesters blocking a road into Kragujevac, an industrial city 60 miles south of Belgrade, the capital of both Yugoslavia and Serbia. At least 16 people were injured. Police had barricaded themselves inside the city’s radio and TV station since Wednesday to keep it out of the hands of opposition politicians who won Nov. 17 local elections. Thousands of residents surrounded the station and threatened to use force to enter it. But official Serbian media representatives agreed to take the TV programming off the air and stop broadcasting political news over the radio until a court rules on who will control the station, local opposition leader Aleksandar Radosavljevic said.